Day Eight "Gladness in Seeking the Lord"

“Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let those who love your salvation say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified.’” [Ps. 40:16]

It might appear that spending our time seeking the Lord is done out of duty and drudgery. This is not the case. As you meditate on this scripture notice two results of seeking the Lord. The word “seek” means to search out, desire, strive after. For the person who truly does this, there will be rejoicing and gladness.

For the person who truly desires God and who strives after knowing Him, that person will rejoice or be cheerful and glad. In other words, they will be satisfied. Their satisfaction will not stop with themselves. There will be a yearning to testify to others about God’s great salvation continually.

The word “continually” means constantly, daily, regularly, and perpetually. Let’s look at the progression. People who truly want joy and gladness in their life make desiring and striving after God a priority. They experience the joy and gladness they have been looking for but they cannot hoard it for themselves. Over and over again they tell others about this great God who gives salvation rescuing souls from damnation and delivering from sin.

For such people they live to magnify the Lord. Or to put it another way, they live to advance God, lift God’s name, and to promote God to the world. That is revival. We know we have been revived when our love and passion for God turns into a burning desire to see others come to know Him as well. When we live day in and day out to promote God at work, play, in the community, and among family and friends we will not have to tell anyone we have been revived. Revival will be lived out in our lives.

Your passionate pursuit of God is for your ultimate good. God is the greatest source for joy and gladness. When you understand the great salvation you have been given by Him, you will want to know this God more. You will want others to experience the same salvation you have. You will long for others to know true joy and gladness that can only come from seeking God and being in a right relationship with Him.

Your seeking more of God not only turns out for your good but also for the good of those you love and care about. So, let me ask, are you glad and joyful? Have your other pursuits produced this for you? Do your other pursuits demand to be glorified and promoted through you? Don’t settle for lesser blessings when God is ultimately what we all need and are seeking.

Steps to Revival

1. What do you honestly desire and strive after? Do they produce joy and gladness in you?

2. What are living to promote and lift up? Is it a worthwhile endeavor? How will this benefit the people you love?

3. Do you truly love the salvation God has given you? Express that love to Him in these moments. You might sing to Him. Write Him a letter. You could write a poem. All that matters is you expressing how much you love Him and the salvation He gave you.

Day Seven "The Pursuit of Revival"

“O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my souls thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” [Ps. 63:1]

Part of the pursuit of revival is God awakening within us a passionate hunger and thirst for more of Him. David was such a man. He longed for more of God. There is always more of God to be pursued.

David made God the object of his relentless pursuit. Today the church makes other things the objects of their relentless pursuits. Whether it is accumulating wealth, possessions, success in the job market, or the accomplishments of our children and grandchildren, these become our pursuits. How many people do you know for whom God is their ultimate passion and object of relentless pursuit? Let me go a step further. When you look in the mirror are you such a person?

We have been duped by commercials and by the god of this age. We truly believe things down here will bring us ultimate satisfaction and give so much of ourselves to chasing those things. They never satisfy. Not a raise. Not new homes, vehicles, or gadgets. Not relationships, clothes, education, championships, accolades, or fame.

David had it all. David’s defeat of Goliath made him a legend. He had riches, power, wives, and yet one fateful night he threw all of that away to pursue sin with Bathsheba. It cost him dearly. Listen to David when he says, “My soul thirsts for You and my flesh yearns for You, God.” This is the burning need in the church today. We need men and women who cry out from the depth of their hearts, “I am not satisfied. I yearn for more of you in my life. I have an unquenchable thirst to know you more intimately.” Is that your burning desire?

Revival will have come when we yearn for God more than anything in our innermost being and are willing to pursue Him at all cost. A.W. Tozer stayed up all night on a train and wrote a book which is now a classic entitled, The Pursuit of God. For Tozer those were more than words. He truly lived His life in pursuit of more knowledge of God. Like the Psalmist, may the Lord move us to live and pray, “As the deer pants for water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God”. [Ps. 42:1]

Only God can create that hungering and thirsting in our souls. We cannot will ourselves to do it. Our flesh will get in the way. As we cry out for God to develop this in us, we can no longer be satisfied with lesser blessings. God Himself is the ultimate blessing. He is the prize, the treasure, the reward we should go after.

“O God, I plead with you to awaken a hunger than can never be satisfied and an inward thirst for you that will never be quenched. May we find such joy and fulfillment in this holy pursuit it inspires us to pursue you with greater intensity. I ask you to allow us to find you, to enjoy you, to taste you, to experience you, and to know you. Then we will know revival has broken out in our lives as well as in the church.”

Steps to Revival

1. What do you most hunger and thirst for? Have you attained it? If so, how did it make you feel?

2. What is the object of your relentless pursuit? In what ways have you pursued this? What has it cost you?

3. Where does your hunger and thirst for God rank among all the other pursuits of your life? Do you need to reprioritize any of your pursuits?

4. Pray for God to awaken a hunger and thirst in your innermost being for Him.

5. How will you go about pursuing God? What disciplines will you incorporate into your life?

6. Close your time by rewording [Ps. 42:1] into a personal prayer.

Day Six "Play Acting"

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” [Matt. 23:27-28]

I grew up in grade school with three friends who all attended church regularly. Two of them went to the prestigious First Baptist Church. The other friend attended the Presbyterian Church. All three professed faith in Jesus Christ and were baptized. I saw no difference in their lives.

One was a thief and a drug user, which eventually landed him in prison. The other two were fornicators. All three were foul-mouthed. They pretended to be good at church or around authority figures but I saw the truth. They were hypocrites. None of them ever invited me to church; not that I would have gone with them anyway.

