Revival

A friend popped this question at me today. "Do you think that this place is spiritually dead?" I was taken aback. I asked for explanation. He related the lack of enthusiasm, passion for the things of the Lord and undignified worship. People do not care going to church and that personal relationship with the Lord seem so distant. Christianity here is just like any other religion and the absence of a personal walk with the Lord is apparent. I wondered why he said that.

You know the incident in the bible where the Lord cursed a fig tree and it died? Jesus said that since it did not bear fruits, it should go. Which brought to mind that if we have a personal walk with the Lord, our lives will show. Our actions and words can tell. Others can see the joy in us even without us telling them. I often forget to reflect. I go on living the way I thought it should be lived. How wrong is thay? Or how correct is that? My housemate told me that I speak like her now and that I'm getting lamer. Haha. Am I? Perhaps. She could see me better than I see myself. It was either a piece of truth from her observation or she was just annoying me.

But I did realise that I speak differently here. The tongue seems to flex easier and with that came a lot of unnecessary words. I sometimes used words that I never use at home. I comment more. I complain more. We gossiped more. Ironically, I read the Bible less. I'm less gracious. My conduct probably praise the Lord less. This isnt right. Where is the "more of Him and less of me?"

Lord, I need help.

My friend went on saying that he wants to see revival. Because of my background, I understand the word revival very little. What does he mean? I pressed for details. He wants to see people being more passionate for Christ. But what happens after the revival? People slump back into their original conditions. I have this idea in mind. Is revival a some sort of climax that you reach where everyone go all out for the Lord? What happens next? Do we then go down the valley of natural conditions? And then what? Another climax?

What if we get ourselves right before the Lord and live lives right? Develop that personal relationship with the Lord. The word worship in its original language means to kiss on the cheeks. This is a very personal greeting. To kiss the Lord on His cheeks would mean having a very personal and ongoing and growing relationship with Him. Just as we make new friends, we move from normal handshake to hugs (Where applicable!) . So, we move from being normal friends to closer ones. It's a very poor analogy but it explains. So..how do we worship the Lord? The Bible recommends this, "In Spirit and in Truth."

In Spirit would mean to have the Holy Spirit living in us, which would bring us to the fact that we have to first believe in Him, accept Him as our Saviour before anything else can begin. Just as we have to know a person before being friends. And from there, the friendship develops.

And to develop a friendship, we have to communicate with them, make time and get to know them. How do we get to know our Lord? The bible. He left that for us so that we can read about Him and getting to know Him. Both are different. I can know about a person and not knowing him. Haha..as weird as this sounds, it's true. I have friends who tell me about their friends. Because of this, I know their existance and about them but not knowing them because we havent met and introduced to each other.

But practically speaking, how do we go about in this? The words in the Bible should be practical enough. We should encourage each other to read the Bible more and growth begins automatically. However, He prepared different paths for each of us. Which make each of our relationship with Him so personal and unique. Which also sadly explains how come we cant understand and help each other out during trials because we are not in each other shoes. But we can uphold each other in prayer. What better support can we give? It would be good to really remember each other in prayers. The Lord and He answers. He may take a longer time but He never shuts His ears.