Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
Ah – that is us after a good sleep – that is my morning time with God – God is saying “Don’t neglect the real reason you are still on this earth: to help others get to know Me better.” Ah… That’s why we are here: to love God, to know God loves us, and to make Him known to a broken world. Jesus jumpstarts our journeys – let’s ride with the Lord.
“WHY CAN’T WE HAVE A REVIVAL?” – that’s what the sweet, gentle but direct statement was – by a woman recently at a public church meeting for one of my churches. I don’t know personally if people have the energy to plan one. I know agendas change in life. I’ve heard of these REVIVAL celebrations before, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to one. (that is something isn’t it – 50 years my age and never been to a revival tent – and yet there are concerts and great potlucks – and the like – and YES, CHURCH SERVICES and RETREAT WALKS which deliver the crucial scriptures into our lives. But what about that “revival” of old? Is it gone like the ice cream socials? melted away?
Are we as a Christian nation like Hezekiah thinking he was dying but not wanting to die (Isaiah 38:18-20: “For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living—they praise you, as I am doing today; parents tell their children about your faithfulness. The Lord will save me, and we will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the Lord.”
Why can’t we just get out there and sing and preach and fill the tent or pavilion? I don’t know, I guess we just aren’t in that mode. We need to be. God bless those who are! Hopefully we do tell our children of God’s faithfulness. Wouldn’t it be so cool if everyone did. Wouldn’t it be so cool to have a summer revival tent event? Perhaps we are to focus on those events within our means these days and yet if thousands of people can gather for a sporting event, where are we lacking ideas for revival tents? I know vacation bible school is fairly close to the celebration feeling, but not exactly what REVIVAL meetings in the old days were – but maybe…. Music festivals I have heard about, used to be a great youth camping and support system experience, before the pandemic, but not active now. A Tent Meeting REVIVAL was a big thing of the past 200 years, I’ve seen one precious “permanent” one near the shore, but I guess people aren’t campers much anymore. Oh how we really should simply camp out with the Lord in our own closed bedrooms and listen. Oh how we should get out there to His people after that…
We need a REVIVAL – That is also what God says, and He’s got one planned post the RAPTURE, maybe before, so I wonder if we aren’t planning one now ourselves, HOW CAN WE HELP WITH HIS? – God’s Heavens are our tent for revival: “He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.”
I have a couple ideas for a Rapture-Remnant-REVIVAL-Recipe, to prepare ahead of time, because we caught up in the sky won’t be able to start the oven. But we can leave the ingredients in the fridge with instructions. Here’s a sample recipe: One, buy bibles and leave them in multiple places. Two: mark passages in the bibles for direct passages to help people understand what happened, mark passages for them to have Jesus at their fingertips. I even have an idea for sticky note tape flags preprinted that we open these bibles and flag exact spots with notes. I would love someone or a Christian Publishing company to run with that. We could make our own too. Here’s a couple for the REVIVAL-Remnant-Recipe (please let me know more in replying for some others and perhaps we can make that list):
Matthew 10:16 – Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
Ah… That IS a great verse – that’s like what I heard from that sweet woman asking “Why can’t we have a revival?!” That was Holy Spirit itching and scratching in her. She spoke innocently like a Dove. Yet, she showed both sheep-following to our Lord, but spoke shrewd truth – ‘why can’t we have a REVIVAL?’ Let’s not be wolves of our own time on earth. The Lord will renew our strength – let us look to HIM.
Lord, help us help you. AMEN!
Where are my sticky notes?
Amen!
—
Isaiah 36-39 is great storyline of God and Hezekiah and Isaiah
Isaiah 40 is strength for Jerusalem and for us all. – BIG STICKY NOTE GOING HERE!
Comfort for God’s People
Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord,
or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?
Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
Before him all the nations are as nothing;
they are regarded by him as worthless
and less than nothing.
With whom, then, will you compare God?
To what image will you liken him?
As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and fashions silver chains for it.
A person too poor to present such an offering
selects wood that will not rot;
they look for a skilled worker
to set up an idol that will not topple.
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
“To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Debbie Upper 