Some things I have been thinking about

"I can give you one simple reason why we don't have revival in America. Because we're content to live without it. We're not seeking God - we're seeking miracles, we're seeking big crusades, we're seeking blessings. In Numbers 11, Moses said to God, 'You're asking me to carry a burden I can't handle. Do something or kill me!' Do you love America enough to say, 'God, send revival or kill me'? Do you think it's time we changed Patrick Henry's prayer from, 'Give me liberty or give me death,' to 'Give me revival or let me die'? "*

~ Len. Ravenhill

America is so absorbed in self: self-help, self-esteem, self-respect...pretty much self-worship. We don't seem to care about the 30,000 children that are dying EVERY DAY from preventable causes!!!! (starvation being the main cause) Yeah, I am talking about the approximately three that have died since you started reading this post. But we can drink our 5 dollar coffee; we can pay our tithe every Sunday to help build a new multi-million dollar sanctuary. We can pray for the orphans, but send no relief. We can put on a mask of being good "Christians" and knowing a lot of bible verses, but we still have the same unchanged heart that we had when we first claimed to have "gotten saved". And we schedule our annual "Revival" where we rent a tent and serve food to draw the people in. Maybe 10-50 people will come up and "give their life to the Lord", only to follow the example of all the other "Christians" in the church who read their bible once a week, then go to a building every Sunday to get "feed" the word of God. If you can call it food, it is more like watered down milk. This is not revival. It's not Christianity. This is hypocrisy. It is being lukewarm. It is is vomit. (Rev. 3 :16)

The beginning of the Great New Hebrides Revival in Scotland came when a young man stood before the church and held up his hands, asking how could God bless him with dirty hands. He kept asking if his hands were clean before God. The young man kept quoting Psalm 24:3-4,

"Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart."

A great revival broke out where Duncan Campbell preached, and almost the entire island was saved. Revival started because one teenage boy got up to said a prayer, and didn't stop until he poured out his heart. And all who were around were convicted and convinced that they must have clean hands and a pure heart. (1 Cor. 14:24) One prayer that was led by the Holy Spirit changed a town for centuries.

Whether the town was going to follow or not, that young man knew personal revival that day. He knew that he had to have clean hands and a pure heart. That spark lead to a country-wide revival. Revival is when we count the cost. It is forsaking all we have in this world and following hard after Christ. (Matt. 19:21/Mark 10:21)It is visiting the widows and orphans. It is staying unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)

So why don't we pray like that? Why don't our hearts ache for the lost? Why are we content to let Americas Christianity be sitting in a pew every Sunday? Why aren't we sharing in the sufferings of Christ? Why is it that the religious leaders of Jesus' day hated Him and killed Him, be we are content to sit under the same sort of religious leaders every Sunday? Why are we not on our faces every day and night crying out to God for Revival?

Maybe we don't pray because our hands aren't clean and our hearts aren't pure? Maybe our hearts don't ache for the lost, because our heart is too consumed with selfish desires to care about another persons soul? Maybe we sit in pews because that is tradition, and we are comfortable with that? Maybe we aren't sharing in the sufferings of Christ because we had to suffer enough this morning when we sat in 5 minutes of traffic in an air-conditioned car in the richest country in the world? Maybe we sit under the same religious leaders because we have itching ears and they tell us exactly what we want to hear ("oh, you believe in God, you gave your heart to Him, well then your saved, and He will give you love, joy, peace, and happiness. And I can't forget mustangs, mansions, and money!!! " Less popularly known as mammon!!)? Maybe we aren't crying out for Revival because we are content to live without it?

So, I must ask myself: Do I have clean hands? Do I have a pure heart? Am I unspotted from the world? Am I content to live without revival?

*Copyright (C)1994 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas