Earlier this year, as I read "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" by Edward Morgan (revised & republished by Banner of Truth, 1973), I found my heart resonated with the heart of the publishers, whose words were written 40 years ago this month:

Without doubt the following pages contain much information which has long been in accessible and practically unknown. If it not, however, a concern merely for the recovery of historical knowledge which is responsible for this reprint. Speaking once of how the Welsh fathers of the eighteenth century had prevailed with God in prayer, and been remarkable for their spiritual usefulness, Elias said, 'It is a consolation to us that the sword and arms they so skilfully used, are in our hands:  may the Lord enable us to handle them!' The supreme value of this volume we judge to be the way in which it reminds us what are the 'sword and arms' of the Church. May God use these pages to further a recovery of the light and power of the gospel at a time when contentment with small things has blighted us all!

The Publishers

June, 1973

As I read through the book, I discovered the words attributed to Elias were an incorrect citation on the part of the publishers –– though indeed it is true that Elias looked back to the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist fathers of the previous century. Those words were actually part of a letter some of Elias' brothers in Christ had written to him to express their appreciation to him, as they met at Montgomeryshire for an Association Meeting of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connexion. At that time, in April 1841, Elias was at home under great physical affliction (it was just over a month before he would pass into the Glory everlasting). In their "letter of condolence" to Elias, these men requested Elias' prayers on their behalf as they desired to be equipped with God's power to skillfully use the "sword and arms" as did the fathers... (p. 179-180):

April 30, 1841...

Dear brother, we entreat your prayers for ourselves, that the God of Israel may abide with us. Our fathers prevailed with God in prayer, and were remarkable for spiritual gifts; we are no more grasshoppers in comparison to them. But it is a consolation to us that the sword and arms they so skillfully used, are in our hands:  may the Lord enable us to handle them.

John Elias (1774 -1841) and the other Welsh Calvinistic ministers looked back to the fathers (including William Williams (Pantycelyn), Daniel Rowland, Thomas Charles, Griffith Jones, etc.) because of their remarkable "spiritual usefulness." The 18th century fathers had "skillfully used" the "sword and arms," and these 19th century men men were diligently seeking the Lord for the power He alone could provide, knowing the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. They longed to walk in the ways of the fathers –– to be workers approved and unashamed, and to prove they had not received the grace of God in vain.

I suspect by "sword and arms" these men were referring to Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' arms during the battle against Amalek, while Joshua and his chosen men fought and defeated Amalek with the sword (Exodus 17:8-16). My friends, we are in need not only a return to Word of God but also a return to prayer to God –– not only a return to the sword but to the arms! We have been experiencing some resurgence of Reformed preaching for which I am thankful –– but my question is this:  where is the resurgence in importunate prayer... where are the raised arms?

"What influence the rod of Moses had upon the battle (11): When Moses held up his hand in prayer (so the Chaldee explains it) Israel prevailed, but, when he let down his hand from prayer, Amalek prevailed. To convince Israel that the hand of Moses (with whom they had just now been chiding) contributed more to their safety than their own hands, his rod than their sword, the success rises and falls as Moses lifts up or lets down his hands. It seems, the scale wavered for some time, before it turned on Israel's side. Even the best cause must expect disappointments as an alloy to its successes; though the battle be the Lord's, Amalek may prevail for a time. The reason was, Moses let down his hands. Note, The church's cause is, commonly, more or less successful according as the church's friends are more or less strong in faith and fervent in prayer."

~ Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Exodus 17

Many of you may be familiar with the following verses in Malachi 4 –– the concluding words of the Old Testament –– after which there was silence for 400 years...

5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  6  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. (ESV)

5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (KJV)

In his message "Chief Cause for Decay in the Church" on Malachi 4:1-6, Iain Murray explains that though on first reading we might interpret these verses as a prophecy and a promise of "Gospel unity restored to families –– yet the Gospel often divides families." He went on to clarify that the Biblical meaning of the word "fathers" goes beyond that of the parents of the previous generation to "more remote ancestors" (see Romans 9:5). Murray explained that turning of hearts in this way:

The hearts which the fathers of the Old Testament possessed in the best and the brightest days of Israel, the hearts of the fathers, piety, would be found again in another generation. The piety and the devotion of the fathers –– this would be rekindled and it would reappear in the children. That is the meaning of the verse. He shall turn, he shall restore, He shall bring back the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.

So it is expounded in Luke 1:17 –– the Holy Spirit renders it: "He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." That is to say, hearts which are by nature disobedient – for these hearts will be restored the wisdom, the piety, the grace which was in the fathers. This then was the promise of the verse.