I heard their jokes. I listened to their locker room talk of sexual excursions with girls whom they did not care about. I witnessed the results of their stealing and on more than one occasion saw them guzzling booze even though they were under-aged. I can’t say it bothered me at the time. I had seen play-acting in church all my life at home, in extended family, and with my friends.

God’s people are not supposed to play act. We are to be distinct, set apart, transformed, and consistent in our behavior both in and outside of church. Far too many pew dwellers appear righteous for the show, but in real life there is no substance.

This can only be attributed to two things in my book. Either the hypocrite is backslidden and out of fellowship with God. In that case, such a person needs to come in repentance and be revived and restored to the Lord. The other scenario suggests such a person is not truly saved at all. You cannot revive something that is not alive in the first place. Many people sit smugly in the pews with their names permanently written on the membership roles, yet they have no relationship with Jesus Christ. Hell fire awaits such a one.

Has your life as a Christian been playacting? Are you a hypocrite? Does the indwelling Jesus Christ manifest His life in you and through you? The time is past for hypocrisy. If you pretend to be righteous but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness then let me say what is long past due, you need to repent.

It is time to come clean before the Lord. He is still patient and merciful and willing to revive. Do not think for one moment He is fooled or tolerant of the hypocrisy in the church today. It is time, way past time, to be honest before the Lord and the church. It is time for the bride of Christ, that is the church, to clean herself up and prepare herself to be wed to Christ at His second coming. He does not want a spotted and stained bride. Repentance is the order of the day. Let us not put it off any longer.

Steps to Revival

1. List all the areas in your life where you know you have been pretending and living in hypocrisy?

2. Whom has your hypocrisy hurt and alienated from God and His church? You need to go to them to make it right.

3. Will you repent, “change your mind and turn away from your sin” today? If not, why not? What holds you back?

4. Ask the Lord to empower you through the Holy Spirit to live as a follower of Christ consistently.

5. Who will you allow to come beside you to hold you accountable? Will you give someone the permission to ask you hard the questions about sin in your life?

Ask the Lord to let your inward character match with your outward behavior.

Day Five "Green Pastures and Quiet Waters

“He makes me lie down in green pasture; he leads me beside quiet waters.”

[Ps. 23:2]

Most of us are overcommitted. Our plates are full. We live life in a hurry. There is always somewhere to be and something else to do. Many days we have more to do than we have hours to get it done, but we try anyway. We get up early and go to bed late, burning the candle at both ends.

We learn to cope though we fight fatigue. We wear the badge of busyness like a badge of honor worn by a Boy Scout. We like having numerous irons in the fire and living at breakneck speeds. We see our over-commitments as what gives us validity and a sense of respect in our church and community.

God never intended us to live that way. Livestock have to have a break. Machines cannot run and endure when being red lined on the rpm’s continually. People cannot live at the pace of their lives without some negative consequences. Something has to give. It is not the job. Our livelihoods depend on that. It is not the kids. A good supportive parent will not only encourage their children’s over-involvement in sports, band, choir, academic excellence, and agriculture related events. They will also drive them as far as needed to ensure they get the best training and play on the best teams.

What about our souls? Something has to give when we live life at that pace and most often it our souls. We talked yesterday about God repairing our souls but those repairs will not last if we do not slow down to allow Him to continue to work on them. That is why I find Ps 23:2 so interesting.

The first thing that jumps out at me is David said God made him lie down in green pastures. This symbolizes to me a place of abundance, nourishment, and refreshing. God implemented this strategy in the Ten Commandments. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.” [Ex 20:8-10]

When was the last time you intentionally rested and refreshed your soul in the Lord? Far too many are burned out physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If we are going to be revived this may sound foreign, but we might need to do less instead of more. We need times to live life slowly, to think deeply, to pray unhurriedly, and enjoy the presence of the Lord. You cannot enjoy God when you are constantly hurrying through devotions because you have somewhere else you need to be.

Our souls begin to dry up and wither. We continue doing, but cease feeling, and more importantly, cease being authentic on the inside. We have learned how to fake it but God is not handing out academy awards for our portrayal of Christianity. He calls for us to rest in Him and be revived. He calls us to live at a slower pace even if that means saying “no” to some people from time to time. It is time to slow down by the quiet waters. Let the peace and serenity of those times with the Lord revive you. A.W. Tozer said something that has stuck with me for years. He commented, “I prefer to keep company with God than men.” That doesn’t mean Tozer didn’t like people. It only means he loved God more. He carved out large amounts of time for private worship in the green pastures and quiet waters of God’s presence. We all could use more of this.

Steps to Revival

1. Write down your weekly schedule. Is your life out of balance? What things do you need to let go of in order to have more time with God?

2. What is your schedule doing to your family? Are you modeling a healthy revived soul before your family or are you faking it?

3. Do you prefer to keep company with God rather than men? If not, what do you prefer over God?

4. After today’s study what is God showing you about green pastures and quiet waters for you? What would those look like in your life?

5. Make a plan to incorporate green pastures and quiet waters into your daily routine.

Day Four "Repair Shop"

“He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” [Ps. 23:3]

I went to visit a friend today and he asked me for some help with an errand. Over the course of the Memorial Day weekend some guests broke a four- wheeler and a go-cart. When I first saw them they both looked in pretty good condition. I saw a green four-wheeler and a blue go-cart. Both looked fine from the outside. Neither of them functioned properly. They looked good on the outside, but on the inside they were broken.

I think that is the condition of many people in the church. People look good on the outside. They dress nice for church. They live in comfortable houses and work in respected jobs. They masquerade around the church and community like all is well but the truth is they are broken in their souls. They may look good on the outside, but something is broken on the inside.

