Revival – Coming Down From the Mountain

This past Monday night I preached about Jesus showing His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. For twenty-three straight days we remained on the mountain but I sensed clearly on Monday God was ready for us to come down and go back to work. The revival meetings ended Monday night but the revival in our hearts did not.

As I studied that passage on Luke 9 at one point after Jesus showed His glory in radiant splendor God spoke. He told the three disciples, “This is my Son, My Chosen One. Listen to Him.” I immediately began searching for what Jesus said next. I read and reread the following verses but could not find what Jesus said next. God commanded the disciples to listen. What happened next had to be significant.

It suddenly dawned on me that Jesus spoke volumes when we are told, “On the next day they came down from the mountain; a large crowd met Him.” [Luke 9:37] Peter wanted to build tabarnacles and remain on the mountain. Jesus led them down to do ministry. The saw the glory of Jesus and would have been contented to remain there forever. Jesus had other plans and divine appointments to keep.

For twenty-three days God met with us on top of the mountain. It was glorious. We worshipped, repented, rejoiced, wept, prayed, united, and were revived. Many were saved. Only God knows the full extent of what happened in those meetings. People were transformed. The revival became the talk of the community. Many watched by television. The ripple effects of the Lord’s moving will be felt for a long time to come.

I have perfect peace in m heart God wanted us to come down and get back to work. I like what one lady said to me in an email. She commented those days of revival meetings were like getting to sit in your mother’s or father’s lap and having their undivided attention. Those were special times. Yet there came a point when they had to put us down. God put us down to send us out to get busy for Him.

The revival continues in our hearts. I really wrestled with what the Lord wanted us to do. I did not get that message from Him until about two hours before the service. The attendance was up again on Monday night. I knew God anointed the message when I began preaching. I could see God moving in the hearts of His people.

A great deal of time was spent on comprehending what it means to behold the glory of Jesus. There will always be greater revelations to discover all the days of our lives. Seeking Him is the most glorious adventure in life. The challenge included people continuing to be on a quest to know Him and discover more of Him in their private devotions. We had been spoon fed for nearly a month. God desires us to seek Him privately as well as corporately.

I did not preach evangelistically. That message from God was intended for the church. I did not expect what God did during the invitation. Two more ladies were saved and one more came to follow the Lord in baptism. One of the ladies is another senior adult.

At first I struggled with calling the meetings to a close. In fact, I got up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning to cry out to God about whether I had made a mistake. In the end I know God was ready for us to move on. There is still much work to be done. We are still called to take our posts on the walls of Seminole. We are still called to share the gospel and seek to shake up this city.

What is God doing in the days after the meetings? Our Wednesday night service more than tripled in attendance last night. Our FCA enjoyed the largest attendance last night in their history. We do not know where our adult study will meet next week. Our students did not need the sanctuary due to meeting off campus last night. We had too many adults to meet in the choir room as we usually do. God is drawing people to this church. It is humbling and amazing at the same time. This is by far the largest crowd we have ever seen on a Wednesday night. People are coming up ready to work and get involved in ministry. New ministries are being launched for the fall. There is a great deal of excitement as we continue to seek God in the days ahead. God continues to kindle revival flames in our hearts.

Words will never be able to describe what we experienced on top of that mountain for twenty-three days in August. I will never forget it. I believe God will spread the work through these blogs and through a book I hope to complete before the end of the fall. He gets all the glory. He gets glory for the time we remained on the mountain but He also gets glory for brining us down from the mountain to get back to work.

The revival felt like a great pep rally. We were inspired and empowered to play better. You do not win games in pep rallies. You have to leave and go on the field or the court to play the game. That is where we are. We have come down the mountain to play the game, or to do ministry. Therefore the revival will continue in ways we could have never imagined. It is time to come down and go to work.

Revival – Do Not Lose Heart [Gal 6:9]

I did something yesterday afternoon I have not done this whole revival. After lunch I took a two-hour nap. It felt wonderful. For twenty-two days I have pushed myself getting up early to pray, studying for messages, in addition to my pastoral responsibilities. A nap revived my body and mind physically.

When I came to the office I felt the Lord calling me to preach from Gal 6:9. Deep inside I continued to wrestle with the hard truth that it seemed the revival had lost momentum. As I wrote in a previous blog, it seemed the church had rejected the word of the Lord in the morning service by and large. Part of me felt it was over. Another part of me refused to lie down and quit.

