by Jerry Hillenburg
Bad Churches have become worldly, fleshly, carnal, Spiritless places…where Christians have become cold, callus, indifferent, and passionless about the things of God. Oh, they can find tons of things to keep them coming to the church building: Duty, guilt, fear, or a feeling of well being when they do. They can even claim that they are coming “For the Children” but, they have little use for true Biblical Christianity. It is far too confrontational and unwanted in our current anti-christian, anti-Bible culture.
Something is wrong in our Churches, something is wrong in our Church, something must take place. The people of God must return to the place of passionate surrender, we must return to the moving of the Holy Spirit upon our lives and our total submission to that movement…that is called Revival!
Vance Havner put it best when he said “We need a heart warming…The early Christians did not need a shot in the arm every Sunday to keep them going. They knew Jesus and they upset the world, worried the devil, and gave wicked rulers insomnia, and started something the jails could not lock up, fire could not burn, water couldn’t drown, swords couldn’t kill.
You may belittle experience and speak of the dangers of emotion, but we are suffering today from a species of Christianity as dry as dust, as cold as ice, as pale as a corpse, and as dead as King Tut. We are suffering, not from a lack of correct heads, but of consumed hearts.”
We, Brothers and Sisters, need our hearts stirred again to Spiritual life…to have again the Breath of God, in the person of the Holy Ghost, blow upon our hearts and lives, stirring us to Spiritual life once more! There is an old Gospel Hymn that says it like this:
“Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew.
That I may love what You do love,
And do what You would do.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure.
Until with You I am one will,
To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Till I am wholly Thine.
Till all this earthly part of me,
Glows with Your fire divine.”
We need the glowing of that “Divine Fire” in our hearts and lives…right now…today! We need to be sensitive to the Spirit’s movement, we need to be alert to the Spirit’s call, we need to be ready for the Spirit’s power, and we need to be patient for the Spirit’s presence to expand in our lives.
We must come to this awakening with hearts full of desire, but also with the cognizant awareness, that we fall short of His glory, and we must begin the process of emptying out the world and allowing the Spirit to fill in those carnal places in our heart. He wants to…now we must let Him.
We need to get out of the world’s rut and into the Spirt’s presence and power….I want to; don’t you?
Pastor Jerry
by Jerry Hillenburg
As I read this I couldn’t help but think of Revelation 2:4: Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. God wants all we do to be done out of love for him and for one another. For example: A spontaneous hug, a kiss, and I love you with a big smile means much, much more to a husband than a wife that keeps the house well, and that cooks good meals out of duty, yet seldom if ever shows any affection. Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, (Which basically is love in action) I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. (I Corinthians 13:1) We should love God because his love moved him to save us. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)