For those who are still checking this site, I just published a new post on my WordPress site, Zechariah821...

http://zechariah821.wordpress.com/2014/12/24/to-know-him-both-in-his-estate-of-humiliation-and-exaltation/

To commemorate the 440th anniversary of John Knox's death, November 24, 1572 ...

In "The Puritan Hope" (Banner of Truth Trust, 1971), Iain Murray writes:

    The commencement of the Reformation in England and Scotland was marked by a thirst for Scripture among the people. Tyndale's version of the New Testament circulated in both realms from 1526 onwards and soon a train of preachers appeared, at first small in number, whose ministry was attended by effects which had not been commonly seen for many long centuries. Of George Wishart, the Scottish reformer, martyred in 1546, we have this account of his open-air preaching: 'He came to a dyke in a moor edge, upon the south-west side of Mauchline, upon the which he ascended. The whole multitude stood and sat about him (God gave the day pleasing and hot). He continued in preaching more than three hours. In that sermon God wrought so wonderfully with him that one of the most wicked men that was in that country, named Laurence Rankin, laird of Shiel, was converted. The tears ran from his eyes in such abundance that all men wondered. His conversion was without hypocrisy, for his life and conversation witnessed it in all times to come.¹

    Scenes like this were soon to become common in the northern kingdom. In May, 1556, John Knox, running the gauntlet of the Catholic powers who still controlled the country, preached for ten consecutive days in Edinburgh. When he returned to Scotland again, in 1559, the spiritual revival became general. 'God did so multiply our number', Knox writes of the growth of the Protestant cause, 'that it appeared as if men had rained from the clouds.'² In a letter to an English friend written on June 23, 1559, he says: 'Now, forty days and more, hath my God used  my tongue in my native country, to the manifestation of His glory. Whatsoever now shall follow, as touching my own carcass, His holy name be praised. The thirst of the poor people, as well as of the nobility here, is wondrous great, which putteth me in comfort that Christ Jesus shall triumph for a space here, in the north and extreme parts of the earth."³

Reading about the history of the Church serves a reality check for us. It's far too easy each one of us to lapse into a lukewarm, lethargic complacency about the state of Christianity.

It's true that we're not to despise the day of small things (Zech. 4:10), and yet we should recognize that here in the west we currently are in the midst of such days, and we ought to be in earnest prayer that the Lord might be gracious to us and send to us such times of refreshing as were experienced during the Protestant Reformation. Until men rain once again from the clouds, may God's Holy Spirit strengthen us to be importunate in prayer, to plead day and night like the widow whom our Lord commended in Luke 18. That very commendation serves as Jesus' clear instruction and exhortation to each one of us that vigilance in prayer is a mark of genuine faith – that such prayer is not intended for a certain few, but for all the saints. May our Lord find us faithful in prayer for the reformation and reviving of His Church, for the praise and glory of His name among all the nations.

Luke 18:1  And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2  He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3  And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4  For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6  And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7  And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?, Will he delay long over them? 8  I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

¹ John Knox, "History of the Reformation in Scotland," edited by William Croft Dickinson, 1949, Vol. 1, 62.

² Quoted by Jasper Ridley, "John Knox," 1968.

³ Ibid., 327.

Photo credit: Work found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Knox_statue,_Haddington.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0

Mark 11:15  And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16  And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17  And he was teaching them and saying to them, “IS IT NOT WRITTEN, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

Most of us are familiar with this account of Jesus' grief over and rebuke of the state of temple worship. It's also repeated in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, but I really like the phrasing here:

Do you see where Israel had gone wrong?

They had not taken heed to what was written.

Is this not the Godhead's very same loving plea to His Church, His people, today:

This has been our God's merciful and gracious call to His people at all times, including those times when the Church has been in decline and is in sore need of reformation. Is it not His call to His people today as in so many places we have lost our way for we have discounted, marginalized and minimized the word of God, we have not guarded the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have not been vigilant and we have allowed error and heresies and evil men and impostors to creep in and grow and deceive and overthrow the faith of some. We have neglected to take heed to what has been written – God's very own words breathed out to us through His Holy Spirit. His words have been preserved for us for our daily sustenance as we live the Christian life in a fallen world and as we are sent out on mission to take the Gospel of repentance and remission of sins to lost souls in all the nations to the end of the earth.

Church of God, may our God have mercy on us and open our ears to ear what the Spirit is saying to us:

As we have played God and usurped God's rightful place in our attempts to try to grow and restore and renew the Church by relying on our own abilities and resources, as we have gone in seek of help to any and all places but to God Himself and His word, may our God be kind to us and lead us to repentance and turn us away from ourselves and our ways and turn us once again to Him and His word.

We have relied on the schemes and wisdom and power and strength of men. We have often gone so far astray from the Biblical mandates, from the basic and effectual and vital means God has given us for restoration and revival in the Church, which we find very early on, as the apostles proclaimed:

So many have looked at the Church and have seen a great lack, but they've not gone to seek the face of God in the word of God and His means to revive and renew the Church.

Of course, this is nothing new, we've seen this happen in Biblical history and in Church history since that time.

Isn't this where we go all wrong in our desire for reformation and revival in the Church? Instead of looking to our God, instead of looking back to what God has already revealed to us in His infallible and unchanging and living word, we look around anywhere and everywhere else.

Prayer and ministry of the word place us wholly dependent on the sovereign God and His mercies. Our flesh balks at being wholly dependent, but that is and has always been God's intent for His people, so He alone would get all the praise, honor and glory. We cannot control how and when and where He might choose to pour His Spirit and revive us. But as we use the means He provides – prayer and ministry of the word – and as we work in the power He provides, we can trust God will bring the increase in His time.

If you have a burden for Biblical revival in the Church or have further questions, please comment below, message me and/or see my posts here:

Also these posts on my other blog, naphtali_deer:

Yours in Christ for the reviving of God's Church to His praise, honor and glory,
Karen