In his commentary on Malachi (included in "The Prophets of the Restoration, or Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: a New Translation with Notes"), Thomas V. Moore (1818-1871) expounds the passage similarly (see pp. 405-407, or pp. 176-178 in Banner of Truth's "A Commentary on Haggai and Malachi," reprinted 1960 & 1968):

The expression, "return the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to the fathers," has usually been explained to mean the restoration of domestic harmony among the people. But this is a very meagre sense of words that close up the utterances of God to his people for twelve generations. Want of domestic concord was not one of the sins charged upon the people, and its removal would hardly be the great work assigned to the Elijah messenger. The meaning is suggested in the words of the angel to Zacharias, in Luke 1:16, 17; where, instead of the clause, "the heart of the sons to the fathers," is put, "the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." This paraphrase indicates that the hearts of the devoted ancestors were to live again in the obedience of their repentant posterity, and that the backslidden sons were to be restored to the piety of their fathers. The piety of the fathers had been referred to repeatedly before, (see 1:2; 2:5, 6; 3:4,) and the promise is, that this piety should live again in the children, under the Elijah call to repentance; and it is threatened, that if this is not the result, the land shall be laid under the terrible herem. This was  a devotion to destruction, such as was done to the Canaanites by the judicial act of God. As these guilty nations were cut off because of their sins, so should the people who had taken their place on the soil of the land of promise, or those who in turn would take their place on the covenants of promise, if they imitated their sinful example. This was fulfilled five hundred years afterward, when the chosen people were finally rejected, and the awful blood was upon them and their children, according to their own imprecation. And to this hour, the soil that was wet with that blood lies under the terrible herem, and will so continue, until that Elijah call that shall bring back the heart of David, of Isaiah, and of Nathaniel to their exiled posterity, enabling them to see him whom they have pierced, and to cry, "My Lord and my God." And by the same principle of interpretation that we have applied to the previous verse, do we extend this warning to every age of the Church, and find in it the germ of the solemn admonition of Paul in discussing the same subject, (Rom. 11:20, 21,)  "Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee." (HT: http://archive.org/stream/prophetsofrestor00moor/prophetsofrestor00moor_djvu.txt for the text.)

I wasn't familiar with the Hebrew word herem or cherem, so I looked it up in Strong's Concordance... "physical (as shutting in) a net (either literally or figuratively); usually a doomed object; abstr. extermination:--(ac-)curse(-d, -d thing), dedicated thing, things which should have been utterly destroyed, (appointed to) utter destruction, devoted (thing)."

May God turn the hearts of the fathers to us, and give us ears to hear, and impart to us a holy fear, that we might tremble at His Word and be shaken out of our sinful presumption, and repent and humble ourselves, that we might take heed to this grave warning, so we might cast off any and all fleshly means and scatter them as unclean things! ("There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.... In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death." ~ Prov. 14:12, 25-26)... so we might zealously embrace, jealously guard, and skillfully use God's own supernatural provision for His Church:  the sword and arms!

And by the same principle of interpretation that we have applied to the previous verse, do we extend this warning to every age of the Church, and find in it the germ of the solemn admonition of Paul in discussing the same subject, (Rom. 11:20, 21,)  "Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee."

Just over four years ago, in March 2009, I began this website. In the years prior to that time, I'd begun to see things seemed awry and amiss in some way in the Church, and that somehow we were falling short of what God intended, but it was all pretty vague to me... At first I began to look into emergent/missional theology as a solution. But then, all glory to God, I was set right, as I purchased Martyn Lloyd-Jones' (the Doctor's) commentary on First John ("Life in Christ"). Through reading the Doctor's words there and elsewhere, I was enabled to begin to go back to the Word of God (to Whom can we go?!) to see God's diagnosis and God's solution for God's Church, which is found in Acts 6:4:  But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Or, as the 19th century Welsh Calvinistic fathers put it:  "the sword and arms" of the Church. (Please see my posts here and here for more on that.)

In regard to myself, over the past few years, God has given me a burden to pray for the Church to be reformed and revived, and He has continued to increase that burden. I recently wrote that "I am ten thousand times more convinced, if possible, or I would say I am ten thousand times ten thousand times more convinced of the vital necessity for us to be praying for revival than I was when I first started this blog four years ago." Part of my journey has been chronicled on this site. And, along with that burden, in spite of many temptations to despair and to quit, God has been faithful to sustain me and to work in me both the desire and the ability to pray for the Church to be reformed and revived ~ Phil. 2:12-14; Heb. 13:20-21. I still feel I am a tyro in prayer (that word "tyro" one ML-J used quite often). I don't believe I have really prayed through the power of the Holy Spirit and prevailed in prayer like Jacob more than a dozen times in my life –– but like Elijah, I have sometimes been surprised to find that in praying, the Holy Dove has descended, and I have prayed! Isaiah 26:12; Psalm 118:23; Psalm 115:1!

