The following is from http://www.new-life.net/cortshp4.htm and is reproduced to spark discussion. If you come across this, please give your thoughts by anonymous feedback via the COMMENTS below.
While it is important that all singles prayerfully investigate this issue as preparation for the future, the following questions should only be asked in a serious way when there is sincere interest in and desire to pursue a particular person.
Do I have a sense that this individual is God's choice for my life partner? (Courtship is a season in which this "sense from the Lord" will be confirmed and tested. Yet, it's important that you do not view this time as "Christian dating" or "going steady.")
Am I willing to solicit counsel concerning my readiness to enter into courtship before any discussion of it with the person in mind? (Counsel should entail character, emotional, financial and spiritual readiness.)
Am I willing to spend the majority of my time with the person I am courting in group settings where we can best get to know one another and protect ourselves from tempting situations?
Am I willing to treat this person with respect, courtesy and self - control; being careful to be led by the Spirit in the way in which we relate (especially in the area of physical contact)?
Do I understand the value and importance of soliciting the advice, input and insights of others during this season to best maximize what I can learn about myself and my potential spouse in preparation for engagement?
Do I view courtship as a time of deepening the spiritual and emotional aspects of our relationship while resisting the pre-mature tendency to become physically involved?
Am I willing to invest of myself into this relationship - seeking to overcome weaknesses that could prevent our friendship from deepening (i.e. seeking to grow in encouragement, communication skills, honoring, spiritual initiative, kindness, servanthood)?
Have this individual and I enjoyed a season of friendship? Do I understand this as the critical foundation to our future and am I willing to do my part to see it grow during this next season?
When this individual and I encounter difficulties or conflicts, am I willing to humble myself to discuss this with a more experienced couple/individual to learn how I can grow from my mistakes in communication or conflict resolution? Am I willing to handle such challenges biblically vs. "running" from them?
Knowing how natural it will be to want to focus exclusively on this relationship, am I willing to continue to pursue other God-given friendships during this time to protect others from feeling slighted or displaced?
Do I understand the importance of deepening my relationship with the Lord during this season to insure that my time with and heart for this individual does not subtly rob me of passion for Him and the church? Am I willing to invest significant times of prayer (and possibly fasting) into the future of this relationship (engagement, marriage) - trusting in God's sovereignty and resisting human striving and manipulation?
Do I understand that courtship is a season in which areas of relational lack will be exposed in myself and in this person? Am I willing to both humble myself to him/her for input and lovingly address things in his/her life as the Holy Spirit leads?
Am I willing to make/have contact(s) with this individual's family to allow them to get to know me better?
Am I willing to sensitively expose any past sin or pertinent issues with this person that would be important for him/her to know before our relationship develops into engagement?
Should it become clear that God is not leading this relationship into engagement/marriage, I am willing to accept this and take personal responsibility for any lack or mistakes on my part?
At the point at which you feel you are able to answer the above questions affirmatively, you are ready to prayerfully consider discussing your intentions with a trusted advisor for input. At that time, you may want to share the above questions with him/ her for their assessment. The keys to a successful and meaningful discussion will be clarity and humility on your part. Clearly communicate your interest in the individual and humbly ask for counsel and advice concerning your readiness to embark on this "journey." Remember that your advisor (home group leader, pastor, or etc.) has your best interest - and that of the individual you desire to pursue - at heart.
After this conversation - which should be an undistracted time vs. "catching" him/her at a meeting or on the telephone - you will then know how to proceed. As the confirmation you need and desire occurs, only then should you discuss this issue with the person with whom you desire to enter courtship. As a man it is, of course, your privilege to be the initiator in this venture. (See below.) Your discussion about potential courtship with the lady in your life should end with giving her the opportunity to prayerfully consider this decision as you have. She, too, will want to assess herself in the above ways.
SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS FOR MEN
As a man, you have the God-given privilege and responsibility to be the primary initiator and to provide a spiritually healthy environment in the special relationship that will eventually lead to marriage. In a society where men are tempted - and even encouraged - to renege in these areas, God is raising up a company of single men who are willing to eagerly embrace this responsibility.
In addition to the basic questions above, you will want to prayerfully consider the following issues:
Am I willing and ready to pursue God and others for help in areas I lack readiness to be a Godly husband?
Am I able and eager to be a provider for a wife and children? (Although you may not plan for your future spouse to not work outside the home or may want to delay starting a family, these decisions are sometimes "taken out of your hands." The issue of ability to provide - even from the beginning - is important to consider.) Am I willing to pursue financial help and counseling if needed (i.e. revising/getting on a budget, decreasing/getting out of debt, making necessary adjustments to my lifestyle/standard of living to better prepare for marriage)?
Am I willing to treat and relate to this woman in the way I would desire my daughter to be treated by a man (gentlemanly politeness, physical contact, thoughtfulness, etc.)?
Am I willing to grow in areas of communication - especially in learning to share my heart with her; draw out her emotions and feelings; honor her need to know me and be known by me? Is this important enough to me to solicit help from others in areas of weakness?
Am I willing to grow in leadership - especially in areas of spiritual zeal; growing in personal pursuit of God; taking an interest in her relationship with the Lord; initiating praying about issues/decisions we face; overcoming self-consciousness or insecurity about spiritual leadership? Do I value the role of the husband and father over career advancement and financial gain?
Do I respect this woman? Am I eager to value her thoughts, ideas and opinions without being irresponsible as a leader? Am I willing to highly esteem her opinions when considering decisions about our relationship?
SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS FOR LADIES
As a woman, you have been given the unique challenge and privilege of being the responder and provider of spiritual inspiration in the relationship with the man you will eventually marry. Many Christian single women find it challenging to trust in God' s sovereignty concerning their life partner by giving in to manipulation, striving and trying to "force" a relationship through human effort.
In addition to the basic questions above, you will want to prayerfully consider the following issues:
Am I willing and ready to pursue God and others for help in areas I lack readiness to be a Godly wife - trusting him to do the same in his life vs. seeking to "become his conscience"? Do I value the role of wife and mother over career advancement?
Am I willing to resist the temptation to be the pacesetter in this relationship (trust him to hear from the Lord concerning the timing/pace of the relationship; allowing him to fulfill his role as the primary initiator; resisting the temptation to "make plans" until the appropriate time)?
Am I willing to be careful of my expectations of him? Do I understand the importance of contentment and gratitude, especially for his ability to provide for a family? Am I eager to overcome and then resist temptation to worldliness in external areas including the kind of house, car, etc. he may provide? Will I be patient with him in areas of weaknesses or inexperience, especially concerning the emotional and spiritual aspects of our friendship? Am I willing to passionately pursue my relationship with the Lord in order to grow in Him and spiritually inspire this special man in my life?
Am I willing to respond to and cooperate with the process of his preparation for spiritual leadership in our relationship? Am I willing to respond to his initiatives in this area without negatively comparing his ideas or plans to mine? Am I willing to continue to pursue those God-given individuals who are currently providing spiritual leadership in my life; not prematurely expecting him to "act like a husband."
Am I willing to grow in areas of communication - learning to express my encouragement and respect; valuing his need to be heard over my need to be heard; learning to draw out his feelings, concerns, dreams, etc.?
Am I willing to lovingly set aside my personal thoughts, aspirations and ambitions for the future to support his God-given goals and spiritual interests - knowing that those which have been given to me by God will happen in conjunction with, rather th an in competition with, my future spouse?
EDIT: See also this article for Christian ladies if someone is interested in you or you are interested in someone.
For the guys, go to this article if you want to know how to be a Godly Christian man.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
THis is the whole text of the "REVIVAL HYMN" - a must hear for all Christians!
(Ian Paisley) The church of Jesus Christ is largely sleeping, like a great bedroom and you have all the Christians in bed and they’re all sleeping … and they’re saying “Please, don’t wake me up! I want to sleep on!” And of course when God starts to operate a revival people cannot sleep, you can’t sleep in church when the Spirit of God awakes the people. Look at the 1st verse of this 52nd chapter…”Awake! Awake! Put on strength!” Wake it up! You’re sleepy Christians! Awake thou that sleepeth, Arise from the dead! Christ will give you life! ______________________________________________________________________ (Leonard Ravenhill) Keep this in mind from an old man, there is no finality to the Christian life this side of eternity. We pray that some of us may go to our own funeral tonight and die to self and end all the failure and all the weakness. ______________________________________________________________________ (Paris Reidhead) Why should a person come to the cross?Why should a person embrace death? With Christ?Why should a person be willing to go in identification down to the cross and into the tomb and up again? I’ll tell you why!Because it’s the only way that God can get glory out of a human being! ______________________________________________________________________ (Leonard Ravenhill) If I was to ask you tonight you were saved? Do you say ‘Yes, I am saved’. When? ‘Oh so and so preached, I got baptized and…’ Are you saved? What are you saved from, hell?Are you saved from bitterness?Are you saved from lust?Are you saved from cheating?Are you saved from lying?Are you saved from bad manners?Are you saved from rebellion against your parents?Come on, what are you saved from? _______________________________________________________________________ (Duncan Campbell) Who shall ascend the hill of God?Who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing of the Lord. ______________________________________________________________________ (Leonard