Prayer Challenge: Pray For Revival

Our church is starting week-long revival services. This got me to thinking about a sermon that I heard about a year ago about the Fulton Street revival. Here is some info on it.

The Fulton Street Revival started out with one guy deciding to hold weekly prayer meetings. Only 6 people came the first week. More came the next week. Then more, until soon they had to find a bigger room. It spread to other cities. God was moving in this country in a big way. People stopped drinking and bars were put out of business. I think they had to lay off police officers because there were fewer crimes.

Our country could use God's help right now, don't you think? I don't know about you, but I'm not really impressed with any of the major political candidates. Courts all over this country are legislating from the bench and going against the people's wishes. Our country seems to be headed towards economic ruin, illegal immigrants are taking away jobs, our school system leaves something to be desired, there's so much garbage on television and in the movies... we need God's help!

So here's my challenge to you: pray. Pray for a little bit every day. Pray for this country to undergo revival once again. The Bible says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). This is the kind of prayer we need.

Our guest preacher today started off preaching from Nehemiah for the morning Sunday School Service. In his day, Israel had just finished building the temple, but the walls had been torn down. Nehemiah prayed and wept for 4 months before anything happened. But he also did something else. He confessed his own sins, he confessed the sins of his own country. You can read it in Nehemiah 1. Revival followed.

So my challenge is this. Pray every day, not just for the revival of our own country and for God's help, but also confess your own sins and pray for a revival in your own heart. Because revival has to start with ourselves.

I challenge you, and myself, to continue to pray for revival from now until election day. If God is working within this nation, it really doesn't matter who wins the election. God can work through any of the candidates. God can work in the hearts of anyone. What matters is that we pray. What matters is that we pay attention to ourselves and what we are doing.

This is as much a challenge to anyone stumbling across this post as a challenge to myself. I hope to make updates, hopefully frequently.

So this is day one.

Mitt Romney = Satan?

Bill Keller, host of a Live Prayer TV program and Liveprayer.com, made a controversial statement the other day when he sent out a devotional including "If you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!" That's a little harsh... at first glance. Some people are looking into taking away his organization's tax-exampt status as a result.

Was he really saying that Mitt Romney is like Satan? I personally don't think so. I suppose you could ask him, but I'm guessing that he meant that by voting Mitt Romney into the office of president, it makes Mormonism more acceptable.

If you're a Mormon, that would be a good thing. For most people, I'm guessing that it doesn't really matter much whether he's a Mormon or a Baptist... Mormons are Christians too, right?

I guess that all depends on how you define Christian. How you define salvation. I believe that in order to be saved, you have to put your faith in Jesus Christ, for him to forgive you of all your sins... bad things that you do. I believe that you need to repent (turn away) from your sins and not want to sin any more... although we'll all continue to sin until we get into Heaven. This is a grace-only viewpoint... grace being getting something (salvation) that you don't deserve and did nothing to earn.

From what I understand, Mormons believe in grace... but you have to try your best too. Well, if I have to try my best, wouldn't that be works? Which is not what I'm guessing Bill Keller believes. If you believe that you have to have something to do with earning your way to Heaven... the trying your best part... then that does not give God all the glory. If you believe that, then Jesus dying on the cross was not enough to save people.

I don't know if I would go so far and say that a vote for Mitt Romney was a vote for Satan... it's not like Hillary Clinton is going to lead a nationwide revival or anything... but in a way I think that he does have a point. Mitt Romney can make Mormonism appealing. Which could be destructive for some people's souls.