June 10th Devotional

Read:

James 1:21,22,26

21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

In India, a native wrote to friend about a great revival in the area and he said, “We are having a great rebible here!” Revival means "new life" and it always starts with the bible totally saturating His bride through the bride repenting for the condition of the church.Throughout history we see Christendom with many distinctions that mark a particualar denomination. We have the baptists' that center on conversion and evangelism, eastern ortodox denomination that even centers on pentecostal gifts', the reformed church who centers on justification by faith, and pentecostal which is motivated by revelation and power of the baptism. You can get revelation from different types of denominations, but wouldn't it be nice if we could just be the new testament church. It would be nice to have a bit of each denomination and just be the church, going forth in our calling, advancing God's Kingdom, and moving forth in the power of the Holy Spirit, yet rooted in sound doctrine. If you look at each type of denomination, you will see what they empasize is clearly taught in scripture. We see sacrament taught in scripture, conversion is definitely an essential to our protestant belief, the power of the Holy spirit is taught, and we see doctrine is taught as well. Sometimes though we see a particular denomination lift there head up in arrogance and say, "We are right, and you are wrong!" This will absolutely kill revival, because the world sees this hate among the protestants. Its amazing to see when something is wrong with our society, you will see some reformed group get together and make a declaration or some type of article dealing with a particular thing. There's nothing wrong with bringing forth sound doctrine and truth to a certain situation that needs to be dealt with, but I'm talking about the venom that is sometimes shot through the veins of the church. This can kill the fire of a productive church. Revival shoud be a lifestyle and not just a season. You can see some strengths and weaknesses in different denominations, but before a powerful pure revival can break lose, we have got to bind together and be the church. We sometimes get so caught up with fads and theologically issues, that we lose sight with what we are really here for. Revival shouldn't be confined within the four walls of the church building, but should be out on the highways and byways. Our devotional life should be a revival. Our lifestyle should be changed day by day to reflect Christ more and more, and so we what we really need is a rebible. We need to let the word of God weed out and water the seed that is engrafted within us. We have a garden within us, and that garden has been unattended and the church has lost it's fire. The world has lost it's faith because the church has lost it's fire. I want us to concentrate on three things in this devotion that will bring forth a great revival in our world again. One, recieve the engrafted word which will pull out the weeds and rocks of sin out of our soul for revival to spring up again. Two, we need to be a doer of the word of God and not just a hearer only, and this will bring forth a salt to this world as we become a living epistle right before their eyes. Three, we need to watch the words we speak out by the power of the Holy spirit and our daily devotion. Lets get the bible back in the church, and watch and see how a rebible will bring forth a revival.
Prayer:

Lord, we ask that you will forgive us for attacking each other, and we pray that you help us bind together as one body. Help us to hold hands with one another with such a great seriousness of sacrament, yet rooted in good doctrine, and going forth in the power of the Holy Spirit. We desire Lord for many to be converted, and we want our life to be a revival, and we know Lord that this kind of life saturated with your precious word will bring forth revival all across the land, Amen.

by Keith Edwards