hymns

  • update: tent of meeting 3+ years later ~ "praying for a revival of religion"

     
    The following is from my blog post     update 8/4/2012: "praying for a revival of religion" from my sister site deerlife. At the conclusion (after the multiple underlines), I've added some additional thoughts.

    Please note:  If you've not read my previous posts Update/prayer requests - October 7, 2010 and Simeon's Waiting, Payson's Waiting, Our Waiting, and update 6/13/2012: "Grant me also a spirit of prayer!" | "Oh the happiness of communion with God," I'd suggest you do so prior to reading today's post. All of those give you some background as to the work of God in calling me to prayer for revival... Philippians 2:12-14.

    The following is the text of a letter (slightly edited) which I recently sent to a few other members of our church...

    Dear . . .

    I recently talked with each of you about the possibility of us getting together as a group to pray. I know that along with myself, God has given each of you a heart to pray for the revival of the Church. It's one thing for us to be praying individually, and we should be doing that, but I feel that we're separated (~ Nehemiah 4:19), and this is a time for us to come together as a group, so we might be seek the Lord and be that house of prayer for all nations which God desires ~ Zechariah 12:10-14; Isaiah 66:6-9.

    Earlier this year the name of the Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin resurfaced for me. Griffin was a pastor in the eastern/northeastern U.S. during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Griffin experienced several revivals of religion during his lifetime. I've continued to reflect on these words for several months now:

    In his early ministry, Dr. Griffin was subject to seasons of deep mental depression. He would sometimes come from his study in much distress, complaining to his family that he could  not study, and that his sermons were "so flat," that nobody could hear him. But, when emerging from this gloomy state, his mind would act with unwonted vigor and success. In these seasons, he did not enjoy his usually comforting evidence of personal piety. In a letter dated December 18, 1813, to a young minister of his acquaintance, he says: — "I am interested to know what God has done among the people of your charge. From the trials with which he was exercising your mind in August, I concluded that he was preparing you to do something more than common for his holy name. In former years, I used statedly to have those trials before revivals of religion; and, before that in which you were born. I wholly gave up my hope for a time." It was about that period that he invited a few choice members of his church to meet in his study every Thursday evening, for the single purpose of praying for a revival of religion. As their interest increased, he called in others, till the meeting consisted of six or eight. It was strictly private, and, as he afterward assured me, became a scene of earnest wrestling. "If any one," said he, "had come in with a cold heart, it would have been like throwing water upon the fire. This small-company continued thus wrestling week after week, unknown to the church at large. Nothing, externally, indicated any unusual tokens of the special presence of the Holy Spirit for two or three months. But the time had come when those prayers were to be answered, and when God was to be seen as a prayer hearing God.''
     
    ~ from "Recollections of Rev. E.D. Griffin, or, Incidents illustrating his character" by Parsons Cooke (1855), 117-119.

    My primary purpose is that of Griffin's:  to facilitate and to encourage one another in our "praying for a revival of religion." And by "choice members," I think all of us would humbly agree there is nothing at all choice about us, except the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has deemed to pour out His love, mercy, and grace upon us in Christ Jesus, and He has been drawing us to the ministry of prayer, and He has brought us together at . . . Church at this particular time. God Himself has made each of us willing in His power, He has given the burden for His Church and the desire to pray for her. In addition, from my reading Church history, it appears to me that prior to every revival of religion, God has raised up pockets of people to pray, a few choice members, as Griffin put it. Now, as to whether God will move in our case, we know He is sovereign and He pours out His Spirit according to His good pleasure – and yet He ordains means, which include importunate prayer. So let us take hold of and pay heed to Jesus' words:

    Luke 11:5  And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6  for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7  and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8  I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9  And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11  What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12  or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

    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?”

    May God find us faithful in the ministry to which He has called us ~ Hebrews 13:20-21.

    Lord willing, I would ask that you consider we all meet together for a meal and then prayer afterwards on one of the following dates . . .

