Revival

“Will you not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?  Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us Your salvation…Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.” –Psalm 85:6-7, 10 (NEB).

Remember the times, perhaps when you were a child, when your church had a week of revival?  In the country church I attended when I was growing up, “God’s high festival, protracted meeting,”* was held after crops were “laid-by” and people had a bit of time for attending morning and night services at the church for a week or more.  Afternoons were spent visiting friends and neighbors or having them to your house for meals and a visit.  A part of the revival meeting was also “entertaining” the pastor and the visiting preacher and guest song leader, the ‘revival team.’  That entailed seating them at a fully-spread table of good food from the garden and plenty of fried chicken and country ham.  In the afternoons, much talking and discussing of important Bible passages and prayer for the unsaved of the community were a part of front-porch gatherings as guests sat in the porch swing or straight chairs.  It was spiritual harvest time, and an evangelistic spirit pervaded the whole community.  Denominational lines were temporarily laid aside as people from both Methodist and Baptist churches interacted, attended the revival and “got saved,” as the salvation experience was called.  Looking back on those times of spiritual refreshment, I can see that the prayer from Psalm 85:6 was answered.  It was a time of revival.  Twenty-three responded in faith the week of the revival when I became a Christian.  Revival was followed by rejoicing—a natural order for God’s visitation among the people.  Is it any wonder the Psalmist saw Love and Faithfulness personified, meeting, and Righteousness and Peace, likewise personified, kissing each other?  “God, will You not revive us again?”...Yes.  The LORD will give what is good” (85:6a, 12a).  –Ethelene Dyer Jones

[*’God’s high festival, protracted meeting,’ is a quotation from Byron Herbert Reece’s poem, “Choestoe,” c1944.]

Praying the Scripture

“And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested.  –1 Chronicles 4:10 (NKJV).

In 2000 Bruce Wilkinson published his book entitled The Prayer of Jabez.  Taking the remote scripture tucked away in 1 Chronicles 4:10 as the basis for ordering prayer, he personally experienced an outpouring of God’s blessings and opportunities to serve the Lord in new and extensive ways.  For over thirty years Mr. Wilkinson prayed the scriptural prayer of Jabez.  He was introduced to the prayer by one of his seminary professors and urged to pray it.  He then wrote the book about the prayer in 2000. Over nine million copies of the book were sold in over two years.  Speaking at The Cove in North Carolina in a Billy Graham Conference, Mr. Wilkinson learned that over 80% of the people attending had read and practiced the prayer and reported amazing results of answered prayer.  The author, in conferences in many places in the world had Christians come to him testifying of the answers to prayer after sincerely praying the scripture.  There are five areas of the Jabez prayer:  (1) Oh, Lord, bless me indeed.  (2)  Enlarge my territory (my sphere of outreach and concern for others).  (3)  Let Your hand, God, be upon me.  (4)  Keep me from evil.  (5)  May I not cause pain.  In 2005 Mr. Wilkinson followed his book on The Prayer of Jabez with another he called Beyond Jabez:  Expanding Your Borders in which he further explained the Jabez prayer and gave multiple examples of answered prayer. 

In my Prayer of Jabez Journal I gave this biographical note on reading the book, beginning to pray the scripture which is the prayer of Jabez, and keep a journal of praying:  “I began praying the prayer of Jabez February 18, 2001 after hearing Dr. Clay Turner review the book in a message at evening service at First Baptist Church, McCaysville.  I began praying individually by name for my family members and others who had asked me to pray for them, using the five-point prayer as outlined above.  I prayed also that the blessings that would come would glorify God and be used by him to reach others.  In my own personal “Jabez Prayer Journal” I began to record prayers and answers. Some very serious problems were laid at God’s altar.  And further on in the journal, some months and  some years later answers were recorded.  I highly recommend to you that you pray scripture—not only this prayer of Jabez, but from the Psalms, proverbs, Jesus’ teachings—anywhere in the Bible a promise is given, pray it sincerely and earnestly—and persistently—until you see how God answers.  For He will—maybe with yes, maybe with no, maybe with wait.  But God will bless in ways that will surprise us if we pray for the answers to honor Him.

Responsible Christian Citizenship

“Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities.  For there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God.”-Romans 13:1(NASV). 

In the margin of my Bible at Romans 13:1-7 I have written notes and an outline of a sermon entitled “Responsible Christian Citizenship” that my husband preached more than forty years ago.  Unlike many sermons that have three to five points, he had two major points, very succinct:  “We as Christians are citizens of two kingdoms:  1.  The State and 2. The Kingdom of God.  We are citizens of the state by virtue of our physical birth at the location where we live at natural birth.  We are registered by a birth certificate and counted in the population of the state.  As we grow into adulthood, we have responsibilities of citizenship which include obeying the laws of the land, paying taxes, voting in elections, living morally and responsibly, and making our voice heard in decision-making issues of a moral and political nature.  We are to recognize that the authorities in government exist because God allows them to rule in His ultimate purpose for political entities at various levels, local, state, nationally and the world.

