I’ve been to my fair share of revivals. A long time ago church leaders noticed a certain dullness to the spiritual lives of their congregation. This dullness led church leaders to program; because programming is human replacement for the Spirit. Normally, revivals are a multi-night affair; an attempt to stir up the Spirit of God through songs and sermons. If I sound a bit critical it is because I am. Churches can no more schedule a move of God as an ant can schedule the weather. Do we really think our singing, dancing and sermonizing will MAKE God move?

In the modern church I’ve been asked to “hype” people up before services. Let me make this clear; a true move of God will not happen because of hype. Why do we think God will move if people are excited? If God moves people will be excited, He doesn’t need us to hype Him up. God is full of glory and wonder, and when humans are met by this beautiful God it is powerful! When we by way of the flesh, try to manifest that which is spiritual we are fake, disingenuous, and hypocritical.

In Amos 5:21 God proclaims, “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.” By our actions we say we can control and manipulate the Spirit of God; we can make Him appear and disappear at our whim. By our religious planning we set the rules for God. God is powerful. His Spirit comes and goes by His own will alone. We are fools to think that t-shirts, music, lights and A-list speakers have any influence on a true move of God.

And so we have short bursts of emotional response with no lasting change in the church. We stir our hearts until we cry and we sing until we elicit an emotion. After that we leave our “revival” unchanged. I have been to my fair share of revivals; but I’ve never been revived because of them.

True revival doesn’t come with eloquent speakers, but by a still small voice. True revival doesn’t come by way of rehearsed music, but it does create spontaneous song. True revival isn’t dressed in loud clamoring, it is accompanied by thick silence. True revival comes hand in hand with death. If you want to experience revival lock yourself in your closet, and keep doing it until God shows up; on His schedule not yours.

I like the 1920’s and I often imagine what it would be like to live in such a classy era. The lights, the glam, the music, everything was so ostentatious. America has changed a good deal since the jazz age. One thing that remains is our love for extravagance, and no greater evidence can be given than our diets. We eat things that are beyond extravagant. Everything we eat is brightly colored, larger than life (almost a parody of itself), and seasoned, spiced and flavored artificially.

Grand feast days of the past are simply a Tuesday night for us. Is that wrong? Is it wrong to eat so much, consume so many delicious things? Yes, it certainly is. Now let’s not be people of the law and force ourselves into ascetism. But let us not justify our gluttony or try and excuse it away. Take a second to ponder: many of our foods are considered evil. We have deviled eggs, devil food cakes and cookies, “That cake was simply sinful”. The term decadent (which is often used to describe food) means immoral. But we speak in our tongue in cheek sort of way and excuse ourselves. I am not meaning to imply that food is good or evil, but I am making the claim that we know that our eating habits can be good or evil.

I suggest a change, let’s eat modestly. There is no need for us to spend our money on unnecessary food and extravagant fare. This raises the question; “what is a modest meal”. There’s no rule or regulation, there is only balance. Three things you must remember; occasion, measure, and integrity. In consideration for our food we must consider the occasion, or even the reason why we are eating. I found myself eating an ice cream sandwich in the middle of a workday. Its that sort of thing that we know is wrong because it isn’t the appropriate occasion. Is it wrong to eat birthday cake? Only, perhaps, if it is unknown who’s birthday it is. We ought not eat as if we’re celebrating when we are not.

If we are eating for the right reason and the occasion is correct for us to eat, then we should consider the measure of food we ought to eat. Again, there is an argument made for eating more on special occasions, but in the west, we are guilty of overeating. I could go to the trouble of looking up statistics but it’s not a hotly contested fact. We must consider how much is reasonable. And that brings up an important point. Eating must become less informed by our feelings and controlled by our reason. This is a difficult task, no doubt, but an imperative one.

Lastly, in order to eat modestly we should eat food that has the integrity of being real food. Things that are extracted and processed are almost never good for us. We must make a conscious decision to eat real food. Again, there’s no law to what real food is, but I believe in your intelligence; you know what food is real and what is not. Before you sit down at your next meal consider these three things: Why, How much, and What Kind? Be intentional, be modest.

Where is the church going?

Are churches moving from big congregations to “house” or “organic” churches? Not really in the west. House churches are biblical, historical, efficient and reproduce rapidly. In China and other countries, the Church functions almost entirely through small bodies in houses because of persecution. When churches are planted, they’re often planted in small house churches. Big Churches that function well in America almost all have small groups that meet like a house church, because it works.