Today God is looking at our souls on the inside. Are we broken? Are our souls thriving and vibrant, or are they broken and in need of repair? Both the four-wheeler and the go-cart had to be taken to the repair shop. The man who owns the shop is a master mechanic. His reputation precedes him. He is able to diagnose the problem and to repair things from boats, lawn mowers, ATV’s, and anything else. He understands the intricate components of a motor and how it should function properly.

In the same way God is the master repairman of our souls. He knows how they should function because He created us. He is able to diagnose the exact problem in our souls when we are alive on the outside but dead on the inside. He is able to restore our souls by turning them back to Him. He is able to recover the lost zeal and passion to serve Him. He refreshes us in His presence with a new love and devotion to Him. In essence, God is more than able to repair our souls. He can make the inside match the outside.

Not only does He offer restoration for our souls, He also gently leads us in paths of righteousness or justice. The word “leads” is like the gentle flowing of water in a stream carrying an object along. As we walk with the Lord and He restores our souls He also leads us into right behavior.

Too often we try to put on the right behavior without our souls having been restored. This never works. Righteous behavior should work itself out from within a restored and refreshed soul. Do you need to go to the repair shop? Is your soul refreshed? God is able to diagnose the problem and repair us in a way that is reviving. Take some time and allow Him to do that work of restoration in you today.

Steps to Revival

1. Take some time to sit before the Lord and allow Him to diagnose the true ailment of your soul? Do not move on until you discover what in you needs to be repaired.

2. Now that you know what needs to be repaired and restored, take it to the Lord and ask Him to repair your soul. This may prove to be a process more than an event. Let God take all the time He needs to renew and refresh you from the inside out.

3. What path of righteousness do you sense the Lord leading you to follow? What steps is He leading you to take today?

4. Sit still before the Lord and breathe in His presence. Feel the embers of your soul begin to glow again. Let the presence of the Lord envelope you and enjoy Him in these moments. Sit with Him awhile and listen to what He has to say to you.

Day Three "Return to Me"

“’Yet, even now’, declares the Lord, ‘Return to Me with all your heart and with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments. Now, return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness and relenting from evil.” [Joel 2:12]

The message of Joel is biting. Joel is not a book you would read for a devotional. His message hits hard and stings a bit. Many reading this devotion today have drifted from the Lord. I am not saying you are in all-out rebellion. I am saying that slowly over time you have wandered further and further from Christ. Compromise with sin has dulled your love and devotion for Him. It is not that you do not love Him. You just don’t love Him supremely above all else.

We are called to return to the Lord right now. We cannot wait until the start of revival services. Right now, right where we sit, in our present spiritual condition, we are being called to return to God.

The word return means to “turn back, reverse, and to come back.” Can you identify a moment or a decision made when your relationship with the Lord began to suffer? Can you identify an area of compromise in your life that let in other compromises and you began slowly drifting further and further from the Lord? I am not saying you quit going to church or even having a quiet time. I am asking if those things really move you closer to the Lord or have you been going through the rituals without the love?

God is asking you in this moment to return to Him. Not only does God desire you to return to Him but also He wants you to return in brokenness and humility for how you have drifted. It is at this very point where many people get hung up. You have sinned. You have no excuses. You know you rebelled and God knows you rebelled. In your thinking you most likely think God is a mad, angry, tyrant. Did you catch the last part of that verse?

God is gracious, compassionate or full of mercy. You do not deserve it and neither do I. Regardless, God is filled with mercy. He is also compassionate and slow to anger. He is patiently long suffering with us. He also abounds with loving-kindness. This God stands ready to receive repentant hearts and to restore spiritual vitality to them.

He is not calling us to return to Him for a lecture. He is not calling us back to Him to humiliate us. He is calling us back for our own good. Isn’t it time to take an honest look at what sin has done to us? We need to take an objective look at our lives, attitudes, and spiritual condition before straying and after straying from the Lord.

It is time right now to return to the Lord. No more excuses. God stands ready to wrap us in mercy, compassion, and loving-kindness. There is no reason to delay. Return to Him at this time with all your heart.

Steps to Revival

1. What is keeping you from returning to the Lord with all your heart? Identify it. Will you turn away from it so you can turn back to the Lord?

2. Will you return to God with all your heart right now? If not why not?

3. What must God do to break your heart over your sin?

4. Take this time and ask the Lord to “rend your heart”.

5. Do you think God is really willing to accept you back with open arms and mercy?

6. In what ways have you experienced God being “slow to anger” toward you?

7. Will your next step be back toward God or back toward sin and compromise?

Live for What Really Matters

God is sharpening my focus in these days. Early morning prayer and scripture reading, which have always been a high priority, have taken on even added significance. How can I give my time to the things in this life that really have no eternal significance? So much of what we devote our lives to really does not matter.

I sit back and watch parents kill themselves so their children can be successful at something. Private coaches are hired. Late nights are endured to complete homework assignments. Everything is a competition and parents fear their children will get left behind. What about honoring the Lord? If a family is devoted to knowing Christ and serving Him, can God not bless the talents and the efforts of that family more than those who compromise? Where are those parents who put the same passion and energy into training their children to love and serve God? By our own priorities we send mixed messages to our sons and daughters. We say God is important. We teach that we are to love Him supremely and give Him our undivided allegiance. That is until sports come up. We enroll them in leagues where they play on Sundays. Sunday is no longer holy unto the Lord. It has become like any other day along with Wednesdays. Things like youth camp used to be important but our summer sports leagues trump even that now. A round of golf is more appealing than worship on Sunday. When dance competitions replace the dancing in our hearts to go to the house of the Lord something is wrong.