    I don't know how often we might meet in the future, but I am trusting God will lead us. I am also trusting, as happened with Griffin, that God will raise up others with a similar passion and will lead us to call them in as well. I am praying that God might be gracious to us and rend the heavens and revive us again for the blessing of . . . Church and His Church at large to the glory of His name.

    I Samuel 14:6  Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.”

    Yours in Christ,
    Karen

    I deliberated whether to share this with you publicly, but I have seen the ruins in the Church and her continuing decline. We must cast off and stop resorting to fleshly and worldly means, and take hold of the means God has provided:  to come with boldness and assurance in prayer to His throne of grace, for this certainly is a great time of need (Heb. 4:14-16), and then diligently plead with God to have mercy upon us and rend the heavens and send His reviving fire to us so we might be the burning lamp and brightness to the nations which God intends us to be (~ Isaiah 64 & 62).

    I also want to encourage those of you whom God has been burdening to pray for revival in the Church to continue to follow His will for you and not to shrink back due to fear, doubt, or uncertainty. Our flesh, the world, and the devil will continue to give us every possible reason not to pray. And I will tell you this:  not very long after sending this letter, temptations, doubts, questions, and second-guessing of every possible sort began to fill and plague my mind about the whole endeavor. Yes, it seems preposterous and impossible to us, yet His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. Our God continues to command His people to seek His heart and His face in prayer, and our seeking Him is never in vain.



         Isaiah 45
         11  Thus says the LORD,
         the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
         “Ask me of things to come;
         will you command me concerning
         my children and the work of my hands?...

         19  I did not speak in secret,
         in a land of darkness;
         I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
         ‘Seek me in vain.’ ...

    A day after writing that letter, I reflected: "It seems so far fetched to think a handful of people praying could battle the powers of darkness, yet that is always God's way, so He alone gets the glory due His name."

    Yesterday, as I was reading Ralph Wardlaw's Commentary on Zechariah 14, he referenced a portion of Isaiah 51, and I opened my Bible and read it:

    Isaiah 51:3 (NKJV)
    For the LORD will comfort Zion,
    He will comfort all her waste places;
    He will make her wilderness like Eden,
    And her desert like the garden of the LORD;
    Joy and gladness will be found in it,
    Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
    The LORD's desire is to comfort ALL our waste places. Therefore, so long as there ARE waste places in any part of the Church, we ought to be praying day and night...

    For God's glory in the Church and the joy of the elect,
    Karen

     

    Dear friends,

    Since I began tent of meeting, there's been a gradual transition over the past couple years, as I've slowly become more focused on and involved in my local congregation and less so with my blogs. Though I'm not posting here so regularly, I still want this blog to serve an encouragement to those who have received a burden from the Lord to pray for revival so you might persevere in prayer. My desire and my prayer is that God might be pleased to use my words here to stir you up to love and specifically to the good work of prayer (~ Heb. 10:24-25). I am more convinced today than ever that we are in desperate need of a genuine revival of religion, and one of God's appointed means toward that happening is through the concerted, fervent, and importunate prayers of God's people. I would also invite those of you who come across this blog who are not members of the Xanga community to e-mail me at naphtali DOT deer AT gmail DOT com (putting it that way so I don't get spammed). And, of course, any of you who are part of Xanga are welcome to message me. I would love to hear how God has been at work in you and at work in your congregations in calling you to such a ministry of prayer.

    Since having written that letter I cited above, I have found myself at a similar point where I was just over three years ago when I first started publicly posting here at tent of meeting. At that time, on April 14, 2009, in my first post here, I described some of the vision I had for this blog in a sort of FAQ format, and I had written:

    * * *

    I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS...

     

    Yes, and so do I! I am trusting God will make the way clear for all of us. God has been taking me and leading me by His hand step by step and putting me in a place I would not have imagined just a couple months ago. So things are not all clear to me yet, but I am stepping out in faith, I am putting my foot in the Jordan, and am anticipating and waiting on Him to make the way clear.

