April 21, 2022

Revival, We Need It

There has been consistent revival in the history of the church. every two or three generations a revival has happened. The question ends up being, is it time again? The short answer is, "Yes, it's always time".

The situation

The history of the The Church goes back a few thousand years, more than just the 2000 years of "A.D." because before The Church was a Christian movement in the first century, it was the jewish people wandering in the wilderness and Adam and Eve in a garden. Jesus didn't die on the cross and resurrect Himself to start something, He did it to finish something, to perfect this work of God. All the way back to Moses, The Church has had an issue with going through a cycle of rising and falling.

The cycle looks like this: The church would call out to God who would show his faithfulness and respond to them by sending a leader, judge, king, or prophet. Then the people would temporarily be grateful, they would get comfortable, they would turn away from God again to embrace the ways of the world (because the ways of the world feel good), then things would get uncomfortable and the people would suffer. Which would lead them to call out to the lord once again, and he would respond again (because He is always faithful). The entire story of the Bible and of the church is this cycle, and sadly it continues to this day.

The core of the problem

The problem in the Old Testament is mainly an issue of the jewish people not understanding their calling. They weren't called to bless each other, or simply soak in Gods goodness as a secret group of Gods elect. They were called to be blessed by God and to bless the people of the earth and show them how to live in faithfulness. They stumbled and failed, (just like we do).

And in the New Testament, The apostles wrote letters to churches that they had planted because they were already struggling with false teachers and legalism. The ways of the world always seem to find their way back in. They had real freedom, and almost immediately turned to charlatans and people saying, "but don't you want to get circumcised and offer sacrifices too... just to be sure"

Generations and generations go by and we find ourselves here, dealing with those same issues every day. Finding our churches running as businesses. Taking an offering so they can buy shiny things and stockpile cash, teaching that you can "will" blessing into existence and make yourself a god in some fashion. All you have to do is "faith" hard enough... (and Tithe)

The solution

Jesus is the perfect, unfailing example of a deliverer. The earthly versions that God sends when His people cry out, always managed to fall short and be corruptible. No Judge, King, or Prophet would do. But Emmanuel (God with Us), this changes everything. The church that is established after the resurrection is empowered by the Holy Spirit, but isn't a new thing, its a perfected version of the old thing. "Love and Bless the world" Is the method, but "the cross" and "the empty grave" is the message. And as long as we lean on that, revival will continue to happen. There's a reason we call it "The Good News".

All that to say, We need revival, even when things are going well, we need it. The church continues to ebb and flow from worldliness to rebellion to reformation to corruption to revival to... the whole cycle again. We probably can't break the cycle as long as we are living here on the earth still, but we can call out to God now and maybe skip a step or two. He wants us to earnestly seek Him, His Kingdom, and His Righteousness.

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