We are teaching our children in multitudes of ways that serving God is more like a hobby than the single driving passion of our lives. You fit God into your schedule as your hobby when nothing else gets in the way. Baseball, basketball, football, dance, gymnastics, and so forth all take priority over serving the Lord in far too many lives. For what? What are we giving our time to? Olympic athletes train for years night and day to run a race that will last for a few short minutes. If they are successful they will win a medal that will hang in a display case. Then what? That really doesn’t matter. If sports teams are successful they might win a championship but that is too small a thing to live for. Those athletes should use their platform to point people to Jesus.

The businessman may labor to build a vast empire making a lot of money in the process. When he dies his wealth and business accomplishments stay here. In eternity will they matter? I am thinking of the sign I saw in a house in Canada. I have read this saying in books and one day want this sign in my house. “Only one life to live and ‘twill soon be past, only what is done for Christ will last.”

Does that reverberate in your soul? Can you feel the shaking of God deep within? We have given our time, our days, our energy, and money for things that really do not matter. There is no longer any justification. If we as adults are not making living to know Christ, living for Christ, and expending our energy in His service our ardent obsession, we are wasting our lives on things that do not matter.

I weary of the things in life that compete with Christ. He is the goal. He is worth living for and dying for. He alone reigns supreme and is worthy of all our devotion. He is what really matters. Take it all away. Sports. Entertainment. Video games. Facebook. Fashion. Money. Jesus Christ surpasses them all. How long will we expend our lives for things that do not matter?

I am proposing from this day and every day afterward we strive to live for the glory of God. There is no greater purpose. This matters and will matter for all eternity. Look at your life. Take an honest evaluation and tell me if you are living for what really matters.

Day Two "Hunger for Holiness"

“But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am Holy.’” [I Peter 1:15-16]

There is little talk in the church about holiness today. Many people do not even know what the Lord means. The word holy literally means, “To be set apart, pure, consecrated.” Now when you look up and down the pews, or more importantly, in your own heart is holiness evident.

We have compromised and let the world influence and impact us. Many times our compromise happens so slowly we are not even aware of it. Before long we think like the world, talk like the world, react like the world, get entertained like the world, and as a result we are conformed to the world.

God, who is holy or set apart, calls His children to be set apart not just on Sundays but every day. We are commanded by the Lord Himself to be holy in, get this, ALL OF OUR BEHAVIOR. So let me ask the obvious question. How are we doing?

Let’s examine our thought lives. What sort of things has your mind been dwelling on lately? Have you been living out [Phil. 4:8] or [Col. 3:1-2]? Is your mind seeking things that are above, or have you allowed it to drift into the sewer of sin? Are your thoughts dominated with thoughts of the excellencies of Christ, or do you squander your time fantasizing about the fleeting pleasures of sin? Christ wants to rule our minds and not allow them to be conformed to this world. [Rom 12:2].

How are you doing in the area of your speech? Do you habitually use profanity, especially during fits of anger? Do you repeat or laugh at crude jokes? Do you repeat gossip or spend time in slander? None of these things honors the Lord. [James 3:6] “And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.” God wants to rule over our speech and it be seasoned with grace and edification. [Eph. 4:29]

What kind of things do you watch for entertainment? Do you habitually watch programs where foul language is repeated and God’s name is taken in vain? Do you allow movies in your home where the sexual conduct is high? Do you welcome programs that deal with the occult and magnify Satan? [I Thess. 5:22] “Abstain from every form of evil.” I think that scripture is pretty clear. There is no wiggle room here. We are not to keep company with evil but go the other way.

This is just a start. God desires and expects us to make holiness a high priority. In order to do that in your life what do you need to change, eliminate, and examine in your life?

Steps to Revival

1. As you meditate on [I Peter 1:15-16] what do you sense the Lord is saying to you about the way you have living?
2. Is there anything in your life that God wants removed? If so, identify each of those areas.
3. What areas need to be adjusted such as television and movie viewing habits? Where does God draw the line concerning what is appropriate and what is not acceptable?
4. Have you been holy in all your activities concerning texting and Facebook?
5. Is there any area in your thought life that is not holy? If so what is it? Take it before the Lord and ask for His holiness in that area of your life as well.
6. Take time and commit I Peter 1:15-16 to memory.

Iron Indian III

This morning’s work out bordered insanity. We started with the word of the day. This is the time when someone brings a character lesson, often scripture based, to challenge the rest of the athletes. We follow this with a prayer. Afterward the fun began.

Today I worked out with coach Burtch. We warmed up doing agility ladders and then ropes. This gets the blood pumping. We started with pulling the sleds ten repetitions of ten yards as fast as we could go. Sweat began beading up on my forehead. It proved to be a foreshadowing of things to come.

After the sleds we did three sets of dead man sit ups throwing a medicine ball to our partner. You throw it at the top of the sit up starting with your back on the ground and the ball extended behind your head. He would in turn throw it back up high while we were seated so we could catch it with our feet suspended in the air. We laid back down and repeated the motion. The last set was tough.

We left that station to head to the leverage blocking apparatus. You have to stay low, drive the pad backward and then upward with your arms. Three sets of ten of those. This was followed by dummy throws. We take blocking dummies and with our back to our partner we threw thirty times from our left side with our toes pointing straight ahead twisting at the torso and thirty times to our right side.

