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From the Director of Missions

"...And let them make haste and take up a wailing for us that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush out with waters. . . . How are we spoiled! We are greatly confounded because we have forsaken the land..." Jeremiah 9: 18—19

As many of you have noticed I cry easily these days. I honestly cannot tell you how much is a direct result of Parkinson’s and/or how much of it is a side result as God has softened my heart and I have become more intensely aware of the urgency of the times. I know that both of those elements are there.

Whatever the reason, at times it can get to be down right embarrassing! That’s especially the case in light of our cultural upbringing. From the time we are very little we are admonished, we are taught, to not be a “crybaby.” We often perceive crying as a sign of weakness or immaturity. Nobody wants to see any body coming crying and whining over virtually nothing. In fact, Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines a crybaby as one who cries or complains often with little cause.

But I guess every bit as bad, (if not worse) is to have the reverse dilemma—the inability to be brought to tears. Worse than being a crybaby is to be a “drybaby.” Worse than weeping too readily is when your own sin doesn’t break your heart and bring you to tears. Worse than being moved to tears too quickly is when looking upon the condition of our country (indeed our whole world) to not be moved to mourning. Oh, how desperately we need the presence of God to move in our midst in a powerful life-altering, heart-rending,, tear-jerking way—not only among God’s people but also among those lost in their sin and headed to hell! My, oh my, how we need revival!

That’s why we are continuing again this year as an association to encourage our churches to once more commit to a simultaneous time of praying for and seeking God in revival. The Missions Development Council in looking for the time with the least conflicts and therefore the greatest opportunity for better attendance is the time frame from February 27th through March 22nd 2011. We already have a number of churches committed to that time and encourage your church to do the same.

But as much as anything our plans for revival need to be bathed in tears. As Vance Havner (one of my favorite evangelist of the 20th century would say:

     We meet and sing and talk and pray and nothing happens that cannot be explained, Think of the many tricks by which the church apes the world. The business and financial and social methods of the age have been brought into the sanctuary, and the cleverness of man is employed to do the work of God.
     What would happen if the pastors would call all concerned Christians to gather for a night of repentance, confession, dedication and supplication? I do not mean a formal program but a prayer meeting of holy desperation. The crisis of this hour will never be met by run-of-the-mill American arrangements for staging religious meetings Only a spontaneous season of prayer born of holy desperation will do it.

What we need is exactly what (the one to whom I so readily identify these days—the one who came to be known as the “weeping prophet”) Jeremiah was crying out for in the scripture passage I shared above. As Vance Havner would say, “It’s time we invited “Mr. Wet eyes” back into the church!”

CRYING FOR REVIVAL!
CRYING FOR OUR LAND!.
CRYING FOR GOD’S PEOPLE
TO COME TAKE A STAND!

Crying, and not ashamed of it!. Will you join me as this New Year begins?

Brother Doug