Lord, Send Revival C. Doug Blair, 2011
Godlessness, recoiling, Strikes again the blow. Jesus’ name is slandered. Lord, that they might know. (He is all the glory. He is all the praise. He is all the answer, For these restless days.) Fear of God is lacking. Love of Christ is rare. 1
Churches hide their candle. Do they really care? “Men are all-sufficient;” So the journals sing. (Why need we a “saviour”? Strange, out-dated thing.) Still the candle flickers, Touching one by one, Hearts that seek for better, Hearts that hear the Son. Stop the superficial! Stop the sad parade! There is not a blessing, But that God has made! He will soon take action, Laying bare men’s games. Burning through the districts With revival’s flames! Then Christ gets the glory. Then the ransomed sing. Then awakened men see God in everything. Lord, please send revival! Send once more the rain! Holy, happy wonders In our midst again.
Psalm 85:4 - Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
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Rock Wall
In retreat I felt a shadow at my back. Lesser space To dodge oppressers in attack. Weapons drawn And creeping forward for the kill. Spirit drained And having lost all strength of will, I hit the wall. But this stone Had little ridges for ascent. Nothing left But to cling tight, so up I went. Gaining there A truer view of all my woes. Smaller now From perch of peace, seemed all my foes. This wall was prayer.
Valley of Tears Beatitude
Again yesterday I received a blessing from Psalm 84: 5Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.
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6Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. 7They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. Apparently there is a community of faithful ones who have encountered the valley of Baca (tears) for whatever reason, and have come through victoriously, and have stored up in their heart empathy for the suffering ones, and resources and encouragement for these fellow pilgrims. They understand the ways of those who traverse that Vale. Their faith, example and counsel provide supernatural refreshment and "wells" long before God sends relief in the natural realm with the "rains". And these wells have gone deep. Are there tears in your present or past? Have you come THROUGH that valley? Are you endued with a resource and audacity not acquired by the untried, by the ones who appear always to breeze through? Thank God for such a blessing, such a resource, which may very soon become a "well" for others. Always be on the lookout, and prepared to be surprised by simple opportunities to minister. This was Jesus' way from day to day. He too was a "man of sorrows" and "acquainted with grief".
Cold Spring Field
Yesterday was an exceptional day. Hilary and I were driving through the Woodstock area to London. Our purpose was to pick up my mother, age 83, from a rehabilitative hospital and to move her to a retirement home to be re-united with my father, age 87. The two have had a very trying month following a serious fall in their home. It appears to family that their days in the old homestead are ended. This brings on a mixture of emotions, but ultimately relief. I expected that the day would be bitter-sweet, and my wife noted that "emotionally I seemed close to the surface." I told her my thoughts as above and the other issue 4
which had been weighing heavily on each of us for weeks - the prospect of revival for the Christian Church and for our assembly in particular. Perhaps it has been apparent lately in this blog that I am looking beyond pleasant program in our gatherings to an encounter with the power and cleansing and commissioning of God. In my estimation we must break from the inertia of the "workable format" to a humble seeking and waiting and breaking for God's purposes. We had been listening in the car to a beautiful soundtrack by Michael W. Smith. The day was cool and overcast with sprinklings of snow. Unusual and slightly unsettling for one week after Easter. I observed a lone tall tree, bud-less and leafless standing in the middle of an empty farm field. Not yet disked over. Where was spring? At that moment the singer's lyrics hit me with force: "This is the air I breathe. This is the air I breathe. Your Holy Presence living in me. This is my daily bread. This is my daily bread. Your very Word spoken to me. And Oh, I'm desperate for You. Yes, Oh I'm lost without you..." This appears to be God's present word on the prospect of revival DESPERATION. Will our churches be trusting and honest enough in confessing need, uncleanness, dissatisfaction, restlessness with the status quo, weariness with multiplied programs of men? There is such a pressure to affirm that "all is good with the team at our home church". All is not good. It misses the mark of our Captain and High Priest. What will it take? Persecution? Scandal? Reproach from a hurting community left unaffected? From disenchanted youth systematically educated in godlessness? Set5
back? Financial or social disaster? Weeks of mournful intercession? For too long now our gatherings have been about entertainment, education, fellowship and self-congratulation. Let us resolve to hear God for change. To come to church ready with a word or an encouragement or a warning. A cleansed, humbled, submissive, trimmed family of obedient servants. Prepared for the action of God's disk and plough. That spring might come to our land. That the blessing might be far-reaching. "Bread corn is bruised."