Ravenhill) And there’s no room for Him in the inn.He got a bit older, there was no room in His family, His family turned on Him.He went to the temple, no room in the temple, the temple turned on Him.And when He died there was no room to bury Him, He died outside of the city.Well why in God’s Name do you expect to be accepted everywhere?How is it that the world couldn’t get on with the holiest Man that ever lived and can get on with you and me? Are we compromised? Are we compromised? Have we no spiritual stature?Have we no righteousness that reflects on their corruption? ______________________________________________________________________ (A.W.Tozer) He that is from above is above all.I want to say dear Christians don’t go around apologizing for Him.Don’t go around worried because you can’t make His doctrines fit in with what you learned in school.All you learned in school was one fallen head instructing another fallen head.And you don’t have to apologize for Him. ______________________________________________________________________ (Leonard Ravenhill) As dear Dr. Tozer used to say “Len, you knew one thing about a man that was carrying a cross out of the city, you knew he wasn’t coming back.”We just come from an altar and we go back the next week and we’re as fascinated, we haven’t spent a half hour with Jesus but will stay two stinking hours in a movie house. And Paul says that’s what the world is to me it’s a system of corruption and rottenness and vileness. It’s anti-Christ from the word go. Is the world crucified to you tonight?Or does it fascinate you? _____________________________________________________________________ (T. Austin Sparks) Do we not need a very much greater conception of how tremendously valuable a true expression of the Church is to the Lord? It’s priceless. That the Lord give us more of this anguish for His Church as a whole…. and then …it will be precious to Him. ______________________________________________________________________ (Duncan Campbell) When God stepped down, suddenly, men and women all over the parish were gripped by the fear of God. God are my hands clean?Is my heart pure? The moment that that happened in the barn, a power was let loose in Barvas that shook the whole of Lewis.God stepped down.The Holy Spirit began to move among the people and the minister writing about what happened on the following morning said this:‘You met God on meadow and moorland, you met Him in the homes of the people. God seemed to be everywhere.’ What was that?Revival?Revival!Not of evangelist’s, not of special effort, not anything at all organized on the basis of human endeavor. But an awareness of God that gripped the whole community so much so that work stopped. I can remember once within 24 hours addressing 8 meetings. Crowded churches. There was a dance in progress that night and while this young man was praying in the isle the power of God moved into that dance and the young people over a hundred of them fled from the dance as though fleeing from a plague and they made for the church. When I endeavored to get up into the pulpit I found the way blocked with young people who had been at the dance. When I went into the pulpit I found a young woman, a graduate of our Aberdeen University, who was at the dance and she is lying on the floor of the pulpit crying: “Is there mercy for me? Is there mercy for me? Is there mercy for me?” God was at work. Well that meeting continued until 4 o’clock in the morning. “Mr.Campbell, there must be anything between 2 and 300 people at the police station. They’re gathered there and some are on their knees, now I can’t understand this…”Now he wasn’t in the church, you see. But here a crowd of men and women, from a neighboring village, 5 and 6 miles away were so moved by God that they found themselves moving to the police station because the constable there was a God-fearing and well-saved man. They were there. And this young man begged of me to go along to the police station, and I went along. And I shall never, never forget what my ears heard and my eyes saw that morning. Young men were kneeling by the roadside, I think just now of a group of half a dozen.One of them under the influence of drink and his old mother kneeling beside him and saying “O Willie, Willie are you coming at last?!” “Mr. Campbell something wonderful has happened. Revival has broken out.” And Willie today is a parish minister and from the group of young men, who sought the Lord that night, there are nine in the ministry. “Will you come to the door and see the crowd that’s here?” 11 O’clock mind you, 11 O’clock, and I went to the door and there must have been a congregation of between 6 and 700 people gathered round the church. And within a matter of minutes the church was crowded, at a quarter to 12. Now where did the people come from? How did they know that a meeting was in progress in the church? Well I cannot tell you. But I know this that from village and hamlet the people came. Were you to ask some of them today ‘what was it that moved you?’ They couldn’t tell you. Only that they were moved by a power that they could not explain and the power was such as to give them to understand and see that they were hell-deserving sinners! And of course the only place they could think of where they might find help was at the church. Now that is a fact that cannot be disputed. God was everywhere and because of this awareness of God the churches were crowded. Crowded. Through the day right on through the night ’till 5 and 6 o’clock in the morning. In revival, time does not exist. Some of the mighty movement in the midst of this gracious visitation, you know that the drinking house was closed that night, never been opened since. The men who used to drink there and spend the evening there are now praying in our prayer meeting. It is because they enter into the fullness! It was because the people of Lewis grasped that truth that we can say today we know