Editorial
May/June, 2001
Volume 36, Number 3
Since BRF began in 1959, there has likely not been an Annual Conference theme that has fit more completely into BRF stated goals, than this year’s “Revive Us Again” focus. We commend moderator Phill Carlos Archbold, and the entire Program and Arrangements Committee for pursuing this emphasis. We hope that the revival fires that are kindled, will not end with a one year program, but will continue to bless the church for a long time to come.
Revival, according to Leonard Ravenhill, is “the inrush of the Spirit into a body that is threatening to become a corpse.” When life threatening experiences are forced on our human situations, medical personnel are immediately concerned with observing the vital signs of physical life. The heart rate, blood pressure, and the breathing ability are quickly observed. Later on, blood work, x-rays, and other in-depth analyses are used to try and arrive at a correct diagnosis. Soon corrective measures are administered to try and restore a healthy condition .
“Revive Us Again” is a message for Christians. It is for those who have made a start in the Christian life by believing in Christ, being baptized in the church, and living in a way that reflects a love for the Lord and His Word. Quite often the effects of the “daily grind,” or some major discouraging experience, or a failure to give attention to the disciplines of the spiritual life~ause a falling away to take place. Revival is an attempt to restore one’s spiritual fervency to a more vibrant previous condition.
Are revivals worth the efforts? Billy Sunday was once asked,”Why have revivals, since they don’t last anyhow, and you soon have to plan another one?” His answer was interesting: He said, Taking a bath doesn’t last either, but that’s not a good mason to stop taking baths.” God’s people need the encouragement that comes from being stirred up in revival again and again. David prayed, “Wilt thou not revive us again?”
Most Church of the Brethren congregations no longer plan for revivals. That is not because they do not need them. It is a lack of interest, the lack of attendance and support for them in general, that has brought about their demise. As revival interest has waned in the Church of the Brethren, so have our membership numbers, our Sunday School and worship attendance, and our percentage of giving.
At the same time our leadership needs have increased, our marriage breakups have multiplied, and keeping youth in the church has become a bigger issue.
It is also true that at the time when many congregations have reduced their-emphasis on revival, an increased interest and attention has grown toward high school sports and church sports leagues. This in itself is a sad commentary on current directions in the church. The grandstands are a cheap substitute for the sawdust trail! Vance Havner said that “Revival is a fresh work of the Holy Spirit among Christians to bring them to confession of sin, renewed dedication, and loving zeal for service.” May we humbly and prayerfully seek this renewal.
The accompanying article from the faithful pen of Harold Martin examines some of the crucial elements related to revival found in an Old Testament text. Positive response to the principles enumerated in 2 Chronicles 7:14 will enable us to experience anew the effects of praying “Revive Us Again.”
Experiencing Revival on God’s Terms
By Harold S. Martin
The term “revival” speaks of a religious awakening, prompted by the Holy Spirit, which restores in the church a new awareness of God’s holiness and love, and revitalizes its desire to obey the Lord in a more complete way. Occasional religious awakenings have taken place down through the centuries of church history, including the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, the Pietist movement in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the Great Awakenings in America during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Revival “meetings” are a series of services (usually on consecutive days) that focus on Bible preaching-proclamation which affirms the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating the sinful human heart and sanctifying the lives of those who have embraced the Christian faith. Revival preaching encourages reliance upon the authority of the Scriptures to teach truth necessary for understanding the Christian faith and practicing ethical Christian conduct. Revival preaching involves a call to fulfill the Great Commission in witnessing to nonbelievers and carrying the message of the saving grace of God to all people.
Evangelism and revival are not quite the same thing. Evangelism is the proclamation of the Gospel, the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, in order to win the lost. Revival, by way of contrast, is the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of God’s own people, whereby they turn to a closer walk with God and with each other. No human being alone can kindle the interest, quicken the conscience, or generate the intensity that signifies a revival among those who have embraced the faith.
We who are part of the Church of the Brethren, like Christians in general, from time to time need to be ‘quickened” (Psalm 143:11/KJV), or “revived” (as the later translations render the text). The exalted, eternal, holy and transcendent God is the One who delights to dwell with persons who are broken and humbled in spirit, in order to “revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the hearts of those who are contrite” (Isaiah 57:15).
The factors that accompany periods of revival in the church are many, and cannot be reduced to a neat little formula, but there are some areas that need to be given serious attention so that revival will more likely occur. One of the key Bible texts on revival among God’s people is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14. God’s Word says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
The setting for the text is this: King Solomon, at the time of the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, prayed earnestly that God might forgive Israel’s sins, and that He might heal their land. Israel had practiced idolatry and sexual immorality and oppression of the poor–and sins of almost unbelievable kinds. And their sins had brought on famine and hardship and misery. They were in a bad way. But Solomon prayed. He kneeled upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, spread his hands toward heaven, and prayed earnestly to God. And God heard Solomon that day, assuring him that He was willing to grant the request–providing his people would meet certain spiritual conditions. Those conditions are spelled out in 2 Chronicles 7:14.