Place of Intercession
Daniel the diplomat, the man of unstoppable prayer, the visionary, the lover of God's Holy City, the expatriate demonstrated a most remarkable principle for revival. He saw himself in the place of the sinful, backsliding Hebrew race. He pleaded with God for mercy as one of them. He listed the shortcomings. He did not hold himself out as exempt. He allowed himself to become steeped in God's disappointment with the sin. He identified with the position of each of the sinner and the One who could restore. He became desperate for change of heart. We see this as unusual in light of our knowledge of Daniel's record of extraordinary upright living. Certainly we cannot measure up to his record in coming before the Lord for merciful reprieve, but try we must, and in the same spirit. The cry is for the community at large and for the particular assembly of faith. Hear his words from the 9th chapter: 12 You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 Just as it is written in the Law of 6
Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. 14 The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him. 15 "Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. 16 O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us. 17 "Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name."
This Man Receiveth Sinners
Luke 15 1.Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. 2.And the Pharisees and scribes murmered saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. That's just it. The Lord has come to minister to those who have a real sense of their deficit. If they attempt to bluff and claim self-righteousness, then He moves on. He says that the Physician has come to minister to the sick, and to those who will acknowledge that they are sick. Consider how Jesus dealt with the woman who came to the well in mid-day heat as recorded in John 4. Presumably she chose that time to avoid numbers of other women. She had had many husbands and was the subject of much gossip. Presently 7
she was living common-law. All this Jesus knew by the gift of knowledge. When he stated these facts to her, there did not seem to be condemnation in his countenance or a roadblock to the interview. He was there to dispense "living water" regardless. He was there for her alone. There is a famous painting of this incident showing the Lord seated by a small well-lid at the base of a flight of stairs. His head appears cocked to hear the sound of one approaching from above. It is this woman of shame. He is there for her. He knows that she is coming.
The woman is so impressed with his willingness to bless that she accepts what he is there to offer. She runs off to tell neighbours that she has found the "promised One". A revival ensues in the community. Many come and listen to His teaching for themselves. He does receive sinners. They sense that he holds a certain optimism for their redemption. If you can come to some quiet place, and lay yourself bare for His healing, and welcome Him to make His presence known, you will not be disappointed. You will find Him friendly, and more than a match for your sin. A new life awaits.
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John 6: 37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Never Said Better
(The following is from a letter by Robert Murray M'Cheyne, 1842 to a concerned soul.) A young woman called upon me tonight in great distress. She said, "I have a wicked heart within me that would sink a world." I said, "I am thankful to hear you complain of your wicked heart, dear friend, it is unsearchably wicked. There is not a sin committed on earth or in hell but has its spring and fountain in your breast and mine. You are all sin-your nature is sin,-your heart is sin,-your past life is sin,your prayers are all sin. Oh that you would despair of being righteous in yourself! Then take the Lord Jesus for your righteousness. In Him is no sin. And He stood for us, and offers to be your shield,-your way to the Father. You may be righteous in Christ with a perfect righteousness, broad as the law, and pure as the light of heaven. If you had an angel's righteousness, you might well lay it down and put on Jesus. The robe of a blood-washed sinner is far whiter than that of an angel. Do not fear the frown of the world. When a blind man comes against you in the street, you are not angry at him; you say, He is blind, poor man, or he would not have hurt me. So you may say of the poor world; when they speak evil of Christians, they are blind. If they knew their sin and misery, and the love of Jesus, they would cleave to Him also. Fear not them which kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. Keep close to the lord Jesus. He is greater than all that can be against you; He is the shepherd of His sheep; he will defend you from wolves. Pray for the Holy Spirit, dear friend. Ask Him to come into your heart and abide there. It is a mean dwelling for such a guest. Still He will make it clean and holy by dwelling in it. Ask Him to teach you to pray (Romans 8:26,27). He will give you "groanings that cannot be uttered." Ask Him to change your heart, and make it like that of Jesus. Ask Him to write the law upon your heart, and to keep you in every time of need. I fear you are weary of my long sermons. Remember if you are not saved, I will be a witness against you in the judgment day. Come, ye weary, heavy laden Lost and ruined by the fall; If ye tarry till you're better, You will never come at all. 9
Not the righteousSinners Jesus came to call. Farewell! Write me soon all your heart-Ever yours till glory...R.M.M.
