1 Corinthians 1:4-5 “ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge”

I was returning from work last week. The sky was overcast and the semi-truck in front of me was spraying my windshield with the standing water in the road. However despite all the gray above and gray before me, there was a bright point to the trip. There was a small, nearly perfectly circular break in the clouds where the sun shone through and it was brilliant. The entire sky was a depressing gray except for that one point. That point enriched the sky, it enriched my trip, and it made an otherwise dreary view tremendous. God does that with our lives. When His light breaks through the cloud cover of our thoughts and emotions, of our likes and dislikes, our entire lives are enriched and made better – more than better, our lives are made glorious!

God has offered us gifts should we so desire them and his grace is that free gift that changes lives given to those who desire it. It comes at a price, though. God's grace means our repentance and requires us to reject this world and everything in it that is not God. This very computer at which I type must glorify God through my use, otherwise it is worth nothing. Our speech likewise must begin to reflect God and be more of Him than of the world. Fortunately, God does not require that we change it on our own because He enjoys working with us and helping us. As we grow in Christ, our speech changes. We don't necessarily become smarter or more intelligent, but we become better able to express ourselves over time. We lose the foul language of the world and learn to let even the words we use be an expression of our love for Him. As God continues His work in our lives, our knowledge of the world, and what is or what is not changes; we begin to look at things in a new light - the light of God. We begin to base our understanding off what God has said, and this changes our interpretation of whatever we are thinking on. The world does not – can not – agree with God, and so they view any knowledge and understanding gained from combining what we know with our base foundation of God as being stupid and worthless. Our values are different, our morals are different, our very reason to do anything is different and this becomes our evidence of God's grace in our lives. Without Him, we could not be able to live such a life as He has enabled us to live.

Just like I enjoy going for random drives in the countryside, or taking my bike down a nearly forgotten trail, or even reading a good book, God's hobby is the changing of people's lives for the better. He loves it and He excels at it. His only requirement is that we want it and are willing to let Him.

Redeemed, restored, forgiven,
Through Jesus’ precious blood,
Heirs of His home in heaven,
Oh, praise our pardoning God!
Praise Him in tuneful measures
Who gave His Son to die;
Praise Him Whose sev’nfold treasures
Enrich and sanctify.

Nehemiah 9:30-31 “Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.”

Seventy years had gone by. Seventy long, hard, cold years. Only a few could remember a time before the exile, before when Judah had been proud and the Temple of God had showcased the finery of the world. Slowly people had returned to Judah and to Jerusalem. Slowly the Temple was made habitable and slowly people had started to tell the old stories and remember the reasons for the Exile. The Governor and his good friend, a priest and scribe, found The Book of The Law and read it to the assembled returnees. The people wept because now they knew. Isaiah had been right. Jeremiah had been right. Those things which Moses had written would happen if the people ever left God had come to pass. The people wept and realized their error.

They had compromised. They wanted everyone to feel welcome and “at home.” They wanted to have everyone not feel threatened, but rather tolerated and affirmed. After all, “who are we to say that their gods are not as real as ours is?” “We can learn things from them and their practices, so they can't be all wrong.” They neglected to remember that God had wanted them to be set apart, total nonconformists to the world around them, relying wholly on the grace and providence of God Almighty to survive.

When the people realized this they wept, but then they realized that “This day is holy to the Lord our God, do not mourn or weep.” Just because they had failed in the past did not mean that they could not try again. God is the God of second and third and fourth and fifth chances. They had failed God. Their parents had failed God. Their grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents, and great great great grandparents had all failed God, but when they repented God had graciously and kindly and lovingly taken them back. The people were ecstatic with joy and they partied and shared the best food with everyone, rich or poor. They realized that they had no reason to grieve, for the Joy of the Lord was their strength. Not their city, not their people, not their temple, not their weapons, farms, gold, or poverty. It was God's Joy that was strength for them. They celebrated their return to God and as an entire people they confessed their sins to God and then they made a covenant, a pact, as people of Judah and worshipers of the Most High God “to observer and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and His rules and statutes.”