1. THE NEED FOR HUMILITY
Those who have committed their lives to service in God’s kingdom and are followers of Jesus Christ, are to humble themselves.
Humility is death to self. The old, fallen, sinful Adamic nature with which we were born constantly strives within us to make an idol out of ourselves. Our English word “humble” comes from the Latin word “humus” (which means “ground”). Humility is that quality which makes one happy and delighted and contented even in the lowest place of service, down at the ground so to speak.
Humility is the exact opposite of the spirit that is proud and haughty and self-sufficient, And yet pride, the very opposite of humility, is one of our most common failings. Too many of us tend to boast of our own integrity, and deep down within seem satisfied with ourselves, just the way we am. Sometimes there is no real genuine sincere thought about improving.
We know that Job was an upright man (Job 1:1), but Job was self-righteous and needed to repent. In the early chapters of the book, we find Job speaking often of his own integrity. In chapters 29 and 30 the pronouns “I,” ‘me,” and “mine” are used 195 times. But one day God spoke, and in the 38th chapter of the book of Job we have a record of 79 questions God put to Job. God said, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” “Have the gates of death been opened to you?” “Have you entered into the treasures of the snow?” When Job finally saw this vision of the greatness of God and the ignorance of man, he said, “I know that you can do everything, and that no thought can be withheld from you…therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:2, 6). That is an attitude which needs to be manifested much more often in the church.
One of the reasons we tend to think too highly of ourselves, is because we fail to visualize the greatness of God. A little boy was told one time (by his teacher) that it was 93 million miles from his house to the sun. The little fellow pondered the statement and then said to his teacher, “Do you mean it’s that far from the roof, or from the basement of our house?” The house looked tall to the little boy, and he thought it would make a difference-but when we consider the millions of miles from the earth to the sun, the height of the house is insignificant. Actually, the height of the highest mountain would be insignificant in comparison to the many miles of space.
Just so–when we compare the brief span of our own life here on earth, with the eternity of God, and our puny existence with the greatness of God–we find that we are pretty small pebbles on a pretty big beach! And yet we are inclined to feel very important sometimes. We love human praise; we like to be noticed; we get insulted if someone even dares to contradict us. To experience revival, we need to be humble. The Apostle Peter says that we should be “clothed with humility” (1 Peter 5:5).
Humility is the first requirement for revival on God’s terms. If we want to experience revival in our hearts, we must learn to lay aside our pride, and come to recognize that we are poor sinners saved by the grace of a merciful God.
2. THE NEED FOR PRAYER
The text says, “lf my people who are called by my name will pray.” Humility and brokenness of spirit must be accompanied by fervent and meaningful prayer. Every revival recorded in the Scriptures was preceded by much praying.
The revival under Nehemiah was the direct result of his praying and fasting and weeping before God. The formation of the church at Philippi was the result of a midnight prayer meeting. The great meeting on the Day of Pentecost, when three thousand people were saved, was preceded by a ten day prayer service. The story of revival is the story of prayer.
We must pray unitedly; we must pray individually; we must pray in the family circle; we must pray around the congregational altar. But our greatest need, is to go to the secret closet and just pour out our hearts to God.
When Jonathan Edwards preached the sermon, ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” on Sunday morning, July 8, 1741–the spirit of God was mightily poured forth that day; many in the audience grabbed the backs of benches in front of them to keep from sliding into Hell. It was an effective sermon. But several members of his congregation had spent the entire previous night in prayer to God for that service. When we pick up our Bible and read that Jesus sometimes spent whole nights in prayer, we should be smitten in conscience because of our own carelessness about prayer.
We Christians need to find more time for prayer. We sing about prayer; we talk about prayer; we say prayer changes things; we have mottoes on our walls–yet many have never missed a single meal in order to pray. There is a tendency to reserve prayer for “emergency use only. Something happens; something goes wrong; we get into an accident; somebody gets hurt–then we pray. Perhaps the reason for such indifference to prayer is the fact that real prayer is hard work. It requires effort; it takes time; it is one of the most difficult activities of the Christian life–but prayer is a wonderful activity. It can move mountains, and the devil knows it–and so he does all within his power to distract us and to keep us from praying.
We must often cry out, “Oh God, teach me to pray; help me to become a man or a woman of prayer.” This is the second of God’s unchanging conditions for revival. “If my people who are called by my name will pray.” God never sends revival to those who don’t want it enough to even bother asking for it in prayer.
3. THE NEED FOR ENTHUSIASM
The third requirement for revival on God’s terms is the need to “seek God’s face.” The implication and the setting is that we are to seek God’s face with all our hearts! The Bible says that Christians should be enthusiastic (and not slothful) in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord (Romans 12:11).