At this point I had drops of sweat dripping from my nose. My grey t-shirt was drenched. There was still more to do. After this we headed for the tractor tire flips. I will go ahead and admit it. After doing these for close to six weeks I still hate them. The object is simple. Lift the tractor tire and then flip it over. You do this three sets of ten repetitions. You have to use your arms, legs, forearms, shoulders, and your mind. It has been twelve hours since that work out and I can still feel the fatigue in my muscles.

As I squatted down for each revolution I would leave a little puddle of sweat on the tire. This is as mentally challenging as it is physically grueling. My body screamed for relief but coach Burtch stayed by my side encouraging every rotation of the tire. It was sheer will power getting out the last five repetitions. Brutal. My legs quivered. I could barely find air. I was spent.

We stopped for a drink of Gatorade. My shirt looked like I had been thrown into the shower still wearing it. More puddles formed on the concrete dripping from my nose like a leaky faucet near the Gatorade. The end was in sight. All we had left was to swing twelve-pound sledgehammers into a tractor tire thirty times from the right side and thirty times from the left. I pounded that tire mercilessly. I heaved the hammer with grunts wanting to break through the tire.

Why do I keep doing this to myself I often wonder? I really do not have anything left to prove. My athletic career is over. There are certain exercises I refuse to do if I deem they might injure my back or knees. What motivates me to keep pushing my forty-three old body to the limit?

I see these Iron Indian workouts as training for life. Difficult days have and will come in our lives. Every time I finish one of these workouts I am reminded that with the same perseverance and with God’s help I can endure whatever life throws at me. God is doing more in me than building physical muscle and stamina. He is allowing me to speak for Him to those young men. It takes more than enduring a work out to be an Iron Indian. You also have to want God to develop your spirit like iron as well as your body. Your mind must be able to block out adversity as you set your sights on a worthwhile goal.

Being an Iron Indian is a spiritual thing to me. It is a work out of the body, mind, and the soul. Character is being shaped. Resolved is being forged like steel. I have watched other dads endure with their sons. God is doing something in the Iron Indians. I know this because He is doing something in me. This group of young men and one young lady are a special group. Pray for their souls and minds to be renewed in the Lord. These are more important than the body. Bodies grow old and wear out. Joints begin to ache. Muscles atrophy. The spirit can be renewed day in and day out. I pray we are all more spiritual Iron Indians. Let us leave the soul sweat to know and serve Christ on the battlefield of life.

Out of the Boat Again

God has called me to take another step out of the boat again into unknown and unfamiliar territory. The Lord has called me to a new ministry. I do not mean a new a church. God has firmly planted us in Seminole at FBC and we are extremely contented. He continues to bless our ministry here and the future never looked brighter.

God has called me to resurrect NO Compromise Ministries in many ways. What I want to focus on today is a call to help a family in need. There is a family in Seminole with a seventeen - year old handicapped son. He has Muscular Dystrophy. The young man’s full time nurse called our church looking for help. He is bed ridden and cannot leave his room mainly because his bed will not fit through the hallway. He does not even have handicapped accessible bathroom facilities. When the call came the Lord resonated it in my heart not so much for FBC. His call on me involved working through NO Compromise Ministries. This is a 501-C3 non-profit ministry I founded in 1998. Through this ministry I have travelled extensively preaching and published three books as well.

Since becoming a pastor it has remained dormant for the most part with the exceptions of these blogs. Anyway, God called me to rally the troops. Estimates are that this project with cost in the neighborhood of $30,000. I do not have that kind of money and neither does the ministry. Once again God called me to ignore all of that and commit to His work. So in blind faith I said yes to His latest call on my life. I have stepped out the boat and looking to Jesus to keep me afloat. I wasn’t looking to get out of the boat again but when God’s pierced my heart I said to myself, “Here we go again. I need to write a book about living outside the boat because I feel that is where God always leads me.” [Matt 14:24-29]

We are seeking to get other churches involved in this project. This whole thing is way bigger than me but it is not bigger than God. If the secular world can do extreme home makeovers, raise resources and garner volunteer labor I believe our God can do the same through His people. We are seeking to complete this project by late summer or early fall. We have already cleaned up the yard in preparation for the plumbing and foundation work. What we need to start is $10,000 for the plumbing and foundation work to begin. I need help with those of you who might have the ability to give a little bit toward this project. Some may be able and willing to give $25 and others more or less. Every dollar will be used to help this family in need. I assure you the money will be used for this project. I am not receiving any compensation for this.

This is being done in the spirit of [Matt 5:16]. “Let your light so shine before men that when they see your good works they will glorify your Father who is Heaven.” As Christians from all over come together with volunteer labor, a united purpose, and equal sacrifice lives will be touched. God’s glory will be furthered and the gospel will be shared. There are no strings attached. We are going to build a new bedroom 18’ x 22’ and a handicapped accessible bathroom and bless this family with this in the name of Jesus. I cannot do this alone though. God has called me to rally the troops and to raise the money for this project. This ignites my gift of faith. Though I am uncomfortable standing outside the boat I am also in the will of God and therefore know He will come through. [I Jn 5:14-15] He always provides where He guides. [Phil 4:19]

I ask you to help me in the following ways. Please pray with me about God’s provision. This is a large task and the only way this will ever happen is if God moves people to give financially in these difficult economic times and do to donate their time and talents to build these two rooms for a family who are not in a position to do it for themselves. Any gifts will be tax deductible and can be sent to NO Compromise Ministries at P.O. Box 722 Seminole, TX 79360.