We have compromised. We have done the very same thing that the people of Judah did. We have forgotten that there can be no compromise. We must be set apart to God. We must be Holy Nonconformists with a total dedication and total trust on God's providence in our lives. When we compromise morally or theologically we lose. We lose the strength of our witness, we lose the respect of those who are not believers, we lose the right to say “but we are different!” and we lose the mighty blessings of God in our lives. Even worse though, is that compromising with the world is compromising our soul.

We have one thing that remains for us though. We have a gracious and merciful God who does not leave us or forsake us. We have the chance to start again. Like the people of Israel, like those who returned from exile, like many of those with whom we go to church, we have a chance to return and start over again. Let us rejoice with a renewed heart and mind and soul in the love, glory, and mercy of our Lord.

Father, whose love we have wronged by transgression,
Christ, who wast nailed for our sins on the tree,
Spirit, who givest the grace of repentance;
Hear us, we pray Thee, good Lord.

Matthew 26:40-41 “And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."”

“All Scripture is...for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16) Recently these past several weeks I have had a heavy heart and felt that I needed to address some issues that I see are afflicting the Church. Today is no different. I want to look at the Disciples during the High Priestly prayer, but I want to view this as a typology of the modern church.

The church has fallen asleep while Christ is before the Lord Almighty in prayer, supplication, and intercession. Christ drew us aside and asked us to pray with Him, but we were tired and uncomfortable and besides, prayer is such hard work - we can do it tomorrow after all. Then and there we fell asleep, our snores a counterpoint to Christ's passion and pain. When Christ returned and woke the church up, a mighty revival that swept through, but it had to start with us, the believers. We got to work praying and our Lord went off again to pray and intercede.

Slowly our eyes drooped again, and one by one, we nodded off again, despite the wonders that had happened. Again Christ came back and woke us up. Again we cleaned ourselves up, slapped ourselves in the face and challenged everything around us that made it easy to be comfortable and sleep. We pinched ourselves and sat on sharp rocks as we knelt to join our Lord in His night's work. Revival broke out again. Throughout America and Europe, Africa and Asia, unprecedented numbers of people were discovering the Joy of Jesus. Theology became the topic of choice among the nations, once again the things of God were more important that politics, riches, banks, social status and everything else that had slowly crept in.

We fell asleep again. When Christ wakes up His Church again, there will be a mighty revival again. I am convinced that those who lived through the events of the book of Acts - those thousands that saw the miracles of God, that heard the Apostles speaking in tongues, that we lived through the mighty happenings of that day – will look down and wish that they are living in our time. The Revival is coming, but only when the Church wakes up and sets aside the things of the world to join hands in prayer and supplication. This cycle of sloth and revival will continue on until “the hour is at hand” and there is no longer a need for Revival.

The disciples walked with Jesus, they saw his miracles, they learned that everything Jesus did and said had deep truth ingrained in it and when he spoke it was best to listen and obey. Today as believers we enjoy an unprecedented amount of materialistic success and wealth and we find ourselves debating silly issues like “how much of our wealth do we really need to give away?” or “what is the right balance between God's blessing us materialistically and the trials of the world that we face?” All the while we neglect the fact that the Apostles became paupers for Christ. We selectively forget that all those who we hold as heroes of the faith (even in modern times) have had to loose everything. Certainly God blessed them, but every physical manifestation of His blessing they turned back around and gave it all back to God. I speak of heroes such as Albert Schweitzer, Dwight L Moody, and even Elizabeth and Jim Elliot. They did not discuss questions such as “how much?” or “why” or “what?” They said “Where?”

I want revival in my life and in yours. Wakefulness starts with us. When God calls, it doesn't matter who else answers the call as long as you and I answer. Will you gladly go through the valley of the shadow? Too many people turn back when the going gets rough, but to change the world you must keep going. To change the world, we need to leave convenience behind and step up to the challenge. We will push onwards beyond anything we are able to do, and go further through the grace of God. Amen.