    * * *

    And today, August 6, 2012, I have even more questions! It can be disconcerting not to know what lies ahead, but, as Ira Forest Stanphill penned:

    Many things about tomorrow,
    I don't seem to understand;
    But I know Who holds tomorrow,
    And I know Who holds my hand.

    As we're put into such uncertain and unpredictable situations, we are led to seek the God who is a Rock and everlasting Strength! As we're put into impossible situations, we are led to seek the God who can do the impossible! As we painfully come to see our own poverty, we plead to know experientially God's riches in Christ Jesus! As we see our own insufficiency, we are quickened to fly to God to seek to know Christ's full sufficiency! Once again, as I did three years ago, I am trusting God to lead me and to make the way clear in His way and His time. It is a blessed thing to be brought to the end of yourself time and time again so you might come to know Christ as your all in all!

    Matthew 5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven...

    I know that God is sovereign. I know that He is good and all-wise and all-powerful and all-knowing. I know that God is always working all things for His glory, for His praise, for the preeminence of Jesus Christ, for the furtherance of the Gospel, for the good of His Church, and for the joy of His elect throughout all the nations – even though thoughts and circumstances will arise that may tempt me to doubt that. But as I (we) follow God's leading in the way He would have me (us) go, as we go day by day, step by step, prayer by prayer – I (we) can and must trust the Lord.

    Psalm 9:10  And those who know your name put their trust in you,
    for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

    Let us not shrink back in unbelief. Let me not shrink back in unbelief! Through Isaiah, the LORD warned king Ahaz in Isaiah 7:9b:

    If you are not firm in faith,
    you will not be firm at all.

    We walk by faith and not by sight. We stand in faith, we act in faith, and we pray in faith (and don't ever let someone ever try to convince you that prayer is not action – I'm not saying it's the only action, but it is action!), and we trust God in faith like Joab:

    II Samuel 10:9  When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the best men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians. 10  The rest of his men he put in the charge of Abishai his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. 11  And he said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. 12  Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.”

    As we obey the LORD, it's true we don't know what the specific outcome will be, but we do know Him, and we can trust Him!

    Let us remember whose we are – children of the living God, having been rescued from the domain of darkness and translated into His marvelous light,  once enemies who have now been brought near, we are now free to approach the mercy seat with a holy boldness through the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, let us go to Him! May we draw near to the throne of grace, to lay before our loving, merciful, and gracious heavenly Father all our concerns, to let our requests be known, to cast on Him all our cares, so we might receive the mercy and grace He delights to pour out upon all who hunger and thirst for Him, so we might travel through our pilgrimage fully satisfied and sustained in Christ, to rejoice in the LORD and to know God as our strength (as Habakkuk sang of at the end of Hab. 3) – no matter what happens. Even though things may not turn out as we might have hoped or expected, let us remember this:  our God is never a disappointment!

    As the redeemed of God through Jesus Christ, we have received the high and holy privilege to draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Heb. 10:22), and we are exhorted to come boldly to the throne of grace in our time of need (Heb. 4:14-16). Rather than looking at the storms about us, rather than entertaining the uncertainties, rather than fueling our doubts with our faith-sapping questions, rather than sinking into despair and hopelessness, may we continue to avail ourselves of the blessed privilege we have to fix our eyes on Jesus – much as Hezekiah did after he received the threatening letter from Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.

    II Kings 19:14  Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. 15  And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: “O LORD the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 16  Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 17  Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18  and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19  So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.”

    Though that situation was different than mine, like Hezekiah, I've continued to take my burden for the Church along with that letter which I've written and have gone up to the house of the LORD and spread them before the LORD...

    O LORD the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made heaven and earth.  Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see ... and do what seems good to You for the glory and honor of Your name and the blessing of Your Church, for we are Your flock, the sheep of Your pasture, purchased with the precious blood of the Lamb of God, Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we are Your people called by Your name. LORD of hosts, You who are zealous and jealous for us, how long will it be until You have mercy upon us? Hear our prayers for Jesus' sake. Look down from heaven and return with mercy and visit this vine! Restore us and revive us, O LORD God of hosts. Shine Your face upon us again, so we might shine in this dark world to the praise, honor, and glory of Your name to the ends of the earth. Amen. (In addition to Hezekiah's prayer, please see also Psalm 80, Psalm 102 & Zechariah 1.)

