Should time continue, our gospel meeting at the Archdale church of Christ in Charlotte begins tomorrow night, 2 September, 2012, at 6 p.m. It is entitled; "That Ye May Be Healed." We are making no political statement whatsoever. Our goal is to publicly preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to a city in the world spotlight this week as the DNC is holding its national convention here.
We do not call our gospel meetings "revivals." "Revivals" in the American tradition are public, contrived and staged events. They are dominated by various forms of religious entertainment and wild emotion. "Revivals" are events that attempt to manipulate a "reviving" of the collective heart and soul. Biblical revival, on the other hand, is a private, humiliating and mournful experience between an individual Christian and his / her God. The church is revived only when the individuals within Her bring their broken and contrite souls back to the Father begging Him to restore their spiritual lives. Biblical revival is a gift of restoration from the Heavenly Father to His ailing child.
Why is revival so urgently needed? Peter puts it very simply in I Peter 4.17 - 19:
1. Judgement begins at the House of God
2. The righteous will scarcely be saved
3. The ungodly and the sinner have no standing at the Judgement
I need reviving and you need reviving so that we, first as individuals and then as a congregation, will speak of God's amazing grace to the vast ocean of sinners around us every day.
Tomorrow morning we will study the revival of just one man, King Josiah, who by asking for and receiving God's revival kept an entire nation from destruction for 31 years! What will YOUR revival do? Or will you have one? The choice is yours. BE THERE! Our texts are from I Peter 4, Psalms 85 and II Chronicles 34. Read them ahead of time.