This is all about the glory of God. This is about seeing Christianity lived out in a community. I am sure this will not be our only project. He brought this opportunity to me and I will answer His call by getting outside my comfort zone inside the boat. Are there some of you reading this who sense God calling you to get outside the boat with me. It is a bit unnerving in the beginning but when God comes through it is more than worth it. The waves and obstacles that stand between me, and the completion of this task are huge. God is bigger. If it promotes His glory I will continue to live outside the boat. I trust God will lead some of you to join me.

Son Burn

In just a few days I will be boarding a plane and heading to Panama City, FL where I will be preaching to a few hundred students at a youth camp. While thinking about this camp a few days and seeking direction for what to preach, I thought how those students will go out to the beach during the day and get sun burned. They are not used to being out in the sun that much. They will run and play on the beach. They will body surf in the waves and swim in the ocean waters. They will forget about the sun cooking their skin.

I then thought how they will come to worship at night and be SON burned in the presence of our glorious Savior. We all need to be Son burned. Our hearts grow cold and overloaded by the mundane affairs of everyday life. We lose our zeal and our passion. Much like the dark skin tones of the summer fade with the fall and winter, so do our souls lose their color and vibrancy as they fade into mediocrity and lukewarmness.

We all need some Son burn. That happens for me in the privacy of my office, in my living room, and off at quiet retreats as I sit and soak in the presence of my Lord. Jesus burns on my soul the truth of His word. At times it comforts me and renews my strength. At other times His burn breaks my heart for my lack of faithfulness. Regardless I need to sit before Him and let His presence burn into the deep crevices of my soul. I need the Lord Jesus to sit on the throne of my heart with power and sovereign authority.

My flesh does not want to linger before the Lord. My flesh hates the Light and longs to run to the dark. O how I need the Son to burn in me. I need His Son burn as much or more than any student who will be at that camp. I need His word to sink in and to draw me deeper and deeper into Him. I need to slow down and tarry with Him. I am looking forward to quiet strolls down the beach and early morning encounters with the Lord sitting on the deserted sands. I want Jesus to burn in me as the waves relentlessly pound the shore and then are drug back into the deep. In the same way I need the troubles, concerns, and demands of this life to be drug from my weary soul allowing my soul to breathe and come to life.

While getting sun burned can cause skin damage being SON burned can only make you more like Christ. We could all use more of that. My challenge for all us is to do something many did when they were younger. Remember how you would lay out in the sun to tan. Now they do that with tanning beds. I recall going to the pool and there would be people laid out all around the pool on colorful beach towels turning a crisp golden brown lathered down with sun tanning oil. People would bask in the sun for hours.

I am challenging all of us to do the same thing in the presence of the SON. I am urging us all to sit before Him and to bask in His presence until our hearts and souls are warmed with new love for Him. Just like you can tell when someone has been sun burned, may the masses see the effects of our SON burn. May they see a deeper love, a stronger zeal, and may they feel the warmth of the blazing fire in our souls because we have been Son burned. Look out students. Here comes the SON!

Day One “Run With Endurance”

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” [Heb. 12:1]

This marks a new beginning and a fresh start for many. You are committing to a forty-day journey to walk with the Lord and to prepare your heart and plead with your God to send genuine revival. As with most new endeavors there is a great deal of excitement. Expect that excitement to wane somewhere along the way.

We are pretty good at starting things but not finishing. If we do finish we do not always finish well. The focal point of our time with the Lord today is two fold. First, we must begin the process of seeing what sins are entangling us and tripping us up with the Lord. Second, we must set our face like flint to finish this time of preparation strong.

Let’s look inside you for a moment. At this time where are you in your relationship with the Lord? Are you closer to Him than you have ever been? Have you cooled in your fervent love for Him? If you are not closer to Him right now than you have ever been you are in need of revival. Relax. That is exactly where most of us currently are. We need personal revival. We need the Lord to quicken our affections for Him, to restore our passion to pursue Him, and to strengthen us to resist sin and to ardently embrace holiness.

What is standing between you and the Lord right now? What gets your deepest love and devotion? Whatever that encumbrance or sin is, will you give it up right now? We have to stand against evil and that includes subtle forms of evil that creep into our lives. We must pray for God’s discernment to see the areas where evil is entangling us. We must be doggedly determined to leave no stone unturned. There are things that need to be put away from us. There are some hard stands that need to be made and some firm lines drawn in the sand. We cannot afford to gloss over this.

Once we have laid aside our sin we must deal with the issue of endurance. Only God can empower any of us to desire Him more and to live in holiness. This is especially true over the next forty-days. There will be distractions. There will be obstacles. God is not asking us only to start, but to finish this journey as well. When these forty-days are up and the revival meetings have ended, we will start the new beginning of walking with the Lord for the remainder of our days.

You will get tired. You will get busy. We must resolve now to put away all excuses and to determine we will finish. We must resolve with God’s help to finish strong. These are the first steps toward personal revival.

Steps to Revival

1. Set aside some time for repentance. Take out a sheet of paper and ask the Lord in what areas you need to repent. Is there anything the Lord wants you to remove from your life?

2. Identify those areas that are competing for your love for the Lord. Are there any of these areas that also need to be removed from your life?

3. Spend some time praying about how you will finish these forty-days. Are you resolved to give your best effort and to complete the challenge?

4. What lost people are you trusting Christ to save? Write down their names and lift them before the Lord.

5. What are you fasting from? Why are you fasting? What is your spiritual goal?

Days of Preparation for Revival

Revival doesn’t just happen. Of all the revivals I have read about, they all started with prayer. As you begin making preparations to meet with God in significant ways you must pledge to spend time in prayer. In this section I will offer several practical suggestions to help you personally prepare for revival. I will also suggest some things that can be done corporately to prepare for revival.