practically nothing of backsliding from that gracious movement of years ago. My dear people do you good folk understand what revival means? Have you a conception of what it means to see God working?The God of miracles.Sovereign, supernatural.Moving in the midst of men and hundreds swept into the Kingdom.Oh that we might see it, that we might see it. ______________________________________________________________________ (Song by Delirious entitled “Obsession”) “And my heart burns for you..” ______________________________________________________________________ (Leonard Ravenhill) What is your life it is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then it vanisheth away… That world outside there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity, it’s waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. ______________________________________________________________________ (Paris Reidhead) Would I be out of line in order if I were to talk to you for a little while about utilitarian religion?An expedient Christianity?And the question that you are going to ask yourself is: “Is God an end or is He a means?”You have to decide very early in your Christian life whether you are viewing God as an end or a means. ______________________________________________________________________ (Leonard Ravenhill) A more challenging question than this text, “What is your life?” ______________________________________________________________________ (Paris Reidhead) The philosophy of the day became humanism and you can define humanism this way: Humanism, is a philosophical statement that declares the end of all being is the happiness of man. The reason for existence is man’s happiness. Now according to humanism salvation is simply a matter of getting all the happiness you can out of life. This group of my people the fundamentalists that say:“We believe in the inspiration of the Bible”“We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ”“We believe in hell, we believe in Heaven”“We believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ” And remember the atmosphere is that of humanism.Humanism says the chief end of being is the happiness of man. And so it wasn’t long until we had this, the fundamentalists knew each other because they said ‘We believe these things.’ They were men for the most part that had met God. But you see it wasn’t long until having said ‘these are the things that establish us as fundamentalists’, the second generation said, “This is how we become a fundamentalist;” “Believe in the inspiration of the Bible.”“Believe in the deity of Christ.”“Believe in His death, burial, and resurrection.” And thereby become a fundamentalist.And so it wasn’t long until it got to our generation where the whole plan of salvation was to give intellectual assent to a few statements of doctrine.And a person was considered a Christian because he could say ‘Uh huh’ at 4 or 5 places that he was asked to and if he knew where to say ‘Uh huh’ someone would pat him on the back, shake his hand, smile broadly and say: “Brother, you’re saved.” ______________________________________________________________________ “At what cost” (T. Austin Sparks) ______________________________________________________________________ (Paris Reidhead) And so it had gotten down to the place where salvation was nothing more than an assent to a scheme or a formula. And the end of this salvation was the happiness of man because humanism has penetrated. And so if you were to analyze the fundamentalism in contrast to liberalism of a hundred years ago, as it developed, it’d be like this: The liberal says the end of religion is to make man happy while he’s alive. And the fundamentalist says the end of religion is to make man happy when he dies. ______________________________________________________________________ (Leonard Ravenhill) We are still paddling on the edge of the ocean of the possibilities of grace. Put a holy dissatisfaction in us tonight. ______________________________________________________________________ (Paris Reidhead) Until we find it something like this;“Accept Jesus so you can go to Heaven, you don’t want to go to that old, filthy, nasty, burning hell when there’s a beautiful Heaven up there. Now come to Jesus so that you can go to Heaven.”And the appeal could be as much to selfishness as a couple of men sitting in a coffee shop deciding they are going to rob a bank to get something for nothing. Becomes so subtle … it goes everywhere. What is it?In essence it is this: that this philosophical postulate at the end of all being is the happiness of man has been a sort of, covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in Heaven for the happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, all the Angels exist in the… Everything is for the happiness of man! And I submit to you that this is un-Christian! Christianity says… “The end of all being is the glory of God.” Humanism says, “The end of all being is the happiness of man.” This is the betrayal of the ages!! And it’s the betrayal in which we live and I don’t see how God can revive it!Until we come back to Christianity. Isn’t man happy?And God intend to make you happy? But as a byproduct and not a prime product. Now I ask you, what is the philosophy of mission? What is the philosophy of evangelism? What is the philosophy of a Christian? If you’ll ask me why I went to Africa, I’ll tell you I went primarily, to improve on the justice of God. I didn’t think it was right for anybody to go to hell without a chance to be saved. And so I went to give poor sinners a chance to go to Heaven. No, I hadn’t put it in so many words. But if you’ll analyze what I just told you, do you know what it is? It’s humanism. But I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ as a means to improve upon human conditions of suffering and misery. And when I got to Africa, I discovered that they weren’t poor, ignorant, little heathen