For twenty-two straight days I have felt like a prophet declaring the word of the Lord. Last night seemed much different. I felt like a pastor again feeding the sheep. I shared honestly the wrestling in my own mind about whether to continue or whether God has turned our focus to live out what He has done in our hearts in the community.

There is a challenge for us not to continue to uselessly kindle fire on God’s altar. I know there will come a time to shut the gate on this revival. We cannot manufacture the fire of God. That is His Sovereign move. We looked at the scriptures and slowly chewed on spiritual food. Does not losing heart mean we do not give up on God moving and breaking through in this revival? Does it mean God has released us and now we set our minds to all the work that needs to be done in the days ahead? Even while I preached I did not have the answer to those questions.

I know they wanted me to give them an answer but the truth is I do not know. I have listened to what others have said. “God is not done. He is not through working.” It dawned on me last night that God is never through working. He always has more to do and more revelation of Himself to share. Whether He extends the meetings for weeks or shuts it down He will continue to work. Here is the real question. Has God done all He purposed to do in this revival? At some point the vast majority of FBC members stopped supporting the work. Did this grieve the Spirit of God? Did God shut the revival down because we as a church did not hunger for more and chose to run from Him in rebellion rather than obeying the word of the Lord? Did God purpose to do much more. Is God still purposing to do much more? Those are questions I do not have the answers for.

One of the interesting dynamics of this revival has been that I have always known that when it did end my work here in Seminole continues. I will still have the responsibility to ask God to feed this flock, take my watch on the walls of Seminole, give leadership to our future, and labor to plant gospel seed and reap a harvest of souls. My work does not end the last day of the revival. Even while I preached last night I did not know which direction to go. I want to honor the Lord and I have sought to give Him every chance to breakthrough. There have been tears, countless prayers, hard preaching, counseling during the invitations, victories, euphoric highs, and continual spiritual struggles for the soul of Seminole.

When this does come to an end I will have no regrets. I have given myself to this revival since last May. At the end of the message last night I asked people to sit before the Lord and listen. It was a sweet time. I felt great peace. Jase got up and addressed the church from [Matt 5:16] about letting our lights shine before the Seminole community. I wrestled back and forth about what to do. In the end I finally decided I did not have a clear word from the Lord about quitting so I extended the meeting for Monday night.

Many would say I am quitting and giving in. It is 3:30 a.m. as I write this. I am up and about to take my watch on the wall as I have done for the past three weeks. I trust the Lord will give me His message as He has done for the past twenty-two days. There is no quit in me. There is the realization that the services are different now. They have taken on the feel of good services but not the intense revival services we enjoyed in the first two weeks.

I want God to keep moving and will ask Him for that today. This church can testify to the truth that over and over again I exhorted them not to take God’s outpouring for granted. I warned them that as suddenly as God sent the revival He could turn off the faucet. I challenged them to partake of this fully and to continue to seek God because none of us may see anything like this again in our lifetimes. When God turns the faucet off I want to be honest and acknowledge that as the case. When that time comes I will courageously shut the gate and not continue to uselessly kindle fire. When the revival ends God will direct our focus on the work to be done in the days ahead. God has given me a lifetime worth of work right here as the pastor of First Baptist Church in the city of Seminole. I press on in prayer.

We could show up tonight and feel the burning intensity of God’s presence. God could draw the lost to come in mass. Many could be saved again in the service tonight. God could ignite a revival fire that could spread all over West Texas. I lay my life on His altar to do whatever His will is. At least for tonight, revival continues.

Revival – Rebellion on the High Seas Jonah 1

I awoke abruptly with the message of Jonah on my mind early this morning. In and out of sleep from that point on I kept sensing that the lost and Christians who are in rebellion are running from God just like Jonah tried to flee. I keep seeing this mental picture of God pursuing people and nipping at the souls of the lost and backslidden alike. I knew what I was to preach before I ever got out of bed.

The message pounded in my mind so much I finally got ready for church and came to the office. Before I made three blocks from my house I was convicted about a movie series the Lord wanted me to get rid of. It is the Rocky series of movies. God convicted me last night to get rid of them because of the language in them. Instead of continuing on to the church like I was tempted to do, I turned around and grabbed the movies. They were deposited in a dumpster far from our house. I do not want anything to hinder God from moving in my life.