Personal Repentance

As you begin to prepare for revival you can start in the area of personal repentance. Are there areas in your life where you have strayed from the Lord or compromised your faith? If so, now is the time to put those things away and be renewed in your relationship with the Lord.

[Joel 2:12] states, “‘yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘Return to Me with all your heart and with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness and relenting of evil.” This is the time to return to the Lord as the prophet Joel said, “with all your heart”. Even if you have lived in the squalor of sin for a long time it is time to return to the Lord. He is gracious and compassionate. He is kind and has patiently suffered long with you. Today is the day to repent and turn from sin back to the loving embrace of God.

Another scripture you can pray through is [Ps. 139:23-24] “Search me, O God, know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Take these days to remove anything and everything from your life that would keep you from experiencing God in a fresh way. Do not put this off or think of cherishing your sin over a fresh start with the Lord. Sin never satisfies. It only leaves us feeling ashamed and guilty. You have been declared righteous in Jesus Christ [II Cor 5:21]. It is time to live up to your destiny in Christ.

Solemn Assembly

There were times in the Old Testament when God’s people turned their backs on the Lord corporately and God called those people to corporate times of repentance. These times were called Solemn Assemblies. Few people today have even heard of them much less experienced one.

Several years ago the Lord led me to lead such a service at the church I served. It was extremely solemn. We looked at ourselves as a church and realized we had offended God by our actions and our attitudes. The church struggled for years with division, selfishness, un-Christ like attitudes in business meetings, gossip, slander, and much more. We started with prayer and the church body had the opportunity to repent of corporate sins.

From that night forward God turned that church around. The church quadrupled in attendance. People were saved. Relationships were restored. Business meetings were always started with prayer and people were civil in their treatment of one another.

I personally think the turnaround in that church happened the night we repented of our sins corporately. There was a night and day difference in that congregation from that night to this day.

Again the prophet Joel speaks to us, “Blow a trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing infant. Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride out of her bridal chamber. Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, ‘Spare Your people O Lord, and do not make Your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they among the people say, “Where is their God?”’ [Joel 2:15-17]

Prayer

If you really want to experience all that God has for you and your church you must set aside time to begin praying for God’s movement. This will be manifested in two different ways. First, you should pray for God to prepare the spiritual soil of people’s hearts to hear from Him. Many people today have resisted the Lord so long their hearts are like fallow ground. Please pray consistently for the Lord to break up the fallow ground so the seed of the Word of God can get in them to produce the fruit of repentance and revival.

A second thing that needs to be prayed for consistently is the names of lost people. Pray for God to save the lost. A prayer target will be in the prayer room where you put the entire name, the first name only, or the initials of persons you are burdened about their salvation. Over these days of preparation those names will be lifted to the Lord consistently by intercessors. You are encouraged to take a time to pray for those people without a relationship with the Lord.

There will be other opportunities to pray. Each Saturday night leading up to the revival you are encouraged to attend the Power Band prayer meetings. These are prayer meetings where the revival and the names of lost people will be lifted up between now and the start of the revival meetings.

Men are being encouraged to attend the Mighty Men of Prayer meetings on Friday mornings at 6:30 a.m. The primary focus of these prayer meetings is again to pray for God to move and bless with His presence and power at work in the lives of people.

Fasting

The scripture admonishes us to include fasting into our spiritual disciplines. Jesus commented on fasting in [Matt. 6:16-18]. “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Let me define fasting for our purposes as the absence or denial of something with a spiritual goal in mind. Our goal obviously is that God would send a true revival to our community. You need to determine the level of your fast and not tell anyone. You can fast from whole meals, certain kinds of foods, from television, etc. One time I heard about a girl who fasted from texting for forty days.

To have a successful fast what you need to do is take the time you would have spent eating, watching television, playing video games, etc and use that time for additional prayer. Many people use the excuse they do not pray more because they lack the time. By fasting you will have more time to spend in prayer for revival.

A Few Last Words

These are just a few helpful suggestions that might aid you in your personal preparations for revival. Like I said these are only suggestions. The more you give yourself to preparation the greater chances you will meet with God in meaningful ways during these days of preparation as well as during the revival itself.

I now invite you to go on a forty day journey with the Lord. At times you will be challenged and at other times greatly encouraged. Before you begin this forty day journey won’t you take some time and ask the Lord to give you the endurance to finish? Please cry out to Him to make your heart tender and receptive to His Word. Ask the Lord about what type of fast He wants you to do and commit to do that. These will be exciting days and days of anticipation as the revival dates loom closer.

“Lord, I lift up my brothers and sisters who are about to embark on this forty-day journey with You. None of us knows what to expect. We only know You have called us to this and we are looking forward to meeting with You and being drawn closer to You. Holy Spirit, I ask You to convict us of sin and to reveal truth to us. I ask You to even now to begin working on the hearts of the lost and drawing them to Yourself. We need You. We expect to meet with You in meaningful ways, Lord Jesus. I ask You to give each pilgrim the will, the desire, and the discipline to finish this journey and give You their best efforts. We trust You for the amazing results that will follow. In Christ’s name, Amen.”

Matt Edwards

May 26, 2010

Seminole, TX

Introduction

Where do I even start on such a monumental project? I guess I should go back to the beginning, about two weeks ago. When I awoke on May 11, 2010 the word “revival” dominated my thoughts. This is nothing new. For nearly fifteen years I have given a significant part of my life praying for revival, studying about revival, and even preaching several different revivals.

