Let us Repent ! A Call To Revival & Restoration
Let us Repent ! A Call To Revival & Restoration
“ Remember from where you have fallen , and repent , and do the first works . And if not , I am coming to you quickly , and will remove your lampstand from its place , unless you repent ” ( Rev 2:5 ).
Christian , what think you of yourself - your undone duties , your unimproved hours , times of prayer omitted , your shrinking from unpleasant work and putting it on others , your being content to sit under your vine and fig tree without using all efforts for the souls of others ? Won ' t you pray , “ Lord , forgive me my sins of omission ?” Remember , Repent and Redo !
Worldliness
We have been carnal and unspiritual . The tone of our life has been low and earthly . Associating too much and too intimately with the world , we have in a great measure become accustomed to its ways . Hence our spiritual tastes have been vitiated , our consciences blunted , and that sensitive tenderness of feeling which , while it turns not back from suffering yet shrinks from the remotest contact with sin , has worn off and given place to an amount of callousness of which we once , in fresher days , believed ourselves incapable .
Perhaps we can call to mind a time when our views and aims were fixed upon a standard of almost unearthly elevation and , contrasting these with our present state , we are startled at the painful changes . The
study of the Word of God in its dogmatical form more than its devotional form has robbed us of its freshness and power . Daily , hourly occupation in home , office , in Christian service , has engendered a formality and coldness in dealing with God ' s spiritual and eternal varieties . We are carnal , sold under sin . The world has not been crucified to us , nor we unto the world ( Rom 7:14 ; Gal 6:14 ). The flesh with its members has not been mortified . What a sad effect all this has had , not only upon our peace of soul , on our growth in grace , but also upon the fruitfulness , effectiveness and blessedness of our Christian life and service ( Rom 8:12 ; Gal 5:16-23 ).
Self-pleasing
We have shrunk from toil , difficulty and endurance , counting not only our lives dear unto us , but even our temporal ease and comfort . “ We have sought to please ourselves ” instead of pleasing “ everyone his neighbour , for his good to edification ” ( Rom 15:1,2 ). We have not “ borne one another ' s burdens ; so fulfilling the law of Christ ” ( Gal 6:2 ).
We have not presented ourselves unto God as “ living sacrifices ,” laying ourselves , our lives , our substance , our time , our faculties , our strength - our all upon His altar ( Rom 12:1 ). We seem to have lost sight of this self-sacrificing principle on which as Christians we are called upon to act . We have had little idea of anything like sacrifice at all upto the point where a sacrifice was demanded , we may have been willing to go , but there we stood ; counting it unnecessary , perhaps calling it imprudent and unadvised , to proceed further . Yet ought not the life of every Christian disciple be a life of endless self-sacrifice and unwearying self-denial throughout , even as was the life of Him who “ pleased not Himself ?” ( Rom 15:3 ).
Slothfulness
We have been slothful , We have been sparing of our toil . We have not endured hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ . Even when we have been instant IN season , we have not been instant OUT OF season . Neither have we diligently sought to gather up the fragments of our time , that not a moment might be thrown idly or unprofitably away ( Heb 11:6 ; Eph 5:15- 17 ). Precious hours and days have been fearfully
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