I am so desperate for God to move that I do not want anything in my life to hinder Him. In fact, I asked myself that question last night and felt prompted to ask our whole staff the same question. “Is there anything in your life that would hinder God from moving in this revival?” I asked the entire worship team that same question before we started the service this morning. I asked the entire church the same question before we started the service and game them time to repent. Many people felt awkward as we sat in complete silence for the first few minutes to start the Sunday morning service.

Like few other services in this revival I felt an earnestness and deep burden for that particular service. I knew the Lord meant business. The time for playing church games is long past.

I alternated between singing and praying. When it came time to preach I felt like a man on a mission. The truth of God’s word burned in me like molten lava. I had great faith that the Lord would move among us powerfully. God’s conviction of the lost and the backslidden could be felt. There was no noise. There was no movement except for one couple who got up early and walked out of the service.

God’s word pierced. I could see people ducking their heads under conviction, squirming in their seats, and with that far off look wishing they were somewhere else. The challenge called for people to repent and obey the Lord. God’s word reiterated the truth that we cannot flee the presence of the Lord. I know God spoke that through message and I know it was a timely message. God nipped at the souls of people for the entire length of the message. I truly believed God would breakthrough.

When the invitation was extended, a teenage girl and her parents were the only ones to respond publicly. It sure felt like the majority of the church resisted and rebelled against the Lord today. Two men gave testimonies at the end but the wind seemed sucked out the sails. I am increasingly convinced the majority of FBC members do not want revival. While a remnant continue to want more of God I cannot say with confidence that same sentiment is felt by the whole church.

I wish I could report differently. I determined early on in these blogs I would report the truth and not try to exaggerate the facts to make it appear God was doing more than was actually happening. So here we are on day 22 and the church by and large appeared to have rejected and rebelled against the Lord today. God have mercy. There will be sleepless nights and

Revival – Not Quitting

Once again God made it clear what I was to preach. The day started out earlier than normal. Even after Friday’s night service I kept battling thoughts of defeat and doubt about the future of the revival. I had breakfast with one of our members and both of us felt like it was over. We talked about the importance of pressing forward and believing God would continue to work in the future even after the revival services came to an end. The end of the services do not mean the end of God working.

Over pancakes and eggs we discussed how incredibly the Lord had worked over the course of the past three weeks. We were both open to God doing more but did not have a great deal of optimism that God would continue to pour His spirit out among us. The vast majority of our membership have quit attending the services and seem uninterested in God doing more.

Maybe these blogs are getting to raw and honest. The truth is that what most people associate would happen in a revival of nearly three weeks is not necessarily what we have experienced for the last week. The truth is I have prayed diligently every morning and believed that we would see breakthrough. It has not happened. There is less intensity in the worship. The crowds are smaller. The response after the messages has dropped off as well. Fewer new faces are showing up. The lost are no longer being saved. By what you can see the revival appears to be over.

The power of Saturday night did not take place in the praise and the worship or the preaching. After the invitation I gave people a short break and asked them to return to their seats. I did not tell them what the Lord had put in my heart. When we all returned I asked the church what they sensed the Lord saying about the future of the revival. I clarified that we did want opinions but only what they sensed the Lord might be saying.

The first man said he sensed the Lord clearly saying, “Are you going to let the devil outwork you? Are you going to lay down and quit?” He did not feel God was through working. The next man talked about feeling oppressed all day long. He saw that as spiritual warfare, which to him, meant God still had more work to do or the enemy would not be working so hard to oppose it. A lady got up and said she knew God was not through and we should be shamed thinking He was. She said she felt like a cheerleader to encourage us to keep going.

I sat silently on the front row trying to discern what the Lord had to say through His church. One of our quieter men got up and read scriptures I had preached from earlier in the week from [Matt 26:41] “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Another man who is not known for addressing the church publicly got up to say he had told God “no” so many times and nearly did it again last night but chose to obey God by saying He did not think God was through. Another man got up and read the poem “The Fellowship of the Unashamed.” He did not sense God was through either.

After that I called those who wanted to stay and pray to come forward. I never knew how many stayed because I fell prostrate on the ground. In those moments we once again stood in the gap for Seminole. I wrestled with the high cost of following God forward in this revival personally. School starts Monday. Pressing on means more early mornings of prayer, more waiting on God for messages, more fighting the enemy, and less time with my family. I have often told the church there is a high cost associated with revival. Few churches are really willing to pay when it becomes inconvenient.

