REPENTANCE, REVIVAL & RENEWAL

Success is deceptive.  Popularity is deceptive.  Crowds are deceptive.  Looking at the ministry of Jesus while on earth, from his birth in a stable to his death on a cross, it would not appear successful according to worldly standards.  He was popular when he performed signs and wonders but when he demanded difficult things like sacrifice and dying to oneself, people turned away and left him.  Large crowds welcomed him to Jerusalem, shouting “Hosanna”; a week later that same crowd gathered and shouted “Crucify him”.  Only two of his disciples stood watch with his mother when he was dying.  His disciples that carried out his ministry were also imprisoned and killed, except for John who was exiled.  Not the characteristics of a successful ministry at all. 

Yet more than two thousand years later there are followers of this man living their lives for him in every corner of the world.  His success was is not demonstrated in successful churches or even in Christianity, a religion named after him.  His success is in the individual hearts of those who receive him and believe in his name; who love him and walk with him in every day life, doing what he did and practicing what he taught; ordinary people in ordinary time; so one special living in a world of special no ones.  Simple people, who see the sacred in everyday moments and events, not deceived by the big and flashy things that the world offers.

I hear the churches calling for revival, waiting for that big event to stir people up and relight the fire in their hearts.  I have experienced those events and they are exciting…for a while.  But then things return to normal and life goes on; the fire dies down and we look forward to the next revival, the next event, the next show of God’s mighty work.  My hope no longer lies in that pattern.

I want stability, consistency, and sustainability in my every day walk with God.  Following Jesus I have found that daily delight of His Presence that keeps me in a constant state of repentance, revival, and renewal.

         

“Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the

           gall.  My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

           But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.  The steadfast

            Love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end;

            They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness, O Lord.”

Lamentations 3:19-23

Stunning signs and wonders occur every day, everywhere around me, that cause an inner revival and renewal in my soul daily.  From sun rise to sun set God’s creation reveals God and His eternal power to me, if I take the time to see it.  Life is upheld by His hand moment by moment; in the nest of baby cardinals in the tree outside my window; in the garden of fruits and vegetables growing tall and plentiful in my back yard; in the rain that falls; in the sun that shines.  It is all there revealing His Presence and reviving my soul.  These are the gifts given to me; to the one who often fails; to the one who wanders away occasionally; to the one who gets caught up in the me, myself, and I way too often.  Time after time my cry is, “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner.”   AND HE IS!

            REPENTANCE IS THE THRESHOLD TO GOD’S PRESENCE

As I look back over my life

At the afflictions

At my wanderings

The wormwood and the gall

I used to see it as a pile of garbage

Worthless and wasteful

Useless and rotting decay.

In the eyes of the world I was nothing.

But in the eyes of God, my Father

 I was everything

In the eyes of God

I was wandering, not worthless

I was lost, not a loser

I needed help

I needed life

And He sent His Son.

In my repentance I have His Presence

In His Presence I am revived

In my revival I am renewed

In my renewal I have new eyes.

As I look back over my life

I see a compost pile

Turning the worthless and wasteful

The useless and rotting decay

Into a humble heart

Into a sacred soul

As I see that in me

May I see that in others.