Bible reflections with Bryan
It is perhaps aside from the atrocities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Grisliest events to occur in the Old Testament. The story I am referring to unfolds in the times of the judges, a time when every man did what was right in his sight (Judges 21:25).
In Judges chapter nineteen we run into a priest that is courting a concubine. (No this is not a bad joke). This priest was dating a prostitute!
One day they got into a lover’s quarrel, and she ran off with strangers and ended up at her dads house. The lovesick priest found her after a brief search in hopes that they could make amends.
What the priest didn’t count on was her dad kept coming up with excuses to make them stay. Finally, after some time, the priest got his mistress from her Father’s house. The day was almost gone, and the priest decided they would get a hotel in Gibeah. What the priest didn’t know is Gibeah was so corrupt that the Grammys Twenty Twenty-Three show looked acceptable to this town.
An older Gentlemen that lived in that town knew its dangers and implored the couple to come into his house for safety. No sooner did they start to unload their suitcase, a sound was afoot outside ... a riot had started, and a bunch of men wanted to rape the mistress and the priest!
The older man hosting them offered his daughter to the mob instead .. about that time the priest pulled the old man and his daughter inside the house and flung his mistress into this throng of vicious predators. She was abused and raped all night. At dawn she stumbled towards the very place she had been cast out of.
With every step she struggled to the doorsteps of the house. Nothing would ever erase the memory of what was done to her, but at least this night…she thought to herself will be a terror that’s behind me. As she inched closer to the door, the shock that had been hiding the pain from her wounds wore off and she begin to feel her mortal wounds. One more step and a final breath of oxygen left her lungs, and she fell dead. with her hand on the doorstep.
In her final moments, she could smell the bread baking, but she would never eat it again … she could see glasses of water, but she would never take another sip of it.
There was a bed for her in the house, but she would never lay in it again. she died at the door of Revival. How many have died at the door of Revival in our community?
There are many reasons why revival can be missed. Maybe its because of apathy, carnality or maybe the most disgusting reasons of all, an overall satisfaction with the current backslidden climate.
Let me speak freely though, there is a remnant like myself that has had it with regular dryer than cracker juice church services. we want revival!
THE VERGE OF REVIVAL
In John chapter five we see a man who had spent thirty-eight years surrounded by a pool of Invalids at a place called Bethesda.
Once a year, an angel would come down and trouble the waters of the pool. For thirty-eight years, this cripple had tried with all his might to get to the pool, but every time someone else beat him to it.
He was on the verge of revival but not close enough. The Church has spent many years in prayer in our serviced praying our way to the verge of revival yet coming short of jumping into the troubled water.
One day, the crippled man tried again to no avail to reach the water. He had missed the angel of revival again. As he lay there in utter despair, his eyes become to catch the glimpse of a bearded figure standing over him.
As his vision cleared, and eyes came into focus Jesus stood before him and reached out his hand and helped this man from the verge of personal revival to the walking with legs that previously didn’t work into personal revival.
THE VICINITY OF REVIVAL
In Acts chapter three we meet a young man with a twisted spine who hasn’t walked in forty years. His only income was to come to the gate called beautiful to beg for money.
One day at the three o clock services conclusion Peter and John saw him and said; every day you are in the vicinity of revival, now let us help you walk into revival. in the name of Jesus of Nazareth get up and walk!
The man leaped to his feet, leaping, dancing and praising God. The results are scores of people got saved because of this man walking from the vicinity of revival into personal revival.
Back to our earlier visual of the woman dying at the door of revival, my question to you is will you, as our backslidden Christian universities, also stop God from pouring out his spirit in your church? Will you die at the door of revival or thrive at the door of revival?
God is moving and ready to pour out his spirit, are you ready to receive?