Most people left before I finished praying because I truly wrestled about God breaking through. I fought through personal feelings of disappointment at how many of our own people do not desire more of God. I fought through the feelings of frustration that a fireworks show drew more attention than God pouring His Spirit out on Saturday night. I committed my life to follow God here and to press on in the meetings if He works. If they turn into more religious meetings I am not interested. I have and continue to plead for God to work in our midst.

One conversation I had afterward has stuck with me this morning. One of our ladies told me a story about a friend of hers who used to be a church member but died in automobile accident. Before dying her friend said, “We had better quit playing. God means business.” She had even gone to the former pastor to tell him if he did not quit tip toeing in his preaching God would remove him. That man no longer serves here as pastor. I feel the solemn weight of her words last night. “God is not playing and we had better quit playing as well.”

The bottom line is we press on. I do not know for how long. We are starting week four and must follow God. My sleep was abruptly interrupted with a message for this morning. I have my marching orders for the day and will continue to seek Him. We cannot quit but must continue to believe God for greater things. Now is not the time to quit but press on for more of God. The revival continues.

Revival – Lord If You had Been Here [John 11:1-46]

Much of Friday is a blur. The day included the “Mighty Men of Prayer” meeting. Once again I awoke early to seek the Lord for this continued revival and His word. I thought I had a message from the Lord out of the book of Acts but the more I studied the passage the more I became convinced God had something else in mind. The rest of the day I prayed without ceasing to know God’s heart and message for the people. It did not come easily.

Let me fast forward. With just minutes before the service began I still struggled with what to preach. I began feeling that the John 11 passage was the word God wanted but I had less than five minutes to look it over. Over the years I have jotted down different notes in the margins but definitely did not have any time to study.

The essence of the message dealt with persevering through trials and confusion when you feel like God has let you down. In many ways that is where I am on this revival. We have lost the intensity we had at the beginning. The crowds are shrinking. When the service began I buried my head in my hands crying out to God and not understanding. Over and over again I felt the revival had run its course. It seemed from everything I could see that the move of God had ended.

Right before walking into the sanctuary I prayed one of those silly prayers you pray when you are desperate. It had been overcast during the day and as I rounded the corner headed for the sanctuary I cried out to God, “If you want this revival to continue I ask you to send rain.” Some of the first words I was greeted with after the service were from a farmer telling me it had been raining for the past couple of hours.

Before that as I sat on the front pew crying out to God for clear direction about what to preach and His plans for the future of the revival, I looked down at something I wrote back in 2002. It reads, “Will you quit or believe God for something better? [Gal 6:9] “ Let us not lose heart in doing good for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”

I am weary but it is not the kind of weary you think. I have slept little over the course of the past few weeks. That is not what has worn me down. I am worn down by the spiritual battle to pray for Seminole. Lately no matter how hard we pray we are not seeing it translate into spiritual victories at the revival. We have not had a one person saved or celebrated on baptism in three days. I have fought oppression in my mind for the past week and a half. I am mentally exhausted seeking to discern if God wants to keep working or if the revival meetings should come to an end.

As I sat on that front pew on Friday night none of the things I had prayed for to happen in that service had happened. I prayed for an overflow crowd but we did not even half of the bottom level filled. I prayed for the lost to be present but I am not sure there were any lost present in that service. I asked God to draw multitudes from other cities but that did not take place either.

An old familiar feeling began to surface in my mind and heart. I did not want to preach. I lost heart in those moments. When I thought about all the praying and all the labor over the past near three weeks but sat in a pretty lifeless service with maybe a hundred to a hundred and fifty people, it sure did not feel like revival to me. It felt like defeat and spiritual death.

I wrestled with preaching John 11 about the death and resurrection of Lazarus. In those moments I truly wished God had called someone else to preach that night. All I could dwell on was that the revival was over. In my mind I planned on gutting out Saturday night and everything going back to normal on Sunday.

The worship and praise ended too fast for me. I wanted more time to collect my thoughts and summon strength from the Lord. As I climbed the steps and stood behind the pulpit my spirit did not feel revived. Trusting God to help I opened my Bible and preached from John 11.

I recall at times being surprised how the message flowed as I mixed scriptural truth along with some of my personal journey about being tried and tested and fighting through thoughts about God being unfaithful. I could tell God’s hand was on me. In large part I attribute this to the many people who are praying for me both in Seminole and around the nation. A few responded during the invitation by going to the altar to pray. There were a few tears. By my account the service had been good but not revival.

