A Word from the Pastor

After Revival

We have been revived! This year's revival was one that gave us all an opportunity to glory in the cross of Jesus and recommit our lives to live a Christ-centered life. The messages were biblical. The music was spiritual and uplifting. And the fellowship and worship was God-glorifying. It was a good revival. And those of us who attended it can truly say, "Our church has been revived!"

But what does a revived church do? After the meetings are over and we seek to live out our newly made commitments within the ministries of the church, what does that revived church do? It does what any living thing does: It lives and moves and goes and reproduces itself.

First comes the living. The apostle Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). After revival, we should be committed to living Christ's life, not our own life. Some things should be different about our attitudes and our actions. We should be more like Christ now than ever before.

Second comes the moving. In our case, we are to move by walking. We are to walk in the newness of life. We are to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. We are to walk by faith. We are to walk in good works: "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

The third thing every living thing does is go. Every living thing goes from one place to another. The first Church in Jerusalem was commanded to go from Jerusalem to Judea, then to Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the world. In our time, we must ask ourselves in what direction does Jesus want us to go?

Last of all, every living thing reproduces itself. Jesus said "I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit" (John 15:5). He also said, "You are to go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:19-20). Each Christian is to be involved in reproducing other Christians, and each church is to reproduce other churches. We need only read through the Book of Acts to understand how the early church was faithful in carrying out its work for the Lord.

Revival is over. But as a revived and living church, we are to live and move and go and reproduce our self. May we be as faithful in carrying out the work Christ has commissioned us to do, as was the church before us.