Saturday 16th August 2008. Me, myself and I

Nope, no photo this time. Why? I am too lazy to go look for one. I thought I would just include a definition in case you wondered what it meant. To be lazy that is. I also like spell checkers. They help me with my atrocious spelling.
Revival. It's not happening. At least not that I am aware of. Actually I have eluded to it a bit in my recent posts. At least the reason why it is not happening. It's called sin. In my life and maybe yours. Well, I think yours. I can't really tell. I am too busy pulling the plank out of my eye. That's what prevents me from seeing you and if your sinning. How does God view sin? The wages of sin is death. However, before we will see any sort of revival we have to view sin the same way that God does. I can give mental assent to the statement that the wages of sin is death. It means nothing. Even Satan believes the wages of sin is death. He gloats about it. It is an entirely different matter to viewing it the same way that God does.
Lets look at stealing. Just for a minute. There are two ways of stealing. I can walk up to you and take something from you without your permission. That is the direct way. I have taken from you, without your consent, something that is rightfully yours. There is another way to steal. I can deny you something that is rightfully yours. I may, for example, promise you some money that I owe you. I don't pay up. That is stealing. I have something that is rightfully yours. Now we do this with God every day. We steal from Him the time that is rightfully His. We deny Him first place in our life and place something else first place instead. This grieves God. Yes, He is big enough to handle it. But it is still stealing. It is serious. That shalt not steal. Being denied is only one consequence of stealing. The person we stole from might become angry. They may wish you harm because of your sin. They may not harm you literally, but in their heart they may. So, you have sinned directly against them by taking something rightfully which is theirs and then indirectly by causing them to become angry and thereby sinning because they wish you harm, which is a form of murder, mental murder. OK, you haven't sinned against God? Wait. That person we stole from is a creation of God. Jesus said, as you did to the least of these, you did to Me. Oops.
See the problem. No matter what wrong we do, ultimately it is against God. It is failure to live up to His standard. You and I have to look at things the same way as God does before He can change us.
Consider this. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." That will be our attitude after we have seen our sin and ourselves as God sees us. That will be the after effect. That is where God wants us to be.
There is a great emphasis these days on what I must do. There is only one thing I must do. I must die and Christ must live. In me. Anything less denies God His rightful place in my life. If I say I will do this, or I did that. Who was it that said "I must decrease, He must increase"?
I was listening to the conference ministry from Sovereign Grace Ministries. They emphasised salvation by grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone. Absolutely in total agreement with what God says one hundred and ten percent. Theologically and doctrinally spot on. Then they stuffed in in the discussion panel by failing miserably to give God and Christ His rightful place. They stole from God His glory in giving Him credit. They went on about how much they enjoyed this person's sermon or that person's ministry. No no no no, that will never do. It is not your ministry, it is not my ministry. It is not my works. It is Christ's works that He chooses by His sovereign will to do in and through me. They have their head on back to front and unfortunately the panel discussions became a huge mutual admiration society. I wept.
We need to weep over this sin. What sin? We need to weep over the sin of claiming that we did something when we didn't. Christ did it in and through us and chose to make us a vehicle for His purposes.
I was on the revival band wagon for ages. All the time looking for revival. What I didn't see wwas that Revival must start with me.
Enough. You have a comment?