All over the world people are making resolutions and promises, setting new goals and hopes for self-improvement.  Hopefully everybody can realize that growth and change are needed by us all.  Certainly, the Gospel of the Kingdom is about change!

But how one attempts the changes is very critical.  Hear Oswald Chambers on this subject:

"All our vows and resolutions end in denial because we have no power to carry them out."  (My Utmost for His Highest, Jan. 5)

"Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, according to Your word:
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, and the glory of Your people Israel."

And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.

And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, "Behold this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed - and a sword will pierce even your own soul - to the end that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed."  (Luke 2:29-35)

This is an incredible prophecy.  The appearance of baby Jesus in the temple created a prophetic swirl.  The Holy Spirit desires to unfold to us the Person and purposes of Christ.  And He does so on so many levels.  Consider the following profound truths revealed in just a moment in the temple:

1. The old man Simeon had been holding on to a promise from God that he would not die until he personally saw the Savior.  When Jesus arrived as an eight day old baby, Simeon was filled with joy and recognized God's gift.  The old man was able to die deeply satisfied and at peace.

2. Mary and Joseph already knew the Baby was special, but now God is faithful to give even more details.  Total strangers came up to them in the temple to tell them about the incredible destiny of the Child.  This added to the great joy they were already experiencing.

3. The prophet speaks about the pain and trouble that will come. The incredible joy of the moment is now tempered with the reality that the Child has a destiny to be rejected by men and to become the scapegoat for all of us.  His cruel murder will be witnessed by His mother.  God is so kind to already be preparing the woman for the challenges of the distant future.  Additionally, does Simeon exclude Joseph in these comments because he is not Jesus' real father or because Joseph will already have died before the troublesome events come to pass?  I think the latter is the case.  Mary is being warned ahead of time that she will face tremendous suffering and that without the comfort of her beloved husband.

I find that there is something in each of these prophetic facts that are applicable to each of us today as well.

1. God still speaks personal promises to His people.  The Bible is the story of God speaking personally to people through out the ages.  He is still a God who speaks to His people.  But be warned.  Be careful to always connect God's personal promises to you with His big promise in Christ.  If you separate the two you may find yourself disillusioned when inevitable troubles come or when the promise tarries.  God will make good all of His promises in the Person and work of His Son.  Never separate your experience from the great narrative of Christ.

2. The Holy Spirit always has more of the wonder and glory of Jesus to reveal to each of us and this is calculated to bring us unimaginable joy.  Don't settle for today's level of understanding only.  Expect God to unfold even more of His heart and His plans to you.  Revelation is progressive because the focus of revelation is an infinitely glorious Savior.  As we come to know Him more deeply our joy will equally increase.

3. Prepare for temporary suffering that always yields eternal joy.  "In this world you will have trouble", was a promise Jesus gave His disciples.  But He followed with,  "But be of good courage for I have overcome the world."  This is why everything that happens to us must be processed through the paradigm of the big story of Christ Jesus.  Yes, there are at times swords that pierce our souls and crosses that darken the way.  But every sorrow and every grave must give way to glorious resurrection for those who have trusted Christ.  Suffering helps us anticipate the future God has promised  and prepares us for that greater joy.  This is a reality greater than any earthly fact.

So in this season of reflecting upon the earthly birth of our Lord, let us remember that God is still revealing Himself to us through His Son today.  God is as real and present with us as He was with Mary and Joseph and the shepherds in the field.  But hold on to everything in this earthly realm loosely.  Suffering is bound to come to remind us that everything must soon give way to eternity's call.  Jesus has prepared the way for us.  He's waiting on the other side, insuring our safe passage.  

But the angel said to them, "Do  not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11)

The angels were excited to announce it.  The Promised One had arrived, a Savior for all people, Christ the Lord.  And what was the promised effect of this Good News?  Great joy.

This is so incredibly relevant to everyone.  You were created for joy.  God hard-wired you for it from the beginning.  The ancient Psalmist had tapped into this glorious reality when he penned,

In the presence of the Lord there is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures forever. (Ps 16:11)

The fullest possible joy is found in God's immediate presence.  And this is what was happening when Jesus appeared the first time on earth.  God's presence came to us when we could not and would not draw near to Him!

