hymns

  • the lukewarm church does not know God's "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" (Charles Wesley)

    In our series of reflections and prayers about Jesus' words to the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 2 and 3, we're moving on to consider Jesus' words to the Church at Laodicea...

    Revelation 3:15 I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

    O, Father, a lukewarm church does not know Your love in Christ Jesus...How can we as a church say we know the love of Christ and remain lukewarm?

    Is this not our prevailing sin against You and Your only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ today? Is that not our greatest sin against Your Spirit? Do we not grieve, quench and limit Him by our lack of love toward You, by our lukewarmness? Can we say we truly know you? Do we live like we know you? Should our hearts not burn inside us like the disciples on the Emmaus Road who met with Jesus?

    Your words to us are blunt and chilling...

    Revelation 2:4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

    O, Lord God, we do not want to be spit out of Your mouth! Have mercy on us all! We are close to being spit out. We are close to having You remove our lampstand. We confess we have been lukewarm. Forgive us, O God. We have not know You or Your love. We have coasted. We have taken our salvation for granted. We have become lukewarm. But, O, great God, how can we remain lukewarm if we really know Your love? Your all-surpassing, amazing and extravagant love that sent Jesus Christ to die for us while we were sinners. A love that cost You all, the precious body and blood of Christ. A love that withheld nothing. That kind of love. Not squishy love. Not love that blindly overlooks sin. Not love that saves all. No, You are a holy God. In You there is no sin. You cannot abide sin in Your presence. There is a price to be paid for our sin, a penalty to be borne for our transgressions, so we might be saved from condemnation and eternity in hell. We could not bear our sin. We could not pay that price. We can only be saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way of salvation. You provided Him graciously as a sin offering in our place. O, how we have casually tossed Christ and His cross aside for universal love, fuzzy love, a love that says You doesn't really care about sin. How we have shown contempt for the blood of Jesus shed for the remission and forgiveness of sins when we say You are love and could never allow anyone to go to hell.

    Yes, Lord, You are a God of love, You overlook sin but only because Jesus Christ who knew no sin became sin for us so we might become the righteousness of God in Him. His precious blood was shed to atone for the sins of all who believe on Him. O, if we knew Your love, the extent of Your great love for us, how could we not be constrained by You and Your love? If we knew Your love would we not be hot and on fire for You? How could we consider serving any other Master but You, O Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? How could we remain lukewarm? Open our eyes and hearts and minds to all You are! Truth and grace met in Jesus Christ. Your just wrath, the punishment we deserved, was poured out on the spotless Lamb. How can we not see ourselves as debtors to Your mercy alone? How could we not see ourselves as debtors to all men so like the apostle Paul we would be ready to preach the Gospel to as many as You might send us...just as You sent Christ to be an offering for our sin, to seek and save the lost. You send us to as ambassadors of reconciliation, to take good news to men who are captive to sin and held in bondage to the evil one.

    O, yes, we have seen Your glory: grace and truth met in Jesus Christ, Your justice and mercy kissed in His Body on the tree. The just became justifier. You did it all for us. We were powerless and helpless. We were bound up in our sins and transgressions. We were blinded to Your glory. You opened our eyes. O, what love! How can we remain lukewarm? How can we be cold in the face of such Love? O, return us, O Lord, to You, to our first Love. No one loved us like You did. You took us when we were cast out. You found us when our bones were dead and lifeless and breathless. You breathed life into once. Now, O, Lord of life, we ask that You send Your Spirit once more that we might know Your love, that we might breathe deeply of Your Holy Spirit. O, to live by You. That is Your desire. That we might be ignited by Your flaming love in our hearts and souls. Yes, we are too often like the Church at Sardis today, we have a name that we are alive but we are dead. We confess we are not constrained by Your love for us. O, we do not want to remain lukewarm. We do not want to be cold. Set us on fire, Lord, for Your glory! A lukewarm church brings You no glory but only reproach. Forgive us, O God, for being lukewarm. Revive us again!

    If we knew Your love, wouldn't our lips be unloosed in praise?

    If we knew Your love, wouldn't we be dancing before You?