           

We are citizens of the Kingdom of God by rebirth into new life in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We have various names for the transition that comes.  We may call it salvation by faith, being born again, or being received into the kingdom through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  No works save us.  But we are saved unto good works—or to do the work of the kingdom as Jesus taught us.  Love is the central cohesive force in the Kingdom of God—His love for us, our love for Him, and our love one for the other.  In each of the kingdoms—we as Christians are to allow Jesus to be Lord of our responsible Christian citizenship.

We have just observed presidential inauguration day with much fanfare and pageantry.  Some were glad for the inauguration of our current president to his second term.  Others who disagree with his policies and governing style—and yes, with what we call his “politics,” were not enthused by his inauguration.  But to abide by the Word of God and to practice responsible Christian citizenship, we should  pray for those in authority, and “be subject for conscience sake” (Romans 13:5)  to the laws of our land.  Could we, in this new year, pledge ourselves to be better citizens of both state and the Kingdom of God and seek to have God’s will done in our lives “on earth, as it is in Heaven”?  Will we pray earnestly for our elected country, state and local government leaders, and for us as citizens of two countries that we may practice what we know to be just and right?  “Love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 10b).

Treasures of the Snow

 “Have you visited the treasure of the snow?  Have you seen where the hail is made and stored?  I have reserved it for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war.  Where is the path to the origin of light?  Where is the home of the east wind?”-Job 38:22-24 (NKJV).

We recognize this focal scripture as coming from Job.  God Himself is speaking to Job and reminding him of the majesty, power, creative and sustaining might of omnipotent God.  A series of questions posed by God begins with “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? (Job 38:4).  Following that question God proceeds with a series of probing queries that cover the gamut of the created order, its systematic and perfect coordination.  And finally, after having been led on the wonderful journey of God’s revelation, Job declares:  “I was talking about things I did not understand, things far too wonderful for me.  You said, “Listen and I will speak!  I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’  I heard about You before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.  I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” (Job 42:2b-5, NKJV).

I think Job, like we, when we observe “the treasures of the snow” and other wonders of God’s incomparable creation, stand awed at the marvel of it all.  From childhood I remember an incident that made a great impression on me.  I was in fourth grade (upper-grades room) and my younger brother Bluford was in first grade (primary grades room) at Choestoe School   It was wintertime, and suddenly a blinding snowstorm blew into the mountains.  Whether our teachers were not watching through the windows, so intent were they on conducting classes, I don’t know.  But they did not dismiss school early as so often has happened since advent of “school buses” and hazardous travel to and from school in bad weather.  We all walked the distance to Choestoe School from our homes.  We heard a knock at the door to my classroom, and when Mrs. Florence, my teacher, answered, there was my father standing there.  We could see through the door that a heavy snow had blanketed the playground and the nearby hillside.  My father said in his gentle way, “Mrs. Florence, I think you’d better turn out school.  This is a blizzard we’re having, and snow is getting deep for these children to have to find their way home.”  With that, Mrs. Florence quickly dismissed our classes, and went next door to Mrs. Mert’s class to tell the lower grades.  She then told us as we were bundling into our coats to watch the weather about when to return to school. 

The “treasure of the snow” (as well as its frightening beauty) I saw and remembered from that day.  Beauty was all around us, and the flakes continued to fall as we made our way the mile north westward to our farmhouse.  But I remember Daddy, as he carried Bluford on his shoulder, told me, “Ethelene, Walk in my footprints and you can get through the snow better.”  He was right ahead of me, making a pathway through the treasures of that white expanse.  The lessons I learned that day had a multiple stronghold on me.  I saw beauty all around us in the “treasures of the snow”.  I learned that I could trust and follow in the footprints my father left for me to follow, both physically and ideally.  And over all, I knew that God had sent the treasures of the snow to beautify our countryside but to provide needed moisture for the crops we  would grow in the spring.  Somehow, at age nine, I was beginning to see (as Job did long ago) “with my own eyes” (and understanding) that there was much more to life than daily existence.  There were “treasures of the snow” to discover if I would but explore with awe and anticipation.  Somehow, I think a multi-dimensional snowflake became my symbol for treasured truths I wanted to pursue and understand.

Trust

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and  lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” –Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV).

Trust is an important aspect of solid relationships.  Trust is both a noun (in Greek, pepoithesis – confidence) and a verb (pisteuo –to believe in, to have confidence in).  I recall an incident from my early teen years.  I had a walk from our house about one-half mile to the school bus stop on the highway.  On a particular day, hard rains producing flash floods came while I was at school.  It was still raining hard when the bus neared my stop in the afternoon.  I wondered how I would get home, because along the route I had noticed how streams were flooded and how water swirled and eddied into the country roads and surrounding fields.  When my stop came, there was my father on one of our farm mules named Pet.  He had come to escort me safely home through that angry flood water between the bus stop and our house.  I remember how frightening it was to see the raging water as we made our way to our farmhouse.  But riding on Pet, and with Daddy leading the mule, I had every confidence that we would get safely home.  And we did.  I would not have understood the best path to take through the flood, but Daddy knew.  He was there to meet me and take me safely home.  Imagine with how much gratitude my prayers were offered to God that night for safe travel through the flood.  God invites us to trust Him completely to guide us through the pathway of life.  When we put our confidence in God, we don’t have to lean on our own understanding.  He provides the revelation we need as we proceed along storm-filled ways.  Trust is like reaching out your hand and placing it in the hand of one who knows the way already.