In His goodness and generosity, God has filled even this fallen world with a thousand lesser joys.  The joy of human love, of romance, of having children, of victories over injustice, of personal accomplishments, of medical breakthroughs...and on and on.  But these are always fleeting joys.  Because they relate to things that are destined to perish.  And in the perishing there is almost always sorrow.

But the joy that Jesus brings does not perish.  It knows no end in quantity or quality.

Years ago I was deeply entrenched in finding happiness only in the "lesser" gifts.  I was actually avoiding God's presence and running from the claims of Jesus.  Why did I run?  Because I believed I would be happier living my own way.  I was convinced that living independently (and defiantly) of God would result in a life of greater pleasure and happiness.  Like most people I simply removed God from the picture of my life.  But as time passed I begin to feel the emptiness.  My joys were shallow, fleeting, even disappointing.

Then God began drawing me back to Himself.  As I began to respond to Him I had to get honest about my life.  I was a good person by the world's standards.  But by biblical measures I was deeply compromised.  I knew there were sinful issues in my life.  It was in struggling through into the light in these areas that I learned a great lesson.

By holding onto sin I was forfeiting greater joy.

At one particular point in my journey God was dealing with me about my deep tendency to "spin the truth" to make myself look good in the eyes of other people.  God has another name for this: lying.  Why was that so hard to admit?  It was hard to admit it to myself and even harder to confess it to others.  During this season the Holy Spirit convicted me of lying to a man.  I knew the Lord wanted me to go to the man and confess that I had lied to him.  I felt miserable.  I wanted the sense of guilt to go away.  But God wanted me to trust Him and obey.  So finally I called the man and kind of confessed.  Actually I just spun the truth again - just a little less severe this time.  As I hung up the phone I felt sick!  I had called to confess a lie and had told another lie in the process!

Why was I so in bondage to fearing what this man would think?  Because I had for most of my life believed that it was critical to my own joy to have others think highly of me.  So I lived to impress people.  If they were impressed then I had a sense of accomplishment, of pleasure.  I felt like a winner.  But it was always a temporary euphoria.  So it is with every joy that is not coming from Jesus.

The Holy Spirit pressured me until I surrendered and called the man back again.  Even while dialing the phone my mind was giving me fits!  Thoughts were flooding my mind like, "If you just straight out tell him you lied he'll think you are an idiot.  He'll lose any confidence he has in you and think you are a big hypocrite."  I had to fight against my own thoughts until the man answered the phone.  At that point I made myself confess the sin in humility and truth: "I feel very embarrassed to be calling you again.  But the truth is that God has been dealing with my heart about how wrong it is to place other's opinions above God's opinion.  God has been dealing with me about misrepresenting the truth to you a while back.  I feel so bad about this, but I have lied to you on two occasions now.  I believe it is sin.  I believe God has forgiven me but I am calling to confess this to you and to ask you to forgive me as well."

The gentlemen was gracious and immediately expressed his forgiveness.  After a minute of small talk we hung up.  But I had not calculated what would happen next. 

No sooner had I hung up the phone that I was immediately overcome by a sense of God's manifest presence.  My soul was so filled up with a sense of joy that I began to weep.  It was like liquid love flooding my mind and feelings.  I found my heart and lips rising in praise to God: "Oh God, is this what I have been fighting against?  I have been avoiding this joy?  What a fool I have been.  Thank you Lord for enduring my pride and unbelief and for bringing me into this great joy." That was an incredible day.  It was a great lesson.  I have had many similar experiences through the years.

We were wired for joy.  Sin is an enemy to this joy, but incredibly deceptive.  Paul referred to sin as "the lusts of deception".

God's will is not an attack on your pleasure.  It is a mercy to free you from counterfeits and bring you into that which cannot be taken from you.

This is what Christmas means.  God has come to earth in the person of His Son - to restore us to His joy.

But will we come out of the shadows?  Will we trust Him?

 

"He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him..." John 1:11
"I was found by those who did not seek Me, I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me."  Romans 10:20

I am just back from a couple of weeks of ministry in southeast Asia.  It is always challenging, humbling, and therapeutic for me.  It  amazes me and bolsters my faith to learn how people who have lived their entire lives outside of the knowledge of Christ are finding Him and being transformed by His love and power!