running around in the woods, waiting for, looking for someone to tell them how to go to Heaven. That they were a monsters of iniquity. They were living in utter and total defiance, of far more knowledge of God than I ever dreamed they had. They deserved hell because they utterly refused to walk in the light of their conscience and the light of the law written upon their heart and the testimony of nature and the truth they knew. And when I found that out, I assure you, I was so angry with God that one occasion in prayer, I told him that it was a mighty, little thing He’d done, sending me out there to reach these people that were waiting to be told how to go to Heaven. When I got there I found out they knew about Heaven, didn’t wanna go there. And they (were) loved their sin and wanted to stay in it.I went out there motivated by humanism. I’d seen pictures of lepers. I’d seen pictures of ulcers. I’d see pictures of native funerals. And I didn’t want my fellow human beings to suffer in hell eternally, after such a miserable existence on earth. But it was there in Africa that God began to tear through the overlay of this humanism. And it was that day in my bedroom, with the door locked, that I wrestled with God. For here was…was I coming to grips with the fact that the people I thought were ignorant and wanted to know how to go to Heaven, and were saying “someone come and teach us” actually didn’t wanna take time to talk with me or anybody else. They had no interest in the bible and no interest in Christ. And they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I was to the place at that time where I felt the whole thing was a sham and a mockery and I’d been sold a bill of goods. And I wanted to come home. And there alone in my bedroom as I faced God honestly with what my heart felt, it seemed to me I heard Him say, “Yes, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost and they’re going to go to hell not because they haven’t heard the gospel. They’re going to go to hell because they are sinners who loved… their ..sin.. and because they deserved hell. But, I didn’t send you out there for them, I didn’t send you out there for their sakes.” And I heard as clearly as I’ve ever heard though it wasn’t with physical voice but it was the echo of truth of the ages finding its way into an open heart. I heard God say to my heart that day something like this: “I didn’t send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen. I sent you to Africa for My sake. They deserved hell but I love them and I endured the agonies of hell for them. I didn’t send you out there for them. I sent you out there for Me. Do I not deserve the reward of My suffering? Don’t I deserve those for whom I died?” And it reversed it all. It changed it all and righted it all. And I wasn’t any longer working for my cup and ten shekels and a shirt but I was serving the living God. ______________________________________________________________________ (Leonard Ravenhill) The more and longer I live, the more I find I don’t know. Two years ago, God gave me a word, for the New Year. I don’t go scattering through The Book to find one. The Lord gave me a word: ‘Rejection’.Great! ______________________________________________________________________ (Paris Reidhead) Why did you repent? I’d like to see some people repent on biblical terms again. You see the difference? You see the difference? The difference is here’s somebody trembling because he’s gonna be hurt in hell. And he has no sense of the enormity of his guilt and no sense of the enormity of his crimes and no sense of his insult against Deity. He’s only trembling because his skin is about to be singed. And this is the difference between 20th century preaching and the preaching of John Wesley. Wesley was a preacher of righteousness that exalted the holiness of God. And when he would stand there with the two to three-hour sermons that he was accustomed to deliver in the open air and he would exalt the holiness of God and the law of God and the righteousness of God and the justice of God and the wisdom of His requirements and the justice of His wrath and His anger and then he would turn to sinners and tell them of the enormity of their crimes and their open rebellion and the treason and their anarchy. The power of God would so descend upon the company that on one occasion it is reliably reported that when the people dispersed, there were 1,800 people lying on the ground utterly unconscious because they’d had a revelation of the holiness of God and in the light of that, they’d seen the enormity of their sin. And God had so penetrated their minds and hearts that they had fallen to the ground. It wasn’t trying to convince good man that he was in trouble with a bad God. But that it was to convince bad men that they deserved the wrath and anger of a good God. ______________________________________________________________________ (Leonard Ravenhill) Anything that you love more than you love Jesus Christ is an idol. Don’t care what it is. I’m embarrassed to be part of the Church of Jesus Christ tonight, which is totally radically different from the New Testament, so impoverished, so blind, so powerless. I’ve come to this conclusion: there is a move of God in America today but not amongst the unsaved. It’s amongst the redeemed who are determined by the grace of God to be part of the bride and to be part of the bride you’ve to be divorced from everything in the world. (“Right” – background response) We are witness to somebody who is going to an eternal hell according to our theology but we talked about some trivia to them. Whisper in my ear that Satan has moved you up. He says you’re getting to be dangerous to his kingdom. He says you’re spoiling his plans, you’re thwarting his purposes, you’re pulling down his strongholds. We’re not pulling things out, we’re building pretty little churches and little rooms for people to sit around. If Jesus came