Revival & the Jewish Fall Feasts

I love autumn in Virginia. I love the cool temps, the clear skies and the colorful leaves that blanket our gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains. As the days shorten and the leaves fall, it reminds me of the "old" passing away.

This time of year also marks the celebration of the three Jewish fall feasts:

• Rosh Hashanah (New Year) or Yom Teruah (Day of the Sounding of the Trumpet), 
• Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and 
• Sukkot (Feast of Booths). 

The fall feasts usher in the Jewish new year and are a reminder of the need to have sins forgiven. This gives a fresh start to the year because there is a sense of renewal and celebration as they remember God's faithfulness to them as a nation. The Lord ordered those feasts to help position them to walk faithfully with Him to receive His blessing. 

Evangelical Christians sometimes observe a similar time of renewal and celebration. We call it revival, and like the Jewish fall feasts, it should be preceded by a very important event - repentance.

Repentance, the changing of our minds from our way to God's, prepares us to come before Him. David understood this as he penned Psalm 24. "Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart... He will receive blessing from the Lord." Before revival and renewal can take place in our lives, we need to be clean. God will reveal our sins and weaknesses so we can understand how we got to this place, and when our thinking is in line with His, He will begin His renewing work and show us how to proceed.  

Too many times I just want God to bless my mess. My calendar is full of good things and I want God to work within those to help me further His kingdom. And that's perfectly fine and right when He leads me in those good things, but if I want true revival and renewal, I need to be willing to lay all of those things at His feet and let Him sort through it.

I want to look at these four aspects of my life:

• Spiritual - the way I relate to God
• Physical - the way I care for my body
• Mental-Emotional - the things I think about
• Relational - the way I interact with others

I can put on a good "game face" and look like I have my act together and let me tell you, I am GOOD at it. But God sees behind the game face and knows what's strong and what's weak and what's duct-taped together with good intentions. What is amazing is that He loves for me to dump it all out before Him! Things like...

• I used to be diligent about memorizing scripture, but I'm slacking now.
• Cooler temps = warm food, and this time of year I have a weakness for anything that begins with "apple"!
• I used to read for pleasure. I can't remember the last "fun" book I read.
• Sometimes people get on my nerves. Sorry, but they do. There are times I'd rather do ANYTHING than go out, even clean my house!

Those are a few of the G-rated, superficial elements of my mess. Only He knows what lurks beneath the surface and I want Him to show me where my issues run deep. If I don't deal with those deep roots, they will surely send up more shoots and I'll have to keep dealing with the same kinds of things over and over!

So I will sit at His feet and pour out my heart. (This is a good time to brainstorm and keep a journal!) Then I will pray and ask Him to convict me of the sinful behavior I need to stop. And His Spirit will also reveal the need to cut out some good activity that's keeping me from something better. I'll prayerfully make those changes until I have the peace that I'm where He wants me to be. I won't get legalistic nor will I get lax, and I won't try to tackle every single issue I have and kill myself attempting to be perfect! But I WILL trust Him to give me the grace I need to work on the things that need to change right now.

Little by little He will transform my mess into something that is focused, Christ-like and God-centered. It won't look like what it did, but it's all good because the "old" needs to pass away so the "new" can come.

But it all starts with clean hands and pure hearts...

When Church Leaders Sin.

As long as we take breaths in this life, we will fall short of God’s standard for our lives. But when a popular pastor such as Bishop Eddie Long comes under fire, the whole Christian community is understandably shaken.

We look to our pastors and leaders to inspire us and set an example for us to follow, but often, because of their magnetic personalities or stately demeanors or stellar reputations, we put them on pedestals. And that is a dangerous thing, for them AND for us.

Christians understand the importance of placing our faith in God ALONE because He is the only One Who will never let us down. Each of us has issues and weaknesses in our lives and we all struggle against our flesh in one way or another. We constantly battle against desires, attitudes, and weaknesses so it’s important for us to guard against situations that could cause us to stumble or fall. All it takes is one slip up… just one weak moment in the wrong place at the wrong time… and the course of our life is forever altered.

King David is a great example of this, and the full account is in 2 Samuel 11-12. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and his weak moment not only led to his personal downfall, but set the stage for the entire nation of Israel to fall. His lust for the beautiful Bathsheba led to an adulterous affair, an unplanned pregnancy and then the death of one of his most dedicated warriors.

But David wasn’t alone in his deception. He sent someone to find out about her, then sent messengers to get her, then called on his commander Joab to help him in the cover-up. Because of David’s position as king, those men probably felt as though they had no choice but to obey his orders. God, however, knew how to get David’s attention. He sent the prophet Nathan.

Nathan courageously confronted David and his sin, and an interesting thing happened.

David confessed. David repented. David cried out to God and asked for forgiveness. He didn’t call a press conference and deny the allegations. He didn’t cover up the dirty details. He didn’t rally his advisors around him to defend his actions. David owned up to what he did and, even though there were far-reaching consequences of his sin, David was still blessed and honored by God. David was still a man after His Own heart (1 Sam 13:14).

WOW. After ALL OF THAT, God still blessed him (1 Chronicles 17) and allowed the second son born to him and Bathsheba to reign as king and build the temple that would house His presence. David’s house would be established forever, even though David committed grievous sins. But that’s how God is when we cry out to Him brokenness like David did in Psalm 51.

God will redeem everything we give to Him, but He won’t redeem anything we keep from Him. When we come to him in brokenness and humility, confessing and acknowledging our sin and repenting of it, God is faithful to forgive us and restore us to a right relationship with Him. Then we make it our goal to learn the hard lessons from the consequences of our sin, and to be restored and walk faithfully before Him.

Innocent or not, Bishop Long isn’t the first to be involved in a scandal and he certainly won’t be the last.  Any time a leader is accused of misconduct, it’s incumbent on the church leadership to investigate the allegations. After the investigation has taken place, whoever is in the wrong should be confronted and disciplined and the attitude they should have is one of contrition, humility and repentance. If they confess and allow the congregation to help with their restoration (and the goal of any church discipline must always be restoration), a great deal of healing can take place in both the life of the individual and in the body of believers.

It’s important to remind ourselves that evil is increasing in these last days. Satan knows his time is short so he is cranking up the pressure, especially on the Church. He isn’t omniscient but he is observant and he is crafty. He looks for our weaknesses and then tries to use them to exploit us. He can’t snatch us from God’s hand, but he can steal our joy and cause us to be ineffective IF we don’t guard against his schemes.

1 Peter 4:7 tells us “The end of all this is near. Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so you can pray.” He continues in chapter 5 telling us, ”Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering…”

Bottom line: our church leaders and pastors need our prayer! They have daunting tasks to begin with and it’s even more serious when you add the element of spiritual warfare! Here are some great verses to personalize:

• 1 Corinthians 10:13 – Lord, thank You that no temptation will come upon [leader] except what is common to man, and we thank You for Your great faithfulness – that [leader] won’t be tempted beyond what he/she can bear and that You will provide a way out for him/her. Please help [leader] to recognize that way out and walk through it!
• Colossians 1:10 – Lord, we ask You to help [leader] live a life worthy of You and to please You in every work: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of You.
• 2 Peter 3:14 – Lord, help [leader] make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with You.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, so dig into the Word and begin praying it for you and those you love! It's active and alive and sharper than any two-edged sword!!