    If we knew Your love, wouldn't streams of living water be bursting out from us?

    If we knew Your love, wouldn't we want the whole world to know Your love?

    If we knew Your love, wouldn't we be praying for laborers to go into the harvest?

    If we knew Your love, wouldn't we be going into the harvest?

    If we knew Your love, wouldn't we be shouting of Your good news of great joy on the housetops?

    If we knew Your love, wouldn't we be bold, no longer paralyzed by fear of men?

    If we knew Your love, wouldn't we we persevere before Your throne of grace and never give You rest?

    If we knew Your love, wouldn't we cry to You day and night to revive us again?

    O, Holy Spirit, rend our hearts, rend the heavens, enrapture us once again with the love we once knew, or perhaps the love we never really knew. Make us hot and on fire. What a disgrace for us to remain lukewarm. O, to know You, to speak to our God like Moses did, face to face. O, Father, the way is now open to the most holy place through the body and blood of Your Son Jesus Christ. The veil has been torn. We can enter into Your presence and meet with You. This is eternal life. Not merely to know about You. We want to know You now. O, let us not remain lukewarm. We have begun to hunger and thirst for more of You. We cannot bear to go up from this place apart from Your presence going with us. O, burn in us, Lord. We must have You now! How can we in the Church carry on apart from a fresh and continuing infusion of Your love and grace, of Your presence and power, of You! Too long we have done Church and forgotten You! We have met in Your name, but not welcomed Your Spirit into our midst. We have gone through the motions. We have all been good Christians. But have we really known You? Have we been filled with all the fullness of God? O, we are seeing we must know You! There is no one under heaven like You! O, that we might know the height and depth and length and breadth of Your love for us in Jesus Christ. That is the life You have intended for us! Have mercy on us, Lord, hear our prayers. We know we deserve nothing but yet we come humbly by the blood of Jesus asking for what is ours as Your beloved children. Our birthright is to know You and to have intimate fellowship with You. To love You. To love You above any and all others. We no longer want to be lukewarm. Make us hot for You!

    You, O Lord, are altogether lovely. You are the Lover of our souls. You loved us before we knew You. O, wondrous love, amazing grace. Such love demands our all. Give us a heart to love You as we ought. You ought be our first Love. We are to have no other gods before You. We confess we have worshiped and lusted after other gods. We have sought earthly treasures. We have sought comfort and convenience. We have tried to be happy but all we end up with is temporary, fleeting happiness, not the deep, abiding and full joy You wish to give us. O, melt our hearts. Circumcise our hearts. Break up the fallow ground. We know our love for you is so small. We want to love you with a passion that exceeds all other passions for Your love is truly divine and excels all other loves. This is the love that Charles Wesley knew. Let us all reflect on his words of worship and adoration below. May Your Spirit cut us to the quick and show us how we have failed to love You as we ought. Turn our hearts back to You, O Father. You have loved us. You have given us all. You wait for us to return home to You once more. O, cords of love, constrain us. Holy Spirit, draw us back. We are all prone to wander. We love You. Increase our love for You, our adoration, our gratefulness for who You and and what You have done for us in Jesus Christ. You are the God who passed over our sins for Jesus' sake. You are the God who was reconciling us to You in Christ before the world began! O, to know Your love divine, all loves excelling...Teach us, O Holy Spirit, and bring glory to the Father and to the Son.

    Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

    (Charles Wesley, 1747)

    Love divine, all loves excelling,
    Joy of heaven to earth come down;
    Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
    All thy faithful mercies crown!
    Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
    Pure unbounded love Thou art;
    Visit us with Thy salvation;
    Enter every trembling heart.

    Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
    Into every troubled breast!
    Let us all in Thee inherit;
    Let us find that second rest.
    Take away our bent to sinning;
    Alpha and Omega be;
    End of faith, as its Beginning,
    Set our hearts at liberty.

    Come, Almighty to deliver,
    Let us all Thy life receive;
    Suddenly return and never,
    Never more Thy temples leave.
    Thee we would be always blessing,
    Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
    Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
    Glory in Thy perfect love.