back, He wouldn’t cleanse the temple. He would cleanse the pulpit. We’re in grave danger when we let our accomplishments become the ground of our confidence. Oh boy, how we want to be esteemed. How we want to be respected, how people should realize what precious gifts of the Spirit I’ve given. You know why they don’t? Because you stink with pride, that’s right. John died in 1791, converted at 35. Turn that round it makes 53. Add them together it makes 88. Because he was saved at 35, preached for 53 years. And you know what he left when he died? He left a handful of books, a faded Geneva gown that he preached in all over England, six silver spoons somebody gave him, six pound notes, “give one to each of the poor men that carry me to my grave.” And that’s all he left: six pound notes, six silver spoons, a handful of books, a Geneva gown and ah… there’s something else… what was it, the other thing? Oh, I know, something else he left, the Methodist Church. He could have died as rich as your famous TV preacher Sunday. Sure he made money, and he built orphanages. Sure he made money, he printed bibles. Sure he made money. He compiled, with Charles, the Methodist hymnbook and look at his orphanages.And he died worth about thirty dollars. He printed bibles. He printed hymnbooks. He financed missionaries to go across the earth. That’s the way to use your money. You think of the reward. Why, in God’s name, do you think it says don’t lay up treasure on earth? Lay up treasure in heaven. I’m tired of writing about revival. I’m tired of reading about revival. There are more lost people in the world tonight than ever in the history of the world. And God wants some men who are really drunk, intoxicated with the Spirit of God, who have a love life with the Lord Jesus that He can ask anything of you and you’ll do it. ______________________________________________________________________ (Paris Reidhead) I have talked with people that have no assurance of sins forgiven. They wanna feel saved before they’re willing to commit themselves to Christ. But I believe that the only ones whom God actually witnesses by His Spirit are born of Him, are the people whether they say it or not, that come to Jesus Christ and say something like this: “Lord Jesus, I’m gonna obey You and love You and serve You and do what You want me to do as long as I live even if I go to hell at the end of the road simply because You are worthy to be loved, obeyed and served. And I’m not trying to make a deal with You.” But oh I know so many people that are trying to know the fullness of God, so that they can use God. A young preacher came to me down in West Virginia, Huntington, West Virginia. And he said “Brother Reidhead, I’ve got a great church. We’ve got a wonderful Sunday school program..got a radio ministry..growing. But I feel a personal need and a personal lack, I need to be baptized of the Holy Ghost, I need to be filled with the Spirit, and someone told me God done something for you. And I wanted you to help me.” I looked at the fellow and you know what he looked like? Me. Just looked like me. I just saw in him everything that was in me, you thought You thought I was going to say “me” before. No, listen to your heart. If you’ve ever seen yourself you’ll know that you’re never gonna be anything else than you were. For in me in my flesh, there is no good thing. But like me. He’s like a fellow driving up in a big Cadillac you know, to someone standing at a filling station saying “Fill her up, Bud, with the highest octane you got.” Well, that’s the way it looked, he wanted power for his program. And God is not going to be a means to anyone’s end. I said, “I’m awfully sorry, I don’t think I can help you.” He said “Why?” “I don’t think you’re ready. Well suppose, you consider yourself coming up with a Cadillac, you’ve talked about your program, you’ve talked about your radio, you’ve talked about your Sunday school and church. Very good. You’ve done wonderfully well without the power of the Holy Spirit.” That’s what the Chinese Christian said you know when he got back to China. “What impressed you most about America?” He said, “The great things Americans can accomplish without God.” And he’d accomplished a great deal, admittedly, without God. And now he’s wanted something, power, to accomplish his end even further. I said “No. No. You’re gonna, you’re sitting behind the wheel and you’re saying to God, ‘Give me power so I can go.’ You won’t work, you gotta slide over.” But I knew that rascal, ’cause I knew me. I said, “No it’ll never do. You gotta get in the back seat.” And I could see him leaning over and grabbing the wheel. “No,” I said.“It’ll never do in the back seat.” I said “Before God’ll do anything for you, you know what you gotta do?” And he said, “What?” I said, “You gotta get out of the car, take the keys around, open up the trunk lid, hand the keys to the Lord Jesus, get inside the trunk, slam the lid down, whisper through the keyhole, ‘Lord, look, fill her up with anything You want and You drive, it’s up to You from now on.’” That’s why so many people, you know, do not enter into the fullness of Christ because they want to become a Levite with ten shekels and a shirt. They’ve been serving Micah but they think if they had the power of the Holy Ghost they could serve the tribe of Dan. It will never work, never work. There’s only one reason for God meeting you, and that’s to bring you to the place where, in repentance, you’ve been pardoned for His glory, and in victory, you’ve been brought to the place of death that He might reign and in His fullness Jesus Christ is able to live and walk in you. And your attitude is the attitude of the Lord Himself, who said, “I could do nothing of Myself.”I can’t speak of myself. I don’t make plans for myself. My only reason for being is the glory of God in Jesus Christ. If I were to say to you: “Come, to be saved so you can go to Heaven; Come to the cross so