During this trip I met a man who has now been a born-again Christian for four years.  He was born into a high caste Hindu family and was the only son.  As an adult he was a severe persecutor of Christians, often pursuing them from town to town.  He was an fanatic Hindu and a devotee of lord Rama and felt it his duty to cleanse India of these foreign influences.  But his life was slowly unraveling.  He experienced business failures, family breakdown, health problems, and a crisis in his faith system.  He could not find peace or hope in any of his Hindu rituals or gods and goddesses.  At last a Hindu priest said, "You must now seek the Living God.  He alone can help you."  But this man did not want to abandon Rama or his Hindu heritage.  One day he picked up a scrap of paper off the ground that had a verse from Luke's gospel on it.  Two days later he saw the same verse painted on the side of a wall in another town.  Feeling that this might be a heavenly sign he spoke to a Catholic nun telling her about all of his problems.  The nun told him that his only hope was to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.  He was very aware of his need but also very proud of his ancestral traditions.  He told the nun that he was willing to accept Jesus as "one of the gods" he worshiped, but that he would never allow Jesus to displace his Hindu gods.  The nun told him that Jesus would never share His glory with idols.

The man's desperation only increased after this.  One night he finally surrendered.  He prayed, "Jesus, if you are God alone and You care for me and can help me, I will serve You alone if you will come to me."  The man said that suddenly his room seemed to fill with light and a tangible presence of peace filled his heart and mind.  Jesus came to the man and he was instantly "born-again" .  He knew he was changed.  Suddenly the hopelessness was gone.  The fear was gone.  His entire outlook was changed.  He had met Jesus face to face.  All the other gods were dethroned. Now the man travels from town to town preaching openly that Jesus is the only path to salvation.

The amazing thing about this story is how little it had to do with preachers or religious rhetoric.  Jesus Christ pursued this man and  saved his soul.  The man had sought salvation and peace in various ways and through various faith pathways.  But none of them worked.  None of them removed the guilt he carried.  None of them lifted the pain, shame, and loneliness he felt.  But Jesus actually saved him.

Last week here in the States, I saw a television anchorman  interviewing a Christian pastor.  The interviewer was mocking the pastor's claim that Christianity is the exclusive path to real peace with God.  He read quotes from several contemporary "experts" who said that there were "many paths to God" and told the pastor that it was just close-minded to think that everyone must come to God through Jesus Christ.  That Jesus is just "one of many paths to God" is clearly the favored philosophy in our culture. People feel very self-righteous and self-sure about this belief.

Meanwhile our culture continues to slide into more and more violence and perversion and so-called Christians of this emasculated belief system live in shame and powerlessness but somehow go on denying it.  Materialism seems to be sufficient to numb the deceived mind of the American public, hiding the reality that such pseudo faith does not work.

Americans who live in a land where the gospel of Jesus Christ has been openly preached for several hundred years seem hard pressed to find Him.  But those who live in lands with little gospel light are finding Christ and gloriously being liberated from sin and hopelessness!  This seems counter-intuitive!  But it actually is a pattern we can see down through time.

The Jews in Jesus' day are an example of this pattern.  People with the longest exposure to the Truth are often the ones most hardened against it.  And God in His mercy is revealing Himself to people in our world with little or no former exposure to the gospel.  This shows us that salvation is exclusively God's business.  And God is exclusively revealed through Jesus Christ.  This is what Christmas and Advent are all about.  God has gone public in His Son Jesus Christ...alone. 

He will not share His glory with any other idol or philosophy.  This is the truth.  

(If you are interested in hearing more about this subject, click here to download an audio teaching.)

Brethren, even if someone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. (Galatians 6:1 NASBu)

If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for them that sin not unto death... (1 John 5:16 ASV)

One key characteristic of those who have truly met God is that they love the people of God.  John said that, "We know we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren...and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren..." (1 John 3:14,16) 

Sometimes love requires us to confront others who are caught in a pattern of sin.  We often fail to realize that this is one way Jesus "laid down His life" for us.  The Cross is not just a revelation of mercy.  It is God exposing sin in all it's wickedness.  When God confronts sin He is inclined toward mercy and desires restoration.  We see this in Christ's attitude and words from the Cross: "Father, forgive them..."  How different this is than the self-righteous criticism of a fault-finder!

Paul tells us that spiritually mature people have a responsibility to gently confront those caught in patterns of sin in hopes of restoring them to right-standing with God and His people.  John tells us that when we see other believers caught in sin that we should take up the task of intercession for them.