    Finish, then, Thy new creation;
    Pure and spotless let us be.
    Let us see Thy great salvation
    Perfectly restored in Thee;
    Changed from glory into glory,
    Till in heaven we take our place,
    Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
    Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

    Holy Spirit, send Your fire once again into our hearts, so we might know You and Your love and might no longer be lukewarm. May we burn with a passion and a fire the devil can never extinguish, so we might go out into the world and take Your message of rescue through Jesus Christ to all those souls who are perishing. Our lamp, our light is flickering and fading. O, God, of light and life and fire, light the fire! Blaze, Spirit, blaze, so we might blaze in the darkened churches and in the dark world! Shine, Jesus, shine in us so we might shine in the darkened churches and in the dark world!

    Please add your prayers for yourself and the Church as the Spirit leads you.


  • what keeps us from walking with our first Love?

    To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

    –Revelation 2:1-4

    Walking with God - Genesis v.25
    (William Cowper)

    OH! for a closer walk with God,
    A calm and heavenly frame;
    A light to shine upon the road
    That leads me to the Lamb!

    Where is the blessedness I knew
    When first I saw the Lord?
    Where is the soul-refreshing view
    Of Jesus and his word?

    What peaceful hours I once enjoy’d!
    How sweet their memory still!
    But they have left an aching void,
    The world can never fill.

    Return, O holy Dove, return!
    Sweet messenger of rest:
    I hate the sins that made thee mourn,
    And drove thee from my breast.

    The dearest idol I have known,
    Whate’er that idol be,
    Help me to tear it from thy throne,
    And worship only thee.

    So shall my walk be close with God,
    Calm and serene my frame:
    So purer light shall mark the road
    That leads me to the Lamb.

    Which commandment is the most important of all? 29 Jesus answered, The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

    –Mark 12:29-30

    Father, Son and Spirit,

    Search our hearts. You are to be our first Love. What keeps from You? What keeps us from our first Love? What keeps us from walking with You? What keeps us from being united to You? How can we walk with You unless we are agreed with you? How can we walk with You if we continue to worship idols and entertain sin?

    Show us, O God, where we have abandoned You. Show us where we have left our first Love. Be gracious to us and lead us into Your light. We are children of light, yet we confess that when we worship idols and when we entertain sin, we are no longer walking in the light and our fellowship with You is broken. It is then we most need Your light, but yet we shrink back from Your light. Yet unless we come into Your light, we cannot see our idols and our sins. Unless we are in Your light, we cannot confess our idols and our sins and receive Your forgiveness and cleansing. Unless we are in Your light we cannot purify ourselves as Your are pure. Unless we are in Your light we cannot walk in the light. Unless we are in Your light we cannot love You as we ought and walk with You. Unless we are in Your light we will continue to love other things besides You.

    We can only see ourselves clearly as we come into Your light. We confess we hide our idols and our sins in the deepest and darkest recesses of our hearts and minds, so deep that sometimes we can neither see them nor acknowledge them. We need You to bring us into Your holy light. Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked.

    Be gracious to us and lead us into Your light. Search us O God with Your light. Yes, it will be bright and blinding but we must come. Your mercy, grace and kindness will meet us there are show us our idols and our sins for Jesus' sake. It is Your desire to sanctify us. Bring us into Your light.

    We can only put off our idols as we see them.
    Show Your mercy to us,
    Bring us into Your light.

    We can only put off our sin as we see it.
    Show Your mercy to us,
    Bring us into Your light.

    Show us what keeps us from walking with You, our first Love.
    Show Your mercy to us,
    Bring us into Your light.

    Show us what keeps us from loving You with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength.
    Show Your mercy to us,
    Bring us into Your light.

    Search us, O God.
    Shine Your light in those deep, dark places of our souls.
    Show us the idols we bow down to, the idols that keep us from loving You as we ought.
    Show us the idols that keep us from loving You with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength.
    Show us how we have left You, our first love.
    Show us the idols which have become our first love.
    Show us the idols which keep us from walking with You, our first Love.
    Restore us to You, our first Love.