I have witnessed powerful moves of God both in my ministry and in places around the United States. On two different occasions I attended revival services in Pensacola, FL where people started lining up at 6:00 a.m. in the church parking lot to wait to get into the services. The doors did not open until 6:00 p.m. Those revival services lasted around three straight years. One hundred thousand were saved. I have never seen people wait twelve hours in the brutal sun just to go to church.

Twice I have been a part of much smaller outpourings. One Sunday night after the evening service at Burke Baptist Church in east Texas a group of people met with me at the back door. They had a strange request I had neither heard before nor since. They wanted to meet for church the following Sunday night. We ended up doing this for over two weeks. The Spirit was thick and the services lasted from two and a half to three hours nightly. God moved deep in our hearts during those days.

A few years later I was invited to preach a college revival on the campus on Angelina Junior College located in Lufkin, TX. The revival was scheduled for three nights. It ended up lasting three weeks! I have not been a part of anything like it since. On the first night after I preached and extended an altar call two significant things happened. God immediately convicted me to get out from in front of the people for He was pouring out His Spirit. I immediately fell prostrate on the floor and placed my head underneath a chair on the front row where I spent the rest of the evening in prayer. The other thing I clearly remember from that night is all the weeping around the room. God met with His people and called them to get right with Him. That first service lasted three hours and the majority of that time was the invitation with people repenting of sin and being restored to fellowship with God.

The second and third nights we experienced much of the same outpouring of God’s Spirit. We felt God wanted us to meet again on Thursday night as well as Friday night. God continued to move powerfully. We did not meet on Saturday night but I drove out to the Baptist Student Ministry building anyway. A thunderstorm pounded us that night but I stood on the front porch of that building crying out to God that I wanted more. I could not be satisfied. The decision was made to meet again on Monday night and the Lord continued to move. Several were saved and others were drawn closer to God. We repeatedly had two and a half to three hour services each night. We met again for a third straight week.

I will not soon forget when it ended. I showed up to preach and several students congregated outside. The first words spoken to me were about where we would go out and eat after the services. Each night we gathered at IHOP to eat. I did not eat before the services. We seldom left the campus until midnight or after. Before that night the focus had been on meeting with God and people coming to grips with holiness. When that young man asked that question our focus had shifted. As soon as the service began I could sense it was over. We took God’s mighty move for granted and the revival dried up. That was the last night we met. To this day I am convinced God had much more He wanted to do but we took His move for granted.

That was nearly a decade ago. When I say I awoke May 11, 2010 with revival on my mind, I want you to understand what I am talking about. I am not talking about just having an evangelistic series of meetings. I am referring to a sovereign move of God where His people come to repentance and are made alive again and restored to Him. Often this translates into spiritual awakening. Those were the concepts on my heart that morning over two weeks ago.

I went about my day as usual. A man dropped by to see me and before leaving he asked me to pray about having a ten-day revival. I told him the irony of his comments considering I had been thinking about revival earlier that morning. I started to make an excuse about evangelists when he looked at me and said, “I think you should preach it.” That unnerved me a bit and I assured the man I would pray on the matter.

I asked a few people to begin praying with me. On May 19^th I sensed the Lord speaking these words to me, “The enemy wants to take you out but I will overcome and have purposed to use you mightily as an instrument of revival. I do want you to preach a revival here at FBC Seminole. Schedule it for ten-days.”

The next day I doubted God had really spoken to me. As I prayed that morning I believe the Lord spoke to me again. “Do you really want revival? Revival is costly. You must be willing to pay the price. Read all you can on revival. Saturate your heart and mind with revival scriptures and books on revival. Do not neglect these preparation days. Initially I will revive the church and then bring spiritual awakening. Do not doubt that I am speaking to you.” That same day I discovered a scripture that touched my heart and seemed to confirm all I was hearing. The scripture is [Ps. 119:37-38] “Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity and revive me in Your ways. Establish Your word to Your servant, as that which produces reverence for you.”

Suddenly I recalled a prophesy made about First Baptist Church Seminole being used to lead a revival in the community. I emailed the leader of our Community Prayer Room to see if she knew of the prophesy. After doing some digging she sent me the following. “There will come a mighty River of God to Seminole and it will begin and come through First Baptist Church. The water will run deep in the aisles of the church. People will take dippers and dip them in the river and pass it out to other people.”

Since all of this, God has consumed me with thoughts and prayers toward this revival. The Lord spoke other things to me that at this point I do not feel at liberty to share. Part of His instructions for me included writing this devotion to be used by our church to prepare our hearts to meet with the Lord. Today is May 26, 2010. Forty days out from the start of the revival will bring us to June 23, 2010. That gives me about twenty-seven days to write the material, proofread it, duplicate it in house, bind it, and then distribute it. This is an impossible task without God’s intervention.

I am assured in my heart God birthed all of this and wants to move in significant fashion. I am moving forward in obedience and faith. I have devoted this summer to praying for and studying about revival. Once again the Lord has called me to step out of the boat. I cannot earn a revival. Only God can bring true repentance and healing to His church. Only the Lord can draw the lost masses to a saving relationship with Him. The Lord has reassured me that all of this is His choosing and not mine.

So with those words of introductions I am off and running. Preparations are being made. I have solicited prayer partners over the next ten weeks to pray specifically for me. I have begun my preparations and now am starting this massive project. I pray God uses it beyond Seminole. I pray the revival He will bring goes far beyond Seminole as well.

“Father, I am taking these steps in faith and obedience. I plead with you to move powerfully and show people that like Elijah, today you will let it be known that you are God in Seminole and that I am your servant. Let them know that I have done these things at Your word. Answer me, O God to turn hearts back to you in Seminole and Gaines County.” [I Kings 18:36-37]