    I appreciate and thank God for each of you who have visited this site and have read and prayed and added your own prayers here. I pray that those of you who are Christ's might grow in His grace and the knowledge of Him, and each of you might come to know (really know) His strength sufficient for each and every one of your days ~ Deuteronomy 33:25.

    Proverbs 4:18  But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

    Yours in Christ,
    Karen

    * Please add YOUR PRAYERS as God's Holy Spirit leads you. *

    Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    Scripture quotations marked NKJV taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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  • Isaiah 64:7a And there is none that calleth upon Thy name

    Yesterday, as I considered the current state of the Church today, the hymn "Veiled in Darkness Judah Lay" (by Douglas L. Wrights) was brought to mind, and these words from the second verse stood out to me:

    Still the earth in darkness lies.
    Up from death’s dark vale arise
    Voices of a world in grief,
    Prayers of men who seek relief
    The hymn is usually thought of as an Advent hymn, but isn't the Church in the west in much darkness and in desperate need of Jesus Christ coming again to renew, refresh and revive us?

    Such times of refreshing are promised to the children of God . . .

     "when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:20)

    And yet, where are such prayers rising as incense to the throne of God from the children of God?

    Where is the heart of grief we ought to have over the current state of the Church?

    Isaiah 64:7a And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee...

    From Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Isaiah 64:7:

          "2. There was a general coldness of devotion among them, 7. The measure was filled by the abounding iniquity of the people, and nothing was done to empty it. (1.) Prayer was in a manner neglected: "There is none that calls on thy name, none that seeks to thee for grace to reform us and take away sin, or for mercy to relieve us and take away the judgments which our sins have brought upon us." Therefore people are so bad, because they do not pray; compare Ps. xiv. 3, 4, They have altogether become filthy, for they call not upon the Lord. It bodes ill to a people when prayer is restrained among them. (2.) It was very negligently performed. If there was here and there one that called on God's name, it was with a great deal of indifferency: There is none that stirs up himself to take hold of God. Note, [1.] To pray is to take hold of God, by faith to take hold of the promises and the declarations God has made of his good-will to us and to plead them with him,--to take hold of him as of one who is about to depart from us, earnestly begging of him not to leave us, or of one that has departed, soliciting his return,--to take hold of him as he that wrestles takes hold of him he wrestles with; for the seed of Jacob wrestle with him and so prevail. But when we take hold of God it is as the boatman with his hook takes hold on the shore, as if he would pull the shore to him, but really it is to pull himself to the shore; so we pray, not to bring God to our mind, but to bring ourselves to him. [2.] Those that would take hold of God in prayer so as to prevail with him must stir up themselves to do it; all that is within us must be employed in the duty (and all little enough), our thoughts fixed and our affections flaming. In order hereunto all that is within us must be engaged and summoned into the service; we must stir up the gift that is in us by an actual consideration of the importance of the work that is before us and a close application of mind to it; but how can we expect that God should come to us in ways of mercy when there are none that do this, when those that profess to be intercessors are mere triflers?"

    * * *

    Forgive us, O great God. We confess how we so often exhibit this coldness of devotion, negligence, indifference about spiritual matters, while in contrast we are passionate, diligent and engaged when it comes to the things of the world. Lord Jesus Christ, You ever live to make intercession for us, and yet how often do we even watch one hour with You! Open our eyes, Lord, to see Your Church as You see us, that our spirits might be provoked and our hearts might be filled with compassion and godly grief. Strengthen us, Holy Spirit, and place into us the holy desire to stir ourselves up, so we might intercede as our Lord does, that we might rise above being mere triflers in intercession.


    LORD, we cry unto thee: make haste unto us;
    give ear unto our voice, when we cry unto thee.
    Let our prayer be set forth before thee as incense;
    and the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice.