    Search us, O God.
    Shine Your light in those deep, dark places of our souls.
    Show us the sin that so easily entangles us, the sin that keeps us from loving You as we ought.
    Show us the sin that keeps us from loving You with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength.
    Show us how we have left You, our first Love.
    Show us how our sin has become our first love.
    Show us how our sin keeps us from walking with You, our first Love.
    Restore us to You, our first Love.

    Give us a holy hatred for the idols that keep us from bowing down to You.
    Give us a holy hatred for the idols that keep us from loving You as we ought.
    May we no longer love our idols.
    May we have no other gods but You alone.
    Strengthen us to us forsake our idols and to tear down all our idols
    You alone are worthy of all our love.
    Give us a heart of love for You alone.
    Restore us to You, our first Love.

    Give us a holy hatred for the sins that keep us from being holy as You are holy.
    Give us a holy hatred for the sins that keep us from loving You as we ought.
    May we no longer love our sin.
    May we have no other gods but You alone.
    Strengthen us to forsake our sin and repent of all our sin.
    You alone are worthy of all our love.
    Give us a heart of love for You alone.
    Restore us to You, our first Love.

    By Your mercy and grace, O God, May we have a closer walk with You once more, so You might be truly be our first Love, so we might love You with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength. Strengthen us to put off our idols and forsake our sin. Restore us to You, our first Love. Amen.

    Spend some time in reading the Scripture and prayer and quiet reflection. Do not rush. Ask the Lord to shine His light into your heart and search you and show you your idols and your sins, to show you where you are not walking with your first Love. As His Spirit leads you, please add your prayers here of confession and repentance as well as your prayers for strength to love Him with all Your heart, soul, mind and strength. (Please keep in mind this is a public forum, so please use discretion.)


  • "descend and crown us now with Fire" - a prayer for Pentecost (John Wesley)

    Here at tent of meeting we have been praying through the Lord's Prayer together and have most recently been focusing on "Give us this day our daily bread." Today we've come to Pentecost Sunday. What a wonderful time for us to remember that our daily Bread to nourish and strengthen us for the Christian life comes only through the true Bread who has come down from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.

    As children of God we must continue to tarry in prayer and ask God to endue us with His Spirit from on high. God reminds us in Zechariah 4:6: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord of hosts. If we are His children, we have already been given His Spirit, but as His children, we are told to keep asking for His Spirit and that his Spirit is a good gift our heavenly Father wishes to give His children (Luke 11:1-13). Yes, we should ask for daily bread for our physical bodies, but let us never neglect to ask for the Father's blessed provision of daily bread for our souls, the Holy Spirit!

    As individuals, each of us continues to be impotent so long as we rely on our own resources.
    The Church continues to be impotent so long as we rely on our own resources.

    We must constantly ask God to fill us with His Holy Spirit so we might have power to be His witnesses and to live a holy life. Only as we eat of our heavenly Father's provision for us, only as we live by His Spirit, can we expect to walk in the good works He has ordained for us. Apart from the Spirit's life, we have no life. We can expect neither personal nor corporate revival apart from the Fire from above.

    As I was reading "George Whitefield's Journals" I came across the hymn "On the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost" and thought it was a wonderful prayer not only for this day, Pentecost Sunday, but for every day!

    Would you please pray this hymn for yourself and Christ's Church? Will you come to the Father and ask Him for our daily bread? Will you continue to ask, seek and knock along with me for His Holy Spirit to descend on us?

    ON THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST AT PENTECOST.

    From: Hymns and Sacred Poems 1739 - John and Charles Wesley
    Altered from Dr. H. More, most likely translated by John Wesley.

    I
    When Christ had left His flock below,
    The loss His faithful flock deplored:
    Him in the flesh no more they know,
    And languish for their absent Lord.

    II
    Not long—for He, gone up on high
    Gifts to receive, and claim His crown,
    Beheld them sorrowing from His sky,
    And poured the mighty blessing down.

    III
    He, for the presence of His flesh,
    The Spirit's seven-fold gifts imparts;
    And living streams their souls refresh,
    And joy Divine o'erflows their hearts.
     