I find an amazing promise in John's command to pray for those who are caught in sin.  Did you see it in the second verse above?  John says that when someone prays for those caught in sin that "God will give him life for them..."  I have experienced this on many occasions.  So much so that I typically assume it is not God's leading to confront someone until I have been given life for them; that is, until I have experienced something of the Lord's love and power toward them.  This comes only by prayer.  The Holy Spirit will impart grace to you so that you know what to do.  He will give you His heart for that person and His wisdom for that person.  Only then do you truly know how to proceed.

One time a person spoke up during a church service and said something that was clearly not in keeping with the heart of God.  It was more the tone than the content that was off.  It felt out of order and seemed to place a damper on the meeting at that point.  It was obvious to me that the person spoke out of a rebellious heart and needed correction.  But the Lord would not let me do so at that point.  He seemed to say, "Wait."  So I continued to pray for that person, asking God to do a good work there.

A number of months later I had become a much closer friend to this family and they considered me their "pastor" by this point.  One evening at their dinner table this person began to express brokenness before the Lord and said, "Dane, my life seems so out of step with the Lord and I am unhappy.  If the Lord ever shows you something about me that needs addressing, you will tell me, won't you?"

What happened next can only be blamed on God.  There was a spontaneous flood of grace from within my heart toward that person.  I suddenly remembered the problem that had occurred almost a year earlier.  It was obvious that this sin was an ingrained pattern in this person.  I was able to gently but directly address the issue that evening after dinner.  There was sweet grace all around and this person repented and prayed to God and experienced real restoration and refreshing from God.  This kind of result cannot happen without God's Spirit being in full control.

Sadly, ministry does not always have such a happy ending.  John tells us that there is a "sin unto death" and that we are not to pray about this.  Sometimes people have hardened their hearts and will not receive correction.  They will not humble themselves.  They will not admit their sin.  God does not restore unrepentant people to Himself.

So let us purpose to be believers that faithfully pray for others, desiring to see them draw nearer to the Lord, being even willing to confront should the Lord lead.  But let us also be willing to accept correction from those who love us enough to confront us with the truth.  Amen.

J. Lee Grady of Charisma Magazine reports about the ongoing persecution against Christians in the southeastern Indian state of Orissa. 

What we are witnessing in India today is the unraveling of a vile system of oppression. And our brothers and sisters there are paying a high price for their newfound spiritual freedom.

Radical Hindus believe that keeping Dalits at the bottom of the social structure is a fundamental part of their religion. It is the Indian way—and members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other radical Hindu groups are proving today that they will kill and maim people and destroy property in order to keep their religion dominant.

My good friend Sujo John, an Indian evangelist who lives in the United States, says the attacks in Orissa and Karnataka are a clear attempt to silence Christians.

Says John: "In the last 12 years there has been an incredible surge of Christianity in India. It was very silent at first, but now the people who control the social culture realize that Christians are emerging in society. [Some radical Hindus] feel they are going to lose the culture. So they are twisting the laws. In some places they have banned conversion, and many are engaging in violence."

Click here to go to Grady's article.

Today I am grieving the loss of a dear friend, Bill B. Hart, of Eastland, Texas. Bill was a founding board member of First Fruits Ministries and served until his death on September 14, 2008.

Bill’s accomplishments in life were many. From being a decorated Air Force pilot in WWII, to serving as a County Judge and City attorney, to teaching Sunday School and singing in the church choir. He was a faithful husband and a loving father. Though 85 years old, Bill was still practicing law and going to the office daily. Bill never talked about his military exploits or his career accomplishments. Each time we visited he had only two passions. He loved God and was serious about God’s interests. And Bill loved his wife and family and was always watching over their souls in prayer. I don’t think there was a time that I went to his office that he did not ask me to pray with him for his family.

Bill impacted my life in many ways. His passion for God, his expectation of the power of God, and his love for people have marked me. I cannot count the times I sat in his office and listened to him recount the most recent providential encounters he had had with people he was able to share Christ with. He saw his Law office as a missionary field and regularly counseled and prayed with his clients. He was intentional about this. He believed the gospel and he believed that all people need Christ. His life clearly proved his faith.

I have such a profound sense of loss today.

I think it is rare to have such a close friend who is more than 40 years your senior. I respected Bill’s wisdom and experience, but he also respected mine. We were close friends who shared our secret struggles and fears with each other.