    Psalm 141:1-2 (KJV, adapted)

    * Please add your PRAYERS as the Holy Spirit leads you. *

    Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

  • "Christ for the World We Sing" / Psalm 57:7-11



    Christ for the World We Sing
    (Samuel Wolcott, 1869)

    Christ for the world we sing,
    The world to Christ we bring, with loving zeal,
    The poor and them that mourn, the faint and overborne,
    Sin sick and sorrow worn, whom Christ doth heal.

    Christ for the world we sing,
    The world to Christ we bring, with fervent prayer;
    The wayward and the lost, by restless passions tossed,
    Redeemed at countless cost, from dark despair.

    Christ for the world we sing,
    The world to Christ we bring, with one accord;
    With us the work to share, with us reproach to dare,
    With us the cross to bear, for Christ our Lord.

    Christ for the world we sing,
    The world to Christ we bring, with joyful song;
    The newborn souls, whose days, reclaimed from error’s ways,
    Inspired with hope and praise, to Christ belong.


    Psalm 57:7  My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. 8  Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. 9  I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. 10  For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. 11  Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.     (KJV)

    Fix our hearts, O God, on You and on Your Kingdom, so we might sing and give praise unto You with joyful song among the nations. We confess our hearts are often fixed on so many other things apart from You and Your Kingdom and Your purposes. And we confess that we may be choosing the good things, but they may not be the best things. Help us to lay aside each and every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us. Forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Renew us and turn our affections once again to You so we might praise You as we ought and offer ourselves to You with a whole heart to walk in the works You have ordained for us.

    Fill our hearts with a loving zeal for Your Gospel and the glory and honor of Your name. Having been called out of darkness into Your marvelous light and having been given the ministry of reconciliation, may we walk worthy of the calling You have given us: to be ambassadors for Christ and to shine as lights in this dark world. Fill us with a loving zeal for the world so we might be fervent in prayer for the world and be bold in our proclamation of Your Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ to a world filled with lost souls, for in the Gospel alone is Your righteousness revealed: the just shall live by faith and that there is salvation found in no other name but the name of Jesus.

    Fill our hearts with a loving zeal for You and for our brothers and sisters in Christ. May our love for You knit us together with Your children who are born again by Your Spirit and filled with Your Spirit, all who are seeking Your will be done here on earth and Your glory to be manifested here on the earth in the revival of Your Church and the ingathering of lost souls to Your Kingdom by the lifting up of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. May Christ's love constrain and propel Your Church to stand fast in one spirit and strive together for the faith of the Gospel.

    Lord Jesus, You are our Good Shepherd. We are Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, and we confess we are all prone to wander. Forgive us and have mercy upon us, for we know we too easily sway and gad about and how quickly our hearts become unfixed. Send Your Holy Spirit to purify us with Your holy fire, to awaken us out of our slumber and lethargy and lukewarmness so we might be zealous and repent. Make us single-eyed for You and Your Kingdom, so we might be diligent and make the most of the time, to work while it is day because the days are evil, that we might praise You among the peoples and sing unto You among the nations. How will the world know of Your great mercies and truth in Jesus Christ apart from our singing the new song You have put into our hearts?

    Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.

    * Please add your PRAYERS as the Holy Spirit leads you. *

tent_of_meeting

"he called it the tent of meeting..."

I am burdened to pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the reformation and reviving of Christ's church.

The phrase tent of meeting comes from Exodus 33:7: Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

This site is devoted to God first and foremost. In all that is done here, my prayer is that God is glorified and His Name magnified and Christ and Him crucified is lifted up so He might be preeminent and God might receive all the praise, honor and glory due His Holy Name. All who have come to a saving knowledge of our Father by grace through faith in the all-sufficient sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are welcome to enter this tent of meeting to seek the Lord.

This blog is a place for all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to come and seek God's face for revival. My intention is for this tent of meeting to be a holy place where we can enter into PRAYER together to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit leads you, please enter into prayer either here (think of "comments" as prayers) or on your own.

Habakkuk 3:2 O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.

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