    IV
    While all, in sweet devotion joined,
    Humbly to wait for God, retire,
    The promised grace in rushing wind
    Descends, and cloven tongues of fire.

    V
    God's mighty Spirit fills the dome,
    The feeble dome beneath Him shook,
    Trembled the crowd to feel Him come,
    Soon as the Sons of Thunder spoke.

    VI
     Father! if justly still we claim
    To us, and ours, the promise made,
    To us be graciously the same,
    And crown with living fire our head.

    VII
    Our claim admit, and from above
    Of holiness the Spirit shower,
    Of wise discernment, humble love,
    And zeal, and unity, and power.

    VIII
    The Spirit of convincing speech,
    Of power demonstrative impart,
    Such as may every conscience reach,
    And sound the unbelieving heart:

    IX
    The Spirit of refining fire,
    Searching the inmost of the mind,
    To purge all fierce and foul desire,
    And kindle life more pure and kind:

    X
    The Sp’rit of faith, in this Thy day,
    To break the power of cancelled sin,
    Tread down its strength, o'erturn its sway,
    And still the conquest more than win.

    XI
    The Spirit breathe of inward life,
    Which in our hearts Thy laws may write:
    Then grief expires, and pain and strife;
    'Tis nature all, and all delight.

    XII
    On all the earth Thy Spirit shower,
    The earth in righteousness renew;
    Thy kingdom come, and hell's o'erpower,
    And to Thy sceptre all subdue.

    XIII
    Like mighty wind, or torrent fierce,
    Let it opposers all o’er-run,
    And every law of sin reverse,
    That faith and love may make all one.

    XIV
    Yea, let Thy Spirit in every place
    Its richer energy declare,
    While lovely tempers, fruits of grace,
    The kingdom of Thy Christ prepare.

    XV
    Grant this, O holy God, and true!
    The ancient seers Thou didst inspire:
    To us perform the promise due ;
    Descend, and crown us now with fire.


    white_dove

    Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
    Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
    Give us this day our daily bread    ...

    Our Father,

    As part of our prayer to hallow Your Name, let us remember that when we attempt to work out of our own power, we do not hallow Your Name.

    As part of our prayer for Your Kingdom to come, let us remember that we can never expect to do Your Kingdom work apart from Your Kingdom power.

    As part of our prayer for Your will to be done, let us remember that we can never expect to do Your will here on earth apart from Your Kingdom power.

    Holy God,
    Give us this day our daily bread, Your Holy Spirit.
    Descend, and crown us now with fire.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your Name hallowed.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your Kingdom come.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your will done.

    As members of Your Body, each of us continues to be impotent so long as we rely on our own resources.
    As a Body, the Church continues to be impotent so long as we rely on our own resources.

    Holy God,
    Give us this day our daily bread, Your Holy Spirit    .
    Descend, and crown us now with fire.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your Name hallowed.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your Kingdom come.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your will done.

    Our Father, give us an increasing hunger for Your Spirit so we might never cease to ask for what You so want to give us and what we so need, the gift of Your Holy Spirit. Give us such a hunger that we cannot help but ask, seek and knock until You descend and crown us with Fire. And then after You do so, may we continue to ask, seek and knock so You will continue to crown us with Fire.

    Holy God,
    Give us this day our daily bread, Your Holy Spirit.
    Descend, and crown us now with fire.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your Name hallowed.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your Kingdom come.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your will done.

    We can expect neither personal nor corporate revival apart from the Fire from above. Let us never cease to ask You, our Father for what You have promised to us, the gift of Your Holy Spirit. Let us never cease to ask You, our Savior for what You have promised to send us, the gift of Your Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, may we not grieve You by neglecting to ask for You!

    Holy God,
    Give us this day our daily bread, Your Holy Spirit    .
    Descend, and crown us now with fire.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your Name hallowed.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your Kingdom come.
    Only as we live by Your heavenly provision is Your will done.

    Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
    Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
    Give us this day our daily bread...

    As the Spirit leads you, please come before His throne and pray for Him to descend and crown us now with Fire.

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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