Sometimes you don’t realize how much another person has impacted your life until they are gone. I hope you have or have had such a friend and brother in the Lord as I did in Bill. And I hope that you are seeking to be such a person to others.

I pray to God that regardless of how long I live, that there will be men 40 years younger than me who feel the weight of the impact of my life when I’m gone. Our prayers and thoughts go out to Bill’s darling wife, Gaye. She is a true specimen of grace! Her character and faith were shining like the sun at the funeral last week.

My friends, only Jesus can produce lives like these. If we want our lives to mean something and to really carry an eternal weight of glory, then we must be passionate about loving and following Jesus - like Bill Hart. May he rest in peace.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what Idesire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

The season for watermelons is all but over around here.  Yesterday at the grocery store the only watermelons they had were the little "personal" watermelons.  I was amazed as I read the label stuck to the outside:  "Your personal melon...may contain an occasional seed..."

Anybody who loves to eat watermelon (like me) knows that it is definitely more convenient to eat the seedless kind!  No picking out or spitting seeds!  You can eat it fast and free.  It is definitely convenient.  And we're all into convenience, aren't we?

But seedless fruit is terminal.

God created the watermelon to produce seed after its own kind. That means that encoded in the DNA is the capacity and expectancy to reproduce.  Our genetic engineers have conveniently tweaked the DNA to remove the bothersome seeds.  We now can enjoy fruit with absolutely no concern or plans for future generations or harvests.  Somebody else can bother with reproduction.

Seedless fruit is one-generational.

Can a Christian or church be of the seedless variety?  In reality, no.  But in philosophy and practice, yes!  Businesses and organizations can also be seedless.  Perhaps a more accurate way of describing it would be that of "eating all your seed".  It is quite possible that today's successes and harvests can blind us to the reality that we are consuming all of our seed.  We are not intentionally setting aside top quality seed for planting to secure future harvests.  When we use all our resources for our present needs and no longer consider the responsibility to reach out and multiply, then we are eating all of our seed.

God through Isaiah said that when His word is at work in our lives that there will definitely be both "seed for the sower" and "bread for the eater."  A church that focuses only on "bread for the eaters" will sooner or later succumb to death.  If we seek to keep all of the people we attract and use them for our "personal" in-house needs, then we've abandoned the vital role of sending, planting, and multiplying.

I call this the Esau-mentality.  Esau gave up his birthright for immediate gratification.  He had a pressing need.  And he sacrificed the wonderful opportunity to contribute seed to the eternal purposes of God!  He could have been the father of the Jewish nation!  He could have been a progenitor of the Lord Jesus Christ!

But the Bible says that he "despised his birthright".  He consumed all his resources on himself.  He was terminal.

And this is what God says about it:  "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."

Let's stop consuming all of our seed.  It's time to invest in God's larger purposes. 

You've probaby already seen this stuff all over the web and tv:

Wasila, Alaska (CNN) -- For more than two decades, vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was a practicing Pentecostal.

Sarah Palin asked church members to pray for $30 billion natural gas pipeline in Alaska.

 She belonged to the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. But though she attended the church from her teenage years to 2002, the Alaska governor hasn't talked much about her religion since joining the Republican ticket.

Palin's former pastor, Tim McGraw, says that like many Pentecostal churches, some members speak in tongues, although he says he's never seen Palin do so. Church member Caroline Spangler told CNN, "When the spirit comes on you, you utter things that nobody else can understand ... only God can understand what is coming out of our mouths."

Some Pentecostals from Assembly of God also believe in "faith healing" and the "end times" -- a violent upheaval that they believe will deliver Jesus Christ's second coming....

The McCain campaign says the governor doesn't consider herself Pentecostal.


So there it is.  Better keep your eye on her.  She might speak in tongues. (Though no one has actually seen her do it - thank God).  Sure glad the Apostles Peter and Paul didn't try to run for political office!  Those guys even raised the dead.  Talk about faith healing.

Let's face it: the supernatural claims of the Bible are laughed at by mainstream political society today.

However, if you are a true Christian, by biblical definition that is, then you believe that not only did a man, Jesus Christ, die on the Cross for your sins, but that God raised this man from the dead and he is now sitting on an actual throne in heaven, in a glorified human body, and He will come to earth again and judge everyone.  Whoa.