Jeremiah 29:13 “Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Amplified)

I recently picked up my guitar after several weeks – actually closer to a month – of not practicing. After no more than a minute of attempting to play, my fingers were hurting and my guitar was making noises that no guitar should ever make. Why? I had not actively pursued guitar practice. If I practiced for only twenty minutes every day I would be much better than I am. Instead I practice in fits and spurts. I will practice every day for two or three days and I will play for half an hour or more. I will see myself making progress. After that, I always slow down, and eventually I just don't make time to practice any more. By the end of the week all the progress I made in those three days has all but disappeared and is now just a fond memory.

Many of us, myself included (or more correctly “myself leading the way”) seem to have this approach to God. We will binge on God and on our devotions. We will see tremendous progress in our life, but then other things seem to start taking more of our time and in a week or two, all that progress seems to have faded away.

Did we really make progress? Well we thought so. What I see as the progress I make in playing the guitar is a new chord or idea oh how to put chords together. Its not really that large of a leap, but to me it feels large. However because I don't maintain a rigorous practice schedule, I don't maintain it and I have to relearn that same thing again. That isn't progress. It is the same with Christ. If we do not retain it and actively use it rigorously then we have gone nowhere in our walk. We take a step forward and then take a step back.

What can we do to change this bad habit? What can we do? We need to inquire after God, to pursue Him and to seek Him with all our heart. We need to be active and determined in our life. We must not allow ourselves to slack off for anything or anyone. If it comes down to a choice between having my devotional time and my guitar practice time then I must choose devotions. If I have to decide between chatting with my friends online or on the phone or talking with God than I must neglect my friends and pursue God with no regrets about missing the conversation with that friend whom I have not seen in days/months/years. To avoid the trap of status quo, I must do everything I can to pursue God. If I do that, He promises that I will find Him and He will find me. Why don't you join me in dropping everything else in search after God

Seek the Lord who now is present, pray to One who is at hand.
Let the wicked cease from sinning, evildoers change their mind.
On the sinful God has pity; those returning God forgives.
This is what the Lord is saying to a world that disbelieves.

2 John 8 “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.”

How many of us have had the wonderful pleasure (and I say this in the most ironic sense of the word “wonderful”) of working a dreary, boring, or repetitious task? The first couple of times we put all our care, effort, and awareness into it that we may do a good job. After that we start to slide because we have done that task several times and know what is happening. We are numbed to the work.

Friends! We have become numb to the task of watching ourselves and have fallen into the trap of complacency! “Surely not I!” you say, but I say “as surely as I.” Like Peter we have fallen away when the going has gotten tough for us, when our inner motives are questioned and when our personal safety seems to be risked.

Friends! We have become numb to the task of winning! “What? Winning?” Yes winning. We have have lost our wonder and awe at God's glory when He wins a soul or provides for us, or even when He has performed a miracle through which we benefit. We have become used to it and it is now everyday for us. We have quite finding the fear of the Lord and showing respect and instead we have slowly come to treat Him as the fridge in our parent's house or the turn lane in the middle of a busy road. We forget that He is there even when we rely on Him. Then when we find ourselves in a position where the convenience is removed we begin to complain rather than give thanks that we are able to rediscover what we once took for granted.

Friend! We have become numb to the task of our commitment! “You jest!” No, I do not joke. We have deigned to ignore the requirements of our commitment. We acknowledge our commitment to Christ, and that He is our saviour, but we have neglected to perform the tasks required. The first task is to Love. How many times have we gotten upset and derogatory towards someone for little or no reason (or any reason whatsoever) We have forgotten to care, to be kind and gracious, merciful and even to continuously practice self control. We have neglected our continuous improvement and practice in the very things that make us different from the world.

This must stop! We must relearn and rediscover our joy in Christ. We must make the effort and guard ourselves before we find ourselves lukewarm and then in the process of being spat out. We must make every special effort to guard against complacency, convenience, and losing our commitment. This is a call to return to the fires and flames of faith of your early believing years! Do not let the world tame you! Christ calls but will we listen? Christ beacons but will we see?

Let us make every effort to watch ourselves and protect ourselves. Let us not be numbed!

Farewell I gladly bid thee,
False, evil world, farewell.
Thy life is vain and sinful,
With thee I would not dwell.
I long to be in Heaven,
In that untroubled sphere
Where they will be rewarded
Who served their God while here.