Why are we fighting?

You must ask yourself, if we know that churches function so well in a house church model why is the western church fighting tooth and nail to keep the Big church model afloat? All statistics show that most traditional churches are growing at the same rate they have 70 years ago, but population growth has nearly doubled. There’s not much doubt the big church model is struggling. However, just because it’s struggling doesn’t mean it’s wrong. I’m not condemning the big church model.

If big churches are struggling in America, while house churches are thriving all over the world we have an obligation to seek God’s desire for the church. Does He desire that we continue to build churches the way the west has built them for the last 1,000 years (give or take), or does He want us to focus on house churches (2,000 years not including the synagogues of the old testament)? I will not make this a dogmatic statement, as there is still utility in the current model. The Church must actively pursue house churches.

What now?

This is not a reaction to culture. The move to house churches is and must be a response to the work of God. For the last few decades more and more churches are adopting house churches as a part of their ministry but tightly holding on to the western model. It is passed time that we let go of this model and embrace a new model. In many ways we are impeding the work of God by trying to preserve and revive a model. It is only a model, a tool for a time gone by. The church does not need buildings, or buses, it needs intimacy and care.

I have committed more sin as a christian than before I met Jesus. I think a great many christians in our generation identify with that statement. We could spend time detailing just how we’ve committed sin, we could list all sorts of evil things we’ve done. Honestly, it wouldn’t be worth the time. I will, however, tell you what happens when a follower of Jesus sins. 

When a christian sins it is not because God has made him sin. Your sin is always because your sinful nature. Often people will attempt to justify their sin because it is “natural”. It may in fact be natural but it is God’s desire nor is it good! Take for instance murder, rape, or stealing; these types of behavior are found in nature, but they are evil! Holiness is against our nature, because it is the product of the Holy Nature of God. Your sin is only a product of your sinful Nature. 

When a christian sins he does not merely brush off his actions. The christian, who has the Spirit of God within him, is broken over his sin. He does not justify, he does not hide his sin. He walks to Jesus and with a broken heart seeks mercy. The greatest thing a christian can do is to love mercy. If the church sought mercy with the same intensity that Jesus did the world would be transformed. If you love mercy, you love receiving it and giving it! 

When a christian sins he takes the broken pieces to Jesus. There is a pervasive lie in the world; “because my sin comes naturally, it must not be sin at all.” That leads many people into a lifestyle of destruction. The christian must walk differently. We must acknowledge the existence of our sin. We must also acknowledge the cost of our sin. It is our sin that has separated us from God. Our sin breaks up our relationships on earth. It is our nature that causes death. 

The world might be okay “redefining” their sin, but the christian accepts his sin and takes it to Jesus for removal. 

One of the fundamental attributes of humanity is our ability to tell what is right, and what is wrong. If you look at animals there is no such understanding. Primates, like the chimpanzee, engage in some truly awful behavior by moral standards. Rape, murder, incest, pedophilia, revenge killings and stealing are just a day in the life for most of the natural world. 

We possess inside our souls an understanding of right and wrong. Now some of it may be shaped by the culture around us, but it is undeniable that there’s something deeper. That thing deep inside of us is the law of God. 

If you do not believe in God than all morality is based on your preference. For instance if we have evolved from ancient primates then incest, rape, murder and theft are all perfectly acceptable actions, because after all they are things you prefer. Also actions like sacrificing your life for someone else is not good, in fact it’s a bit foolish. 

This does not mean you can’t do good things unless you believe in God. It means that no action is good or bad at all. Unless God is the foundation of good or bad, right and wrong are an illusion. 

For instance; is there a difference between killing thousands of crickets and killing thousands of humans? If we are all animals, no more innately valuable than the other, there is no real difference. If humans are made in the image of God and are more valuable because of it, then there is a difference! 

The atheist has very little footing when it comes to morality, he must admit that without God there is no objective good or bad. What we are seeing today is an increase of this problem. Everything is right and everything is wrong in society and it really only depends on personal preference.

As our society in the west becomes more secular our laws will become more subjective and harder to enforce. Without a clear right or wrong our current chaos will only widen and deepen. We will trade the law of God for the law of the jungle.