Both the Bible and Church history provide us with a plumb line by which we ought to judge ourselves. Studying the Bible as well as studying Church history are wholly necessary to the Church's spiritual health and welfare. It's far too easy for us to discard the Bible, and it's also far too easy for us to discard the rich heritage of Church history. It's too easy for us to engage in what C.S. Lewis called "chronological snobbery," –– to think that we in the 21st century are so far advanced that the Bible and our God-fearing fathers have nothing at all to teach us. Scripture has some very strong words for people with such attitudes:

Hosea 5
10  The princes of Judah have become
like those who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11  Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after filth.
12  But I am like a moth to Ephraim,
and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

My friends, are we but grasshoppers compared with the fathers? Are we not in a day of small things? Has not our contentment with small things blighted us?

Along with the publishers of the Elias book, my prayer is that God may be pleased to use the pages of my blog (as well as my prayers) to remind us of the vital necessity of using the "sword and arms of the Church'"; "to further a recovery of the light and power of the gospel at a time when contentment with small things has blighted us all!;" and to strengthen us in faith and stir us up in fervent prayer...

Or, in the words of Malachi:  may God be gracious to us and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children!

Or, as Iain Murray put it:  may God restore to us "the wisdom, the piety and the grace that was in the fathers," that the hearts of the fathers for the sword and arms would appear in us, that our hearts here in the 21st century would be rekindled to treasure and to skillfully use the sword and arms, and prevail with God in prayer as the fathers did, that the Word of the Lord might speed ahead and be glorified throughout all the nations to the praise, honor, and glory of God!

"Prayers and pains through faith in Christ will do anything." ~ John Eliot

Or, you can add my WordPress blog to your reader of choice by using the RSS feed:

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Or, if you'd like to receive e-mail updates from my WordPress site, you can sign up with Blogtrottr, using the button below:

At this point, I'm not expecting to do much of anything on my WP site until closer to the July 15 date. If Xanga does end up shutting down, Lord willing, I'm hoping to open up another site on WP devoted to carrying over this site there, but the name "tentofmeeting" was already taken there (Grr!), so I'm waiting on that. My naphtalideer.wordpress.com site will be a place of contact no matter what, because even if Xanga does continue, there will be some downtime to get things ported over to the new system here, so I'll be providing updates through my WordPress site. I'll be periodically repeating this announcement on my blog here in the coming month.

As I've considered this time of transition, there have been times I've sinned as I've taken my eyes off Jesus, and I've become distressed and worried; and I've continued to be tempted to feel the same way... but as I look back over my blogging years here at Xanga, and look ahead not knowing how things will look in just a month, all I can say is that I'm thankful to God for the opportunity He has given me here, and that it has been a privilege and blessing be able to blog here –– but first and foremost I am thankful that God unconditionally set His love upon me in Christ and chose me to be His child before time began, and has written my name in heaven! ~ Luke 10:20.

I usually devote the comments section below to prayer; so as God leads you, please feel free to add a prayer there. However, if you have any questions or there's any way I can assist you, I welcome your questions and comments below as well.

Yours in Christ, seeking your joy, for the reviving of Christ's Church, for the joy of the nations, for the joy and glory and renown of God Himself,

Karen

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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.

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:

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:

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!

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.

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:

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:

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.

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.

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Dear brothers and sisters whose hearts are seeking His face and longing to see revival in our own hearts and in the Church as a whole,

I know I have not been posting here so frequently as of late, but I hope and pray your hearts are continuing to burn with holy desire, that our LORD rends the heaven and God's holy fire falls fresh upon His Church once again. (I would invite you to be checking out my other sites here and here for many of the things I write reflect my desire for revival to come once again.)

We can be assured that God always has a faithful remnant who are continuing to worship Him and Spirit and in truth and are seeking His face for revival in the Church. Let us not be weary in well doing. For those of us He has called to be watchmen, may His grace work in us to strengthen us so we might not be silent at His throne in the heavenlies or be silent in our congregations here on the earth as His love constrains and compels us.

There are so many wonderful promises for us in that 62nd chapter of Isaiah that we can take hold of and pray for the Church today. I would encourage you to read it and reflect on it and to pray it. We know that the LORD has not deserted us. We see His love there. Though we look and feel desolate and forsaken, our LORD reminds us that He has not forsaken us, in spite of our sinfulness, for His covenant mercies for us in Jesus Christ are secure, we are the bride of Christ and He delights over us for Jesus' sake! He calls us the Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD; and promises that we shall be Sought Out, and A City Not Forsaken.

In spite of what we see throughout much of the Church today, in spite of the ruins and dry bones that are so prevalent, we know the LORD continues to have a glorious plan for His people. His desire is that His glory would come into the midst and would shine once again, that we might be a praise in the earth, a crown of glory and a royal diadem in His hand, so the nations might stream to Him and He might be highly exalted and Jesus Christ preeminent.