The “sloth” is an animal that hangs upside down from the limbs of trees in the jungle, usually fast asleep. The sloth are so slow and so sluggish that many times fungi grow on their backs, but they are too tired to rub them off. God says we are not to be like the sloth, but instead, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with (all) your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). We need enthusiasm and earnestness in doing God’s work!
Successful people in the business world have given unsparingly of their time and energy to accomplish their goals. Cicero, the Roman orator, practiced day after day for 30 years to learn to speak well in public. Noah Webster worked for 36 years to produce the first edition of the dictionary that bears his name. Just so, Christians who are doing God’s work shouId be enthusiastic–fervent in spirit, serving the Cord.
And yet, many Sunday School teachers prepare a Sunday School lesson in a few minutes quickly on a Saturday night. And many of the members of the Sunday School class don’t even bother looking at the lesson at all. Many of our homes are without a regular, daily family altar. The vast majority of church members have never even tried to win a soul to Christ. Some have never attempted to even once read the Bible from cover to cover.
If you want to read a book that will tear you to pieces and melt your heart, and make you see how little you are doing for God, try reading Fore’s “Book of Martyrs.” The book is filled with illustrations of people who suffered and died for the cause of Christ. The people of one small congregation were locked in a Roman jail (with the rats and dampness and filth)–and were later brought into the Colosseum to be devoured by the lions. They got down on their knees in the center of the sports complex in their tattered clothes, before a vast audience of people. Linneaus their preacher stood in their midst and raised his hands toward heaven and prayed. The crowd listened quietly. He prayed–not that God would take revenge on their enemies, nor that God would deliver them and set them free–but that God might give them grace to die in such a way that even their death might lead to the salvation of some soul in that great crowd of spectators.
Compare that kind of Christianity with the kind we have today–the kind that has to be begged to come out to its own revival meetings. The average brand of Christianity (in Western nations) is only a halfhearted thing. One church leader says that Christianity in America is 3,000 miles wide (extending from Maine to Califomia), but it is one half inch deep!
God’s people, who are called by His name, are to seek His face–that is, with all their hearts–with a sense of enthusiasm.
4. THE NEED FOR REPENTANCE
Repentance is not only for the hardened sinner on Skid Row. Repentance is often required of those of us who have accepted Christ and are inside the church. Our Lord said to the church at Ephesus, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works” (Revelation 2:5).
Real repentance involves confession of sin and turning away from it. When Paul preached at Ephesus, the Bible says that “many came, and confessed, and showed their deeds”-and not only that–they turned from their sins, and made a bonfire of those things which should not have been in their homes.
Our sins need to be confessed, and if we have wronged another person, we need to confess (like Zaccheus in Luke 19), and make restitution. If you sold merchandise to a friend at an inflated price; if you have not spoken kindly to a brother or sister in the church; if you stole tools from the place where you work–for the sake of honesty and for the sake of a clear conscience, get those things made right! It won’t take long. A false statement can be corrected; injured feelings can be healed by an honest apology; stolen items can be returned and paid for. We need to go to the person who has been wronged and say, “I have sinned; I’ve done wrongly toward you; I apologize; will you forgive me?” We must never be ashamed to do that.
When we repent and make a complete turn around, we can be sure that the forgiveness of God has cleansed our souls, and we can go about our duties with the freedom of a forgiven person. God says that revival will come “if my people who are called by my name will…turn from their wicked ways.
If we want to see the windows of heaven opened, and the blessings of God poured out upon our lives (and upon the larger brotherhood)–then all of us who bear the name of Jesus, and in particular, those of us who embrace the name “Brethren,” need to humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face and tum from our wicked ways. These are requirements for revival among the people of God. May every reader allow the message of 2 Chronicles 7:14 to challenge us anew.
The word ‘revival” means “to make fresh and strong again; to bring back to a good condition. One of the keys to the true meaning of the word revival is found in Psalm 85:6, where David prays, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” It is the nature of all created things to wear out and to wind down. It is the nature of a fire, to go out; of sheep, to wander; of love, to wax cold; of the church, to drift; and of people, to forget. Thus, from time to time, we need to be revived and restored to the early devotion we had for becoming loyal disciples of Jesus Christ. Revival does not really begin by reaching the unsaved outside the church. Revival begins when God’s professed people inside the church become intentional about turning to a closer walk with Him and with each other.
There is one more very necessary and practical ingredient if revival is to occur in the Church of the Brethren. Revival will never come if we question the accuracy of the Bible as God’s trustworthy word. A study of revivals in the past reveals that they occurred during those periods when men and women believed sincerely that the Bible is a revelation of God, the absolute truth concerning human nature, the seriousness of sin, and the way of salvation only through the atoning blood of Jesus. Revivals have come when people submitted themselves to the authority of the Word. The British p~istor, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, once said: “You will discover that there has never been a revival when people have put their ideas and opinions before the authority of the Word of God.
Therefore we appeal to Brethren nationwide: Let’s renew our dedication to the trustworthy and totally reliable Word of the Lord. Let’s renew our commitment to be “a people of the Book.”