"Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your candlestick out of his place, except you repent." (Revelation 2:5)
I'm still processing the closing of 130 and 148 year old churches. Most of you reading this are a part of congregations which are "products" of the last 50 years. It's sort of like The United States of America. Egypt, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Ottoman and some other ancient empires all out lived our 244 years. On the world stage of history, we have proven very little.
There are three congregations in Greenburg which were founded in 1799; that's 220 years ago. Our local church is not quite 20 years old, and several of the larger evangelical/charismatic congregations in our area are no older than 45 years. I repeat: It's not how we begin; it's how we finish. Every race I started, I was in the lead for a number of yards, some I won, some I didn't. Good starts don't get, "the prize."
Our text, taken from the last several days' readings in Revelation, maybe gives some insight as to why congregations fail, "....Repent, and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your candlestick...." Could this be what is happening all throughout the Western World? Is repentance a part of modern Christendom, our church, your church? Only the arrogant would say that there is nothing in their local congregation of which they have to repent. Revival begins with repentance. If whatever we call "revival" does not, it's not Holy Ghost Revival. This is a main reason the landscape of the charismatic renewal is strewn with closed churches. Bob Mumford once said, "The Lord came looking for fruit, and we gave Him bumper stickers."
Revival begins in and is maintained in repentance and obedience. The first time I read Revelation I can remember taking note that rebukes were followed by, "....exceeding great and precious promises." Notice what Jesus says to the Ephesian Church which had, "....left your first love..: repent and do the first works." I believe this is what our Lord Jesus is saying right now to the Western Church--- "first love-first works." To the obedient Church, then, our Lord Jesus Christ gives the promise, "To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I prayer for awakening, revival, whatever You call it. Your Church is in desperate need. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
