Why I haven't blogged in a month

It's not that I've been overly busy, I just haven't had anything profound to say. Now after a month, I'm finally breaking the silence. So what profound, deep thought have I thought that is worthy of blogging? Well, let me think, I'm sure I'll come up with something. . .

OK. Here's a try:

Lamentations 4. Have you read that chapter lately? I encourage you to open up your Bible and just glance through the descriptions of what a fallen nation looks like. Here's a sampling. . . "Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps." "Her princes were purer than snow. . .now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones." "The hands of compassionate women have boiled their children; they became their food. . ."

As I read these verses earlier this week I let my mind go a bit, and wondered what God has in store for our nation. From our nation's beginnings, where faith in God was assumed, we have come a long way. I don't know where the slide will end, but I pray that we don't get to where Israel was when these verses were written.

So what keeps us from it? Is it our economy? :) Is it our educational system? :) Maybe our strong morality? :)

The truth is, the only obstacle between our nation and the horrors described in Lamentations is the church. When I say the church, I mean the people who love and follow Jesus. We are the ones holding back calamity like an army of little boys with our fingers in a leaky dike. But if all we do is plug the dike, we will lose the battle. Someone has to start rebuilding what is broken. Either we see God's kingdom advance, or our nation falls into utter collapse. Revival is the only option.

So I challenge you to hear the words of Jesus, "Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers." Are you working? Are you diligently, passionately seeking Jesus and living to advance his purposes on the earth, or are you distracted? I meet people, almost daily who are desperate for hope. My neighbor has cancer in his 40s. My friend hates her husband and wants to leave him. Another friend loves her spouse but hopes against hope that he will wake up. My pastor friend just got tired of being married and left. My other friend is addicted to alcohol. Today I told my Buddhist friend about Jesus, but he didn't care. I could go on, but I'm sure you could insert your own list also.

I know I can't save the world, but Jesus can. I've started telling people about Him again. I'm less afraid than I used to be to go up to strangers and just flat out share the gospel. I was timid before, thinking I wanted to be appropriate and leave a good impression. I'm noticing that I can't give most people a worse impression than they already have.

If you love Jesus, you are weird. You aren't like the people living in your city, or even your neighborhood. And when the day comes when we find our mothers boiling their babies for food, I pray that you will be able to say, "I tried. I prayed for revival. I loved my neighbor. I followed the King to the highways and byways to bring in the lost. I didn't hide my light under a bushel."

That may sound melodramatic. Maybe it is. But I have come to believe that revival is not just a neat idea. It wouldn't just be cool if people got saved so I could have neat stories to tell. The truth is that if we don't have revival, it won't be long before we cannot bear to look at the scene outside our windows. And those of us who are paying attention are already starting to cringe at the scene we see now. So embrace the only option we have left and go for Revival or Bust! As for me and my family, we're not seeing it yet, but we're praying for strength to fight the fight of faith until our Master takes us out of the battle.