that you can have joy and victory. Come for the fullness of the Spirit so that you can be satisfied.” I’d be falling into the trap of humanism. I’m going to say to you, dear friend, if you are out here without Christ, you come to Jesus Christ and serve Him as long as you live whether you go to hell at the end of the way because He’s worthy. I say to you, Christian friend, you come to the cross and join Him in union and death and enter into all the meaning of death to self, in order that He can have glory. I say to you, dear Christian, if you do not know the fullness of the Holy Ghost, come and present your body a living sacrifice and let Him fill you so that He can have the purpose for His coming fulfilled in you and get glory through your life. It’s not what you’re going to get out of God. It’s what He is going to get out of you. Let’s be done once and for all with utilitarian Christianity that makes God a means, instead of the glorious end that He is. Let’s resign. Let’s tell Micah we’re through. We’re no longer gonna be as priests serving for ten shekels and a shirt. Let’s tell the tribe of Dan we’re through. And let’s come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nail-pierced Son of God and tell Him that we’re gonna obey Him, and love Him and serve Him as long as we live because He is worthy. Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies, where an atheist British owner had 2,000 to 3,000 slaves. And the owner had said, “No preacher, no clergyman will ever stay on this island. If he’s shipwrecked, we’ll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave but he’s never gonna talk to any of us about God. I’m through with all that nonsense.” Three thousand slaves from the jungles of Africa brought to an island in the Atlantic and there to live and die without hearing of Christ. Two young Moravians heard about it. They sold themselves to the British planter then used the money they received from the sale, for he paid no more than he would for any slave, to pay their passage out to his island for he wouldn’t even transport them. And as the ship left the …river at Hamburg …left it’s pier at the river at Hamburg and was going out to the North Sea, carried with the tide. The Moravians had come from Herrnhut to see these two lads off, in their early twenties, never to return again. For this wasn’t a four-year term, they’d sold themselves into lifetime of slavery. Simply that as slaves they could be as Christians for these others were. The families were there weeping for they knew they’d never see them again. And they wondered why they’re going and questioned the wisdom of it. And as the gap widened and the hawsers had been cast off and were being curled up there on the pier. And the young boys saw the widening gap, one lad, with his arm linked through the arm of his fellow, raised his hand and shouted across the gap the last words that were heard from them. They were these: “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering” And this became the call of Moravian missions. And this is the only reason for being, that the Lamb that was slain may receive the reward of His suffering. ______________________________________________________________________ (Leonard Ravenhill) The question isn’t were you challenged. The question is were you changed?
Here's an interview with Leonard Ravenhill speaking about Revival. He speaks about past revivals.
If you are wondering who Leonard Ravenhill is, this is what A. W. Tozer said about Ravenhill's character:
"To such men as this the church owes a debt too heavy to pay. The curious thing is that she seldom tries to pay him while he lives. Rather, the next generation builds his sepulcher and writes his biography – as if instinctively and awkwardly to discharge an obligation the previous generation to a large extent ignored. Those who know Leonard Ravenhill will recognize in him the religious specialist, the man sent from God not to carry on the conventional work of the church, but to beard [oppose boldly] the priests of Baal on their own mountain-top, to shame the careless priest at the altar, to face the false prophet and to warn the people who are being led astray by him. Such a man as this is not an easy companion. He is not the professional evangelist who leaves the wrought-up meeting as soon as it is over to hurry to the most expensive restaurant to feast and crack jokes with his retainers. Such evangelists will find this man something of an embarrassment, for he cannot turn off the burden of the Holy Ghost as one would turn off a faucet. He insists upon being a Christian all the time, everywhere. And again, that marks him out as different. [1]" Now, his interivew (2 hrs long): http://64.34.176.235/sermons/SID4510.asf
You should also have a listen to Ian Paisley's FIVE STEPS TO GENUINE REVIVAL (this is much shorter)
Why so formal? The service is formal because we are worshipping the real God who is not just our Friend and our Saviour, but He is also the Ruler of Heaven and Earth. We should never forget who God is and our worship should be done with the respect and orderliness that is due to the King of Kings. Same question as to why receptions for dignitaries such as the Queen, presidents and prime ministers are so formal, except so much more because this is God! Each element of the worship service is now explained for your benefit:
1. Prepatory Hymn and Prelude
As people assemble in the sanctuary (Church hall) for the worship service, they should prepare their hearts for the service. We must remember that God is maker and ruler of Heaven and Earth and is present in the service. The prepatory hymn is a “warm up” hymn that usually someone else other than the worship leader leads. The prelude is when the pianist plays the hymn “The Lord in His Holy Temple”, as a means of reminding the congregation of God’s presence and it also serves as an introduction for the worship leader’s “Call to Worship”.
