For many in the community, this week will be revival time-a time to worship with each other from several of the churches of the community. I would say we need spiritual revival in our personal lives. It is easy to become so involved in the every day whirl of our busy lives that we neglect the spiritual aspect of life.
We need revival to turn the latent power of the church into a spiritual dynamo for Christ in such a way everyone will sense a need for Him. Too many seek Christ because they want to go to heaven when this life is over rather than to love Him, honor Him and serve Him with gladness of heart. I'll admit, when I accepted Christ as my savior, I had no idea what it would mean to me. I certainly did not expect to spend the major part of my life preaching the Gospel, ministering to churches and the needs of people, especially their spiritual needs.
We need revival of our personal spiritual life for it is so easy to get into a spiritual rut. As the prophet Amos warned God's people in his day, "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion"-trusting in a one time confession of faith but not following through with love and service to the Lord.
We need a revival of a deeper sense of reverence for God and respect for His commandments. (Maybe we could close our jail.)
We need revival to restore a greater moral sense in our society.
We need a revival of a sense of mission that characterized the first century church. We must not be "saved and satisfied." We must be concerned about bringing everyone to know and to love our Lord.
I believe God is anxiously waiting to give us lasting spiritual revival, not just an emotional stirring of our spirit for a few days, if and when we open our mind to God's word, our heart to His love and our life to the Holy Spirit to indwell our life.
We will experience personal revival if we can catch a new vision of the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ, our savior, as seen by Peter, James and John on the Mountain of Transfiguration when the glory of His Deity broke through the veil of flesh.