THE RAIN OF REVIVAL

It's raining--and I am glad! We needed it. Everything was so dry. Now, the earth will be refreshed.

Spiritually, we can become dry also. Did you hear about the preacher--notorious for being boring--whose sermon notes blew out the window, were eaten by a cow, and dried up? It's funny--sort of. The sad reality is that many church services start at 11:00 sharp and end at 12:00 dull--so said the old evangelist Vance Havner.

Our singing may be more suited for the funeral home. Our prayers may be a dull recital of the same tiresome phrases. Our sermons may get a response of "Ho-hum," more often than, "Hallelujah." The only time some members get stirred up is when someone removes a Home Interiors picture that has faded or relocates a worn-out couch that has gathered dust for decades.

We need revival! I need it for sure! Let us pray that God will open the heavens and rain down revival! Peter preached this: "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord," (Acts 3:19).

If you are able, I hope you can join several other Haywood Baptists on Sunday night, September 29, at Woodland Baptist Church at 6 PM. We will pray for a time of refreshing. We will worship with singing We will sit under the Word of God and hear the Spirit speak. We will gather together in unity.

I think of the old hymn that expresses this truth:

There shall be showers of blessing:

This is the promise of love;

There shall be seasons refreshing,

Sent from the Savior above.

There shall be showers of blessing—

Precious reviving again;

Over the hills and the valleys,

Sound of abundance of rain.

There shall be showers of blessing;

Send them upon us, O Lord!

Grant to us now a refreshing;

Come, and now honor Thy Word.

There shall be showers of blessing;

O that today they might fall,

Now as to God we’re confessing,

Now as on Jesus we call!

There shall be showers of blessing,

If we but trust and obey;

There shall be seasons refreshing,

If we let God have His way.

Chorus: Showers of blessing,

  Showers of blessing we need;

Mercy-drops round us are falling,

    But for the showers we plead.

God's heart is to revive His people. Do we have the heart to seek Him?

Yours in Praying for a Downpour,

Dennis Thurman, AMS