2. Call to Worship
The worship leader calls the whole congregation to worship the Lord, usually by proclaiming a verse from the book of Psalms and then introduces the opening hymn.
3. Opening Hymn and the Invocation
The opening hymn is usually a hymn of praise. Why Hymns? Unlike many of the contemporary counterparts that instill great emotion without much instruction, hymns have deeper meanings, enabling God to instruct, encourage or admonish Christians through the singing of hymns. This contributes to a more constructive worship than just being overwhelmed by the love of God. Set aside their dates of origin and you will come to appreciate why hymns are still being sung despite being sometimes hundreds of years old.
The invocation is a prayer which usually has the contents of praise to God and thanksgiving for the privilege of worshipping God and for His help and blessings in the past week. The prayer will also ask God to lead the congregation in worship. Usually, this will be followed by the congregation reciting the Lord’s prayer.
4. The Lord’s Prayer and Gloria Patri (also known as “Glory be to the Father”)
The Lords Prayer is a prayer that Jesus taught His disciples and only serves as an example of how we should pray.
“Our father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us of our trespasses. As we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from Evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever, Amen.”
The Gloria Patri is sung straight after the Lord’s Prayer. It is a short hymn that is sung to give praises to the triune God (God the Father, God the Son [Jesus Christ] and God the Holy Spirit).
5. Collection of Offerings
In the Old Testament, the term “offering” usually refers to animal sacrifices brought to the tabernacle. This was to represent the promise that God made to the people before Jesus Christ, that a coming Saviour will shed blood and die in their place for their sins. In the New Testament, which is relevant today, we do not bring offerings of that sort to God, since Jesus has given His life as the sacrifice for our sins. We do, however, give gifts to God for His Church, as a token of our appreciation of God’s love and provision for us as His children. The tithing (giving 10% of one’s earnings) and offering (giving extra, based on additional blessings that God has provided in the past week) is a tangible way of worshipping God with our possessions. If you are a believer, you inevitably have experienced God’s blessings and therefore it is a privilege for you to give back something to the Lord. If you are not a Christian, you should not feel obliged to give as you have not yet accepted Jesus Christ and therefore have not experienced God’s gift of eternal life or God’s blessings. However, you are free to give if you want.
6. Doxology (“Praise God from whom all blessings flow”)
The Doxology is essentially a hymn of thanksgiving, adoration and worship to God for supplying our needs. That is why it is sung straight after the offering is collected. It is a humble recognition, from a thankful heart, for the providence and protection of God in our lives in the past week.
7. Scripture Reading and Pastoral Prayer
A member of the Church will come up to read a passage from the Bible, usually the passage from which the following message will be based on. The pastoral prayer is a representative prayer by the minister on behalf of the congregation. It is a united prayer for the Church. The congregation is to follow the prayer carefully. It is a time when the entire Church comes before the God’s “throne of grace”, pleading to the Lord as one, for the mercies, gracious assistance and sustenance for the Church. The Lord’s Supper
On the first Sunday of the month, the Church observes the “Lord’s Supper”. It is a time when the Church remembers the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins. All believers who are baptized in a Bible believing Church are invited to take the cup and bread. It is important to remember that if you are participating, you should take time to reflect on and confess your sins before God before you take the Lord’s Supper. If you are not a Christian, please do not take the cup or the bread. It is instructed in the Bible that a person who drinks of the cup or eats of the bread unworthily will be judged by God (1 Corinthian 11:27).
8. Message/Sermon
One of the chief elements of the early church worship service was the teaching of the Apostles’ doctrine. This is why the pulpit is right in front of the congregation, to underscore the centrality of the preaching of God’s Word. There is much to learn about God and His will for each of us in our lives, so we are to listen attentively to the message, to seek to understand it so that we can apply it in our daily life. God often speaks to the heart of a believer during the sermon, making it clear to the individual that the message applies particularly to that person. Therefore, it is very important to listen carefully and take down notes if possible.
9. Why Benediction and Threefold Amen?
It is a pronouncement of God’s blessings by the minister, normally taken from the Bible. This is followed by the “Threefold Amen”. The word amen, “so may it stand,” or “so be it,” is a frequent response in Scripture. It is the way people express their agreement with what is said. Conclusion
Although the order of worship is not given directly in the Bible, the principles and elements of worship are given, such as orderliness, holiness, reverence, and the elements of praise, prayer, preaching the Word, offering and so on. While there is no prescribed form of worshipping God in the Bible, we believe that this method of worshipping God stays true to the respect, attitude and reverence that God deserves.
