'Revive Us Again'

Acts 2:42-47

 The Fellowship of the Believers

 ⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. 

This scripture, describing the heart of the first century church, is always a high calling. Yet it should be the norm for all churches, everywhere. Sadly, few of our churches live up to this and far too many don't even care to try. It is a challenge, but I know God wants it this way, or else why would the scriptures be there that draw out this example?

For the beginning of this year, our church is undergoing a revival of sorts. We really want to get back to that first century church mentality and get ourselves back to being devoted to the right things. In order to do so, we had a solemn assembly, which is a time of group confession (if your church has never done, you should strongly suggest it...it cleanses the collective heart like nothing else!), and we had a three day fast together. As a church we spent 2 hours in spiritual reading on one day of the fast, 2 hours of prayer the next, and added a fast from 'the world' (basically TV and entertainment sorts of things...internet surfing, radio, and the like) on the last day. Tonight, we are getting together to rededicate ourselves to the cause of Christ and to break our fast together. It has been a gut wrenching (in mores ways than one) and soul reviving few days to say the least!

What has become painfully obvious to me through this time, is that I have almost completely lost my focus on the important things. My relationship with God has been poor. I used to read my bible on a daily basis, but lost that consistency some time ago. I used to share my faith on a regular basis, but that has waned as well...no surprise considering how poor my times with God have been! It's amazing how Satan gets us to focus on things that just aren't that important. How he makes things seem so pressing and so worthy of our attention and he gets us to take our eyes and our minds off of that which is of the utmost importance. How many times have I needed to pray and thoughts of all that I need to get done came streaming into my head? All of the sudden my 'To Do' List is attacking me!! How many times have I needed to share my faith, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but I get flooded with thoughts of fear, or other things that I was supposed to buy that I forgot or calls I needed to make on the way home? How many times have I needed to read my bible, yet I get distracted with a chore needing to be done, or a errand that must be run? I get so focused on work, or my 'plans', or my kids, or my stomach, or my fitness, or my whatever...that I just don't get with God.

My focus is so easily lost on nonsense. I watch alot of TV, watching and listening to SportsCenter or the exploits of the 'Cape', yet I don't listen much to my God and read about his exploits in the Word. I surf the net alot, reading about the world around me, but not nearly enough do I connect with my God, to get the proper perspective about that same world. I like to listen to the radio and the playful banter of sportstalk radio, but yet I so often fail to listen to the Creator, as he tries to guide me in the way everlasting. I get into my video games, playing a warrior on a battlefield against the enemy, and I too often fail to realize I am God's warrior, on a field of battle for lost souls, against a real enemy, who is far more nastier than Darth Vader or the Nazi Regime of WWII. Sigh....It really is time to get back to what is important...to get revived from my state of spiritual coma! I think you get my slightly belabored point....we need to get back to focusing on the Lord!

To this end, I decided, as a result of my time of fasting, to dedicate one hour a day, for the rest of this year, to my relationship with God. To take it up a notch and to quit allowing my schedule to run me. To really devote a significant portion of my day to the one who should be receiving the most of my attention. It's going to be challenging and a part of me wonders if I should even put this in writing, but I know it is something I must do, for my own good and the good of my household and my brothers and sisters in the Lord! So, here goes...and feel free to ask me how it is going...accountability is always good!

As we shared in the solemn assembly, it was truly saddening to see how this was happening to most of us. But, the great thing about this last few days, is that I know great change is coming!  What changes do you need to make? What do you need to repent of ? Many of us have made resolutions at the beginning of the year that we have deemed important. But how many of those resolutions revovled around your spirituality? Let's really challenge each other and decide to take it higher than we ever have before and to push ourselves to a deeper connection with our Holy Father. No resolution, dedication, or recommittment, will be better and more beneficial to you that this one!