Son Rise in Wales
The following is taken from "With Christ Among the Miners" (1906) written by H. Elvet Lewis. The book is a particular treasure, illustrating the transformation of churches first, then of communitiees by the sweet presence of the Spirit of God and a consequent loathing of sin. Faithful mothers hear their errant sons cry out for Jesus in extended prayer meetings. Beautiful Welsh songs soften many hearts. Rough-surfaced men excuse themselves to the dark and distant end of mine corridors to plead through to release from sin and brilliant new life. Simple testimony, so long a part of the Welsh service, contributes to a wonderful harvest. Consider some early roots of revival: "Every lover of Mount Snowdon knows Beddgelert and the Vale of Gwynant. In a farmhouse in the vale, one Sunday in August, 1817, a humble “exhorter’ Richard Williams by name - was expected to take a service. He came but the congregation was scanty. John Elias was preaching that day at Tremadoc, and the fame of the great preacher had, in spite of the distance, reduced the exhorters numbers almost to the lowest point. There was a hardness in the atmosphere too that made the discouraged preacher’s task still more difficult. The people who were present envied those who had gone to hear John Elias. They sat before Richard Williams, but their ears were at Tremadoc. He struggled through the lesson and prayer and then took up the sermon, gradually warming to his task. And then, somewhere in the sermon, the inexplicable happened. Preacher and congregation were transformed. The humble “exhorter” stood forth a prophet of the Most High, in Pentecostal glow, and the house was filled with the Pentecostal cry of awakened souls. And in that Vale of Gwynant, that Sabbath evening, men said awe-stricken: 10
“We never saw it on this fashion.” Within five weeks of that day there was scarcely a house in the vale but the breath of prayer had filled it. It reached the village of Beddgelert in its own way. On a Sunday in September a class of young girls was reading the crucifixion chapter in St. John’s gospel. The teacher was a young woman of devout, earnest mind. As they read the story, verse by verse in turn, something come into the narrative unfelt before. Silent tears stole down the cheek of each reader, and a sense of awe took them one and all. At the close, when the school was, as usual, being publicly catechized by one of the male teachers, his own spirit suddenly took fire in warning the young people against some local fair of evil repute. A line out of one of Williams of Pantycelyn’s Welsh hymns seemed to possess him, “Gods grasp is the surest”; and as he repeated it more than once, the feeling which had melted and awed the young women’s class affected the whole school. Not many days after, the chapel had become the scene of convictions and conversions. “Some were praying for pardon, kneeling on the floor of the pew; others, standing on a form, were uttering praise for Gods mercy; some were marching to and fro, singing with their whole soul the song of deliverance.” It was a season of rejoicing. One day even, while busy hay making, someone started singing a hymn to himself, another caught it up, and another, until the whole band of haymakers, forgetful for a while of their toil, became a band of praying, singing worshippers. This revival continued for three or four years and its influence on the Snowdon district has been carried on to this day. It spread to other parts, but not generally. An old survivor, being asked whether he could recall any signs preceding and heralding this revival, replied that he could remember nothing; “except, that the air for months seemed full of brotherly kindness and love.”
Why Weepest Thou?
Mary Magdalene had come to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. It was Sunday morning. She had no idea how she was going to get the stone door opened. She had no idea how to handle her grief. She only knew that she must make the closest connection possible to the Master, for only there might she find some peace, some 11
comfort, some idea for the future. This was the little woman out of whom Jesus had cast several demons. We do not know what they were. We cannot be certain that she had once been a woman of gross immorality. No matter, through Jesus she had heard and had believed that she was a new creature by faith. But the stone door is rolled away. The tomb is empty! The Master has been taken. And Mary weeps. For disappointed hope. For the cowardice of His followers. For the jealousy and envy and pride which had been shown by the fellowship right up to the end. For the hypocrisy and heartlessness of the religion of her age. For the unstoppable oppression of the contemporary powers. For the innumerable suffering ones who would now miss the comfort, hope, truth and healing of Jesus. For the pathetic alloy of elements, good and bad, in her own heart. But then a stranger appears. He states in seven words, "Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She briefly explains her predicament. Then she hears that familiar wonderful voice say her name, "Mary". How could she not notice? It is Jesus. Freed from the shackles of death. Coming to her side. Her response is automatic, "Rabboni" (most honoured teacher, most honoured Master). In spite of her compulsion to embrace Him, she is instructed to go and inform the brethren. Jesus is alive. He is immediately available. He is not diminished in power. He has been true to His word throughout. Let us take this scene in the Resurrection Garden and realize that it contains the seeds of all true revival in the Church and for the community.
Revelation
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The quivering age rings of doubt; The fuzzy aura of social norm; Of grandmother’s fables On how good comes; Of past hurts and yearnings Wrenching head and heart Periodically upward. Now collect and condense into A single point of certainty And gladsome focus. Christ has come. Christ has served, And brought the good report. Blood and death have served their purpose. His Father‌Our Father. Is love. Entirely to be trusted. And oh, how the good comes!
Joint Heirs With Jesus
Jointly with Him The peace, the power. The Heavenly access This very hour. The standing 'fore God Relieved of shame. The trespass forgot. The key, His Name. The demons now tremble. The hungry find bread. A kind word in season. Brings cure for each dread. A place in the family 13
By mercy reserved. A seat at the Banquet; By Him we'll be served! And nothing of merit No, nothing of self From us is expected To warrant such wealth. The toil is all finished. The costly task done. The Grace account opened By God's righteous Son!
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