Independence Day 2025

 Independence Day

July 4, 2025

Psalms 33:8 (NASB95) Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

Psalms 33:12 (NASB95) Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.

“And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God ... and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

Abraham Lincoln

Happy Birthday, America! Today we celebrate “One nation, under God, indivisible…” , but in a time when there are forces that are trying to divide us. We are in a similar time to those in which Abraham Lincoln lived. (I was born in the land of Lincoln, so always like to quote good ole’ Abe.) In the time of the Civil War, there were those on both sides who quoted scripture and claimed that God was on their side. When someone asked President Lincoln if he believed that the North was on God’s side, he replied "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right." ~ Abraham Lincoln

In this simple saying, he highlighted the true issue; are we striving to be on God’s side? At another time, he quoted Psalm 33 which says that the nation is blessed who's God is the Lord. The Lord made the nations and is God of the whole earth, but He only will bless a nation who acknowledges Him. The answer for our nation’s revitalization is for a spiritual revival in which the people return to the Lord and call upon Him. When the people repent, and cease to call for the Lord to be on their side, but acknowledge their sin and strive to be on the Lord’s side, then peace can come. The forces of the evil one strive to foment civil war, strife and division, but if we as a people return to the Lord, he will bring peace, prosperity and reconciliation. 

So today, as we celebrate the birthday of America, let us call upon God, the Lord of all the nations, to bless America, because we, as a people, are calling upon Him to be a people worth blessing. Cease striving and know that I am God. When we repent, and call upon Him, He will hear from heaven and heal our land.

Revive us Again

 Revive us Again

 March 29, 2025

Psalms 85:6-13

6 Will You not Yourself revive us again,

That Your people may rejoice in You?

7 Show us Your lovingkindness, O LORD,

And grant us Your salvation.

8 I will hear what God the LORD will say;

For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones;

But let them not turn back to folly.

9 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him,

That glory may dwell in our land.

10 Lovingkindness and truth have met together;

Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11 Truth springs from the earth,

And righteousness looks down from heaven.

12 Indeed, the LORD will give what is good,

And our land will yield its produce.

13 Righteousness will go before Him

And will make His footsteps into a way.

Revival and peace. How are they related? The psalmist lays it out in Psalm 85. He calls out the the Lord, “revive us again”, and then lists all the benefits that follow: rejoicing, loving kindness (mercy), salvation, peace, glory, truth, righteousness and fruitfulness. That’s quite a list! So Lord, revive us again. We need you, the church needs you and our nation needs you, and we need to see all the fruits that follow revival.  It first, we need to seek You. When we find You and you revive our spirits, then we can have righteousness, truth and peace. 

The World has Yet to See…

 The World has Yet to See…

November 14, 2024

In 2021, Dr. Michael Brown published a book called “Revival or We Die”. In this book, Dr. Brown recounts the history of revivals in America and lays out the requirements to bring on a new revival. In the last chapter, he tells the story of Dwight.L. Moody. In 1982, Moody went to Ireland and met a British revivalist named Henry Varley. The two men met in a Baptist Church one afternoon and the British pastor encouraged the young American preacher. Varley says he didn’t remember the exact words, but the message that Moody heard was “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him.” on his voyage back to America, Moody vowed “By God’s help, I aim to be that man.” And the rest is history, as they say.

Moody went on to become one of the greatest evangelists of that age and preached a message that transformed many lives in Chicago. He started a Sunday school to reach the children and founded a church in Chicago. He started some schools which eventually became the Moody Bible Institute.  His influence reached to the far corners of the world as missionaries sent from his church went to China and other countries. It is even said that President Dwight Eisenhower was named after him. Also, within  a decade of the Moody revival in Chicago, slavery was abolished in America.

Any generation that wants to see revival needs a man such as D.L. Moody who is fully dedicated to God. And I’m not saying it has to be a man. Two elderly ladies, one of which was blind, prayed in the Hebrides Revival (1949-1952). They prayed until the Spirit moved and Duncan Campbell was called to preach. When he preached, the Spirit of conviction was so strong that huge numbers of people fell to their knees on the church grounds, not even making it into the building for the alter call! And it all started by two women in their 80s who prayed until the Lord moved.

So what can the Lord do today with a man (or woman) fully consecrated to God? We see some signs already on the college campuses, so let us continue to pray until the Lord moves and revival comes to our land.

Revive Us Again

 Revive us Again

November 13, 2024

Psalms 85:6

6 Will You not Yourself revive us again,

That Your people may rejoice in You?

Last Sunday, our pastor preached a message entitled “Revive us Again”. It is certainly a timely message for today. He talked a out the attributes of a true revival and gave a parable about how to cultivate a revival like he cultivates his lawn. I would like to take a little different take on the subject and look at current events in the light of the need for a new revival.

Many of us are happy with the results of the recent election and are looking forward to a revival of the American spirit, but this is not the revival I’m talking about. When Barak Obama came into office, he popularized the phrase “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” He wasn’t the one, and neither is President Trump. President Obama brought in great changes, but they were neither good for the country nor for the spiritual life of the people. He ushered in a transformation of America, but it was a woke mind virus that contaminated the soul of the nation. There is great hope that President Trump will make America great again (MAGA), and usher in a new age of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” And I do pray that this happens, but that is not the revival that we need.

I am hopeful that a MAGA revolution will help the people start to be freed from the woke mind virus and begin to seek the Lord. Our educational system, entertainment conglomerates and pharmaceutical industry have conditioned the people not to think in spiritual terms (or not to think at all in some cases!). They have spread the woke mind virus making it difficult for the people to even imagine the there is hope in anything except the government and the New World Order. If the MAGA movement begins to loosen those bond over the mind of the people, then perhaps that will help usher in the true revival that we need.

What America, and indeed the world needs, is a revival of faith, hope and love. An infusion of the Holy Spirit to bring million of people to a closer walk with Jesus. I have experience some recent revivals, some greater and some lesser. I was saved during the Jesus Movement and Charismatic Renewal of the 60’s and 70’s. Huge numbers of young people came to faith in Christ at that time and it transformed society in many ways. Staid old line churches had to open up to barefoot hippies with guitars and new ways of worshiping the Lord. As they began to marry and have children, this transformed the family life in many communities. I think it even lead to the economic boom under President Reagan in the 80’s. A true revival transforms hearts and transforms communities.

A somewhat lesser revival was the Brownsville revival in the late 90’s. The impact was not as widespread as the Jesus Revolution, but still very many people were saved and many went into ministry and some went to the mission field. I have friends that were touched by that revival that are still in ministry today.

So, I’m glad that there is a political movement to Make America Great Again, but what I really pray for is that we make the church alive again. The church, which is Gods’ people, need to wake up and pray for revival. We especially need to reach out to the young people who have been disillusioned and disappointed by events of recent times and help them to find faith, hope and love. As Andre Crouch used to sing, “Jesus is the answer for the world today.” It was true then and it’s true now. God Bless America!