That's what real Christians believe.  That's pretty much supernatural, don't you think?

Don't apologize for it Gov. Palin.  It'd be better to keep your testimony than to sit in the Whitehouse.  Maybe it's possible to do both.  We'll see.

"Therefore, repent and return to God, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." (Acts 3:19)

We had a flat on the van yesterday morning before leaving for church.  Life seems to be filled with little hindrances!  Before I could change the tire, I had to remove several boxes of stuff in the back of the van so I could get to the tire tools and spare. 

In a similar way, to get to the place of worship there are almost always moral and spiritual issues and hindrances that need to be effectively dealt with.  Later, during the worship service, we sang the song, "Prepare the way for our Redeemer...Make ready your heart, make ready your home, make ready the people of God...Prepare the way!"  While singing I was struck by the fact that there is a divinely ordered protocol to experiencing the presence of the Lord in true worship.  He has set the rules for approaching Him! I had the sense that there were many people in our midst whose hearts were not prepared.  They were attempting to worship Jesus without submitting to the divine protocol. 

It's like we want to worship God but try to bypass the fact that there are spiritual flat tires and boxes of clutter in the way.  We hope that we can sing for a while and feel God' presence and then move on...without dealing with the stuff.  I think that this is what often happens in the setting of "corporate" worship.  Many people feel the "glow" of group worship, experiencing some level of release and peace, all the while sidestepping the fact that their consciences are not truly clear before God.  They have been rude and unkind to people in the preceding week.  They have sinned in their thoughts.  They have lusted, lied, or been jealous or spiritually lazy.  But they have not truly acknowledged this.  They may have even yelled at their wife or kids on the way to church!  And now they are standing in the sanctuary desiring to worship God.  But they try to do so without addressing the need of repentance and cleansing from sin!

Worship can be spontaneous and easy if the heart has been set right with God.  A heart that has humbly acknowledged and repudiated it's own evil, can easily receive the times of refreshing from God's presence.  The gentle dove of the Holy Spirit bears witness to the humble and believing soul.  But the hard heart that refuses to deeply recognize it's sin has to really work hard at producing the emotions of worship.  And I wonder if these emotions are truly spiritual.

I'll never forget when a casual church attender named Claire walked into church one Sunday.  Her face seemed to be glowing.  It was so obvious that she was experiencing something of the presence of the Lord even before "church" started.  I commented on what I saw.  She answered by telling me how she had met God in a new way a few nights before.  In a nutshell, here's what happened.  She had been keeping her sin bottled-up inside.  She was not really wanting to acknowledge and confess her many sin issues to God, being content to blame others and hide behind self-justifications.  But she had been becoming increasingly miserable in her overall life.  Finally one sleepless night she crawled out of bed and got on her knees and started acknowledging her sin to God.  One by one she confessed her sins.  Every sin that popped into her mind she openly and even verbally confessed and renounced before God.  She said this went on for ten to fifteen minutes until she could think of nothing more.  At that point she said there was an amazing peace.  She had "prepared the way of the Lord" through repentance.

What happened next blew her away.  She said that it was like the roof of her apartment was removed and God's glory came down in her bedroom.  She was instantaneously filled with a joy so full that she wanted to jump and shout.  And this lady was NOT a Pentecostal and had never been around overly emotional expressions of worship.  To keep from waking the children she went outside in the middle of the night and actually verbally expressed her spontaneous praises to God as tears of joy streamed down her face.  Times of refreshing had come from the presence of the Lord. The Holy Spirit was bearing witness to her spirit.

Sunday after Sunday I greet people coming to worship.  I see on their faces that they are morally compromised.   Some have been arguing with their spouses on the way to church.  Some are full of resentment and unforgiveness toward family members or coworkers.  Others have compromised their integrity by viewing inappropriate things on the internet.  Our sins are too numerous to list here.  The good news is that Jesus came to save sinners!  But the bad news is that you have to own your sin.  You have to admit it, confess it to God, and call it what He calls it.  This is how we "return to the Lord." But the reward for truly returning to God is worth it all! And don't thing that this is just for people who have not really met Jesus yet.  This is a spiritual discipline that even the oldest saints need to practice regularly.

Have you ever experienced times of refreshing from the Lord after a time of repentance?  I'd love to hear about your experience.  Drop me a note.