One of our men came to me and told me he needed to talk to the church. I know what God has been doing in Him and therefore trusted God had something to say through him. He testified about working through losing his daughter. She would have been twelve this year. He believed that God would heal her on earth but God chose to heal her by taking her to heaven. She suffered from the day she was born with some brain damage. He said he got up early the morning she died and spent some time with her. He kissed her and told her he loved her before heading off to a real estate class. She died while he was at the class.

To put it in his words, “I was mad at God and wanted to square off with Him.” Through many prayers and God’s help he worked through it. He shared how the Lord had given them two sons. Eleven days after each of the boys was born something tragic happened. This father lost his father whom he considered his best friend on the earth. After the birth of their second son his father in law took his own life. In the end though, he testified that God is faithful even through the painful times. God helped him through feelings of anger, confusion, and grief.

The whole time he testified Sean softly played his guitar in the background. After the testimony I almost stood to my feet until Sean looked down and told me he needed to say something to the church. It was two years ago Friday that the Decker family buried their son Levi. Levi was five months old and died in the womb. Sean said over and over again, “Today has been a hard day.”

While he talked I flashed back in my mind to a scene a few minutes earlier when Sean’s wife and eleven year old son were both kneeling at the altar weeping. Suddenly it all made sense. Through the pain they have seen God be faithful as the Lord blessed them with a new baby girl.

As Sean talked I sat back stunned that the Lord had planned that message to minister to the Decker family. Others were touched too. I received an email from a lady whom needed to hear that clear word from the Lord later that night. The night was not wasted. God still worked.

Instead of canceling the revival services we continue to meet in hope that God will keep working. We have met for twenty straight days. In some ways it does not seem that long and in other ways it does. The thing I keep hearing from people is that God is not through working yet. By faith we press on believing if we do not quit we will see greater things.

Revival – Righteous Judge

Nobody was saved tonight during the revival but God moved in the hearts of His people to give them a burden for evangelism. We looked at Rev 19:11-16. The focus of the night included the theme that God along with being a loving, gracious, and kind God is also a righteous judge. There is a limit to His patience and grace when people continually reject Him.

We journeyed through Old Testament passages about Adam and Eve, God destroying the world by flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah, the death of the first born in Egypt during the Passover, and the destruction of the Egyptian Army at the Red Sea. In each of these stories people rebelled against God and there were consequences for those sinful actions.

In the New Testament we looked at the sin of Annanias and Sapphira in Acts 5 along with the death of King Herod in Acts 12 for not giving glory to God. The main focus of the message stemmed from Rev 19:11-16. In this passage Jesus is a conquering military hero and a righteous judge coming to make war and destroy all the enemies of God.

The message had a somber tone to it, as well it should. People who have not been saved will, one day face the righteous judge. The full force of God’s anger, violent emotion, and righteous indignation will be poured out on the enemies of Christ. The news is sobering. We hold the truth and still remain tight-lipped.

It is time to pray harder, witness more often, and trust Christ to bring in the harvest. It is time to see miracles of salvation. I pray for a mass spiritual awakening to take place in Seminole and beyond. Many sent on the verge of a Christ-less eternity. I must be sober and continue laboring and witnessing. I must rouse myself out of bed to keep taking my watch on the walls of Seminole and West Texas in intercession.

Before the service I went to the football scrimmage to watch Taylor play for a few minutes. As I was leaving a lady stopped to tell me she has been watching the revival on television and got to come in person one night. We talked for a few minutes and I turned to leave. Before I took five steps she called out for me. She reported a story to me I found astonishing. She talked to a friend of hers who was in Brazil recently. Her friend told her she heard about the revival in Seminole all the way over in Brazil! Only God could do that.

As much as I enjoy the services I have to say I enjoy the prayer meetings before the services equally. There is some real wrestling with God that takes place in those prayer times behind closed doors. Many victories are being won in those prayer meetings nobody knows about. Eternity will tell the tale.

The service ended tonight with a passionate plea to our television audience as well as to our membership. We will devote the next twenty-four hours to prayer and witnessing. We trust God will bring a harvest tomorrow night. I expect God to assemble a mass of people.