May we not let our grief and dismay over the dry bones and our importunity discourage and paralyze us, but may the Spirit sanctify that grief and dismay and turn it into a holy desire that burns in our hearts, a deep Spirit-led abiding conviction to seek revival and see revival come again. May the sight of the ruins and the dry bones drive us to knees to intercede with boldness and lift us to our feet to proclaim Jesus Christ with boldness. May we not hold peace or keep silent, but continue to make mention of the living God, to continue to lift up the living and true Christ in the midst of the valley of dead and dry bones in which many of us find ourselves, congregations which have a form of godliness but who deny the power of the living God, where the living word has been replaced with the external tablets of stone, where the Gospel truth has been exchanged for a lie.

May we not give our LORD rest until He makes us a praise in the earth again! May His Spirit carry us along, imparting to us His supernatural strength to persevere with all longsuffering with joy, even as we see little or no life at times. He has promised to work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, so we can trust Him to provide strength to persevere in prayer and proclamation, to fulfill His calling to be watchmen. Let us continue to eat of Christ's promises for as we do so, we eat of Christ Himself. May those promises in His Word becoming sweet to us, become truly living food to sustain us to walk in the good works He has ordained for us, much like our Lord who said His meat was to do His Father's will.

May we look up to heaven and ask Him to look down and see and to come again...and to keep asking. To ask that His zeal and might come down, that He be stirred and show compassion on us again.

O LORD, our Father, our Redeemer, You do know us. We are Your children, Your chosen people, Your holy nation. Thank You for choosing us and calling us to Yourself and for doing for us what we could not do: for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ to die for us while we were weak and powerless. Your love, mercy and grace were set upon us before the foundation of the world! You loved us first.

We stand before you and confess our total inability. Just as we were dead and unable to save ourselves in the first place, we confess we are weak and powerless and apart from You we can do nothing to revive our own souls or the Church. We confess our need for Your Spirit's power to come to us again and revive us. We have no hope or strength or wisdom apart from You.

Be merciful and gracious and loving to us once again. Return for our sake! Return for Your Name's sake! We confess Your sanctuary has been trampled down. We confess we have not guarded the Gospel as we ought. The Precious Cornerstone has become a stumbling stone. We confess we have not guarded our hearts as we ought. We have become like those over whom You never ruled. Come and break and soften our hard hearts. Put Your Godly fear into us: a greater sense that You are a consuming Fire and we deserve nothing from You but wrath and eternal punishment, and yet in Your sovereign grace, You chose to show love to us, to grant mercy and grace to us to save us from just condemnation for our sin and to free us from power of sin, to translate us from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Your Son. O wonderful Lord, help us to know in greater measure Your glory: the glory in which grace and truth met, where justice and mercy kissed. The glory that overlooks all our sin and makes us righteous because You provided the propitiation for all our sins in Jesus Christ and counted His righteousness to our account by grace through faith. We confess and give you thanks and praise that it is only by Your grace, by Your covering us and clothing us with Christ's perfect righteousness that we stand before You. Holy God, be kind to us, we are Your people the sheep of Your pasture, lead us now to repentance. Give us ears to hear. Take our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh and put Your Spirit into us in a fresh and new way. Come again and set us free to live by You and to You as You have intended.

Yes, Jesus Christ came at the incarnation over 2000 years ago, but let us have eyes to see ourselves and the Church as a whole through His eyes, and pray He might come again in glory to revive us again. Where is the glory today in the Church? Are we not rightly called Ichabod today in so many places because we are living so far below the glory God intends for us? We have made lively religion into a dead ceremony. We have taken the living promises of the Word of God and not believed them to be true for us. Are we not captive, in dire need of deliverance from our worldly thoughts and concepts of God and His power? Are we not guilty of quenching, grieving and limiting God? Are we not become much like the religious authorities in Jesus' day and that of the early Church, whom Jesus called whitewashed tombs and whom Stephen described as stiff-necked and always resisting the Holy Spirit? We are in sore need of our Emmanuel coming again to free the Church from our captivity and reliance on the power and strength of men. May He send His glory to us once again! May He come to us again – no, not to ransom us – for the ransom was paid once for all! – but may Emmanuel come again revive us again! May our mourning become joy unspeakable as He comes into our midst again and He establishes us and He makes us a praise in the earth! But in the meantime we can rejoice in the sure hope that our God desire to revive us again – far more than any of us do – and continue steadfastly as watchmen on the walls in prayer and proclamation in eager anticipation of His coming!

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

* * *

This Advent, as you commemorate and celebrate Christ's first coming at the incarnation, will you please join me in earnest prayer He might come afresh and anew in power to revive us again?

We can be hopeful and rejoice for we can be assured that Emmanuel shall come to us for we know our God not only delights in us but delights in steadfast love! He is love!

Your sister in Christ, seeking His face for revival in the Church, rejoicing that Emmanuel will surely come again!

Karen