It is hard to believe we have finished day nineteen of this revival. I could not help but be encouraged when we had probably close to two hundred people on a night when the football teams were playing in a scrimmage at our home stadium. Once again we had several people from other churches and even some from out of town in attendance. I know there were at least three men from Odessa. May the Lord keep spreading the fire both at home and abroad for His glory. God is not done yet. Tomorrow we seek the Lord afresh and trust Him for the harvest again. Breakthrough is coming. The revival continues.

Revival – What Do You Want Jesus to Do for You? [Luke 18:35-43]

My days have taken on a familiar routine. I am aroused early for prayer. I usually work out after that and then spend my day praying and seeking God for His fresh word for each night of this revival. I return home to shower and change clothes before returning to the church for a prayer meeting before the service. At times I have been given messages I have never preached before. At other times the Lord gives me fresh insight into older messages I have preached in the past.

By yesterday afternoon I still did not have a clear direction about what to preach. I have been at this same spot so many times I can honestly I say I do not get stressed. I got up from my desk and lay prostrate on the floor. This is a position I have been in frequently over the past two and a half weeks. I love that position because it demonstrates my utter humility and dependence upon God. I do not know how to get any lower. In that position I cry out to God.

While seeking Him in this fashion I began to see faces of different people in our church going through different difficulties. I saw the faces of those grieving the loss of spouses. I saw those who need physical healing. I saw those who need a miracle to turn the hearts of rebellious children back to the Lord. There were also the faces of those needing God to restore their marriages, to provide, and those who need a fresh touch from Him. It was then I sensed the Lord leading me to pray about the blind man whom Jesus healed in Luke 18. Jesus asked that man a question that I am confident the Lord posed last night to His church. “What do you want Me to do for you?”

The service started with two more baptisms, a father and son. The wife of the man and his mother had no idea he was being baptized also that night. What a joy to step into those waters that have been stirred so many times over the past several days. It never gets old. It continues to be a celebration with people clapping and shouting in joy time after time.

Sean and our worship team were anointed of the Lord. The songs spoke to our hearts and drew us deeper into God’s presence. We are not singing for the ears of men but to the audience of One. God is the object of our adoration and the true source of our joy and enthusiasm.

Many people responded during the invitation. Many fell on their knees in prayer asking God to step in and intervene. Others fell in behind them to minister to those who needed a fresh touch from God. I spent the rest of the night praying for people. I prayed for two different people who lost their spouses in the last month. Both spouses died unexpectedly exasperating the pain. The tears flowed freely. I prayed for a lady to be physically healed and continue to pray even though she was not healed this morning. I prayed for a man carrying a heavy burden of a sick wife whom he had to put in an assisted living center. He pleads for God to heal her but it hasn’t happened yet.

It seemed just as much energy was expended praying for people as there had been preaching. When the last prayer had been prayed I sunk on the front pew in exhaustion. In those moments I find myself asking God if He is done or if there is more work to do. That has been my constant prayer for the past week. Nobody in this church wants to quit before God is through. None of us on the other hand want to meet just for the sake of meeting.

I met with our staff and a couple of deacons to ask them what they sensed the Lord saying to them about continuing to meet. None of them could say they had heard from the Lord about canceling the services. We decided to extend them through Sunday.

Tonight the high school football teams have a scrimmage. Saturday night there is a huge firework show and back to school bash scheduled. God still will not release me. In fact, I was handed a message taken by one of our phone counselors after church. This is the message, “A man called and said it is not over. He is praying for Matt’s strength and he will be here tomorrow night.” Is that the Lord telling me to press on?

To be honest it seems we have lost a great deal of the intensity we had in the first days of the revival. The crowds have begun to drop off slightly. We still have good crowds on most nights. Tonight most likely will be an exception. It is difficult to compete with Texas High School football for attendance.

The battle continues. There are obviously more people to be saved. One man told me this morning I was close to preaching myself out of a job. He asked me what I would do if all the sinners got saved. I commented we would spend the rest of our days learning more about God for there will always be something new to discover about the Lord. One lady asked one of our members how long is that preacher going to keep going. Until all the sinners repent? There are jokes, wisecracks, and many skeptics. I cannot tell you how many hours I have cried out for God to do more and show this town more of His glory. I did it again this morning.

At this point all I can say is God has not released me. I have to keep preaching. It does get disappointing when nights come and go without anyone being saved. We press on and pray on. What do I want Jesus to do for me? I want Him to intensify and spread this revival.