"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves,
and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
2 Chronicles 2:14
I just finished a three day prayer summit with the Christian Reformed Church that was held in All Nations Church in LA. In fact, I am still on the prayer summit and retreat as I do not fly out of LA until late afternoon, so I get more time humble myself, pray, seek God's face, and turn from my wicked ways. I am so thankful for this time!
I know that many of my readers of CRC folks, so I wanted to give some observations from the time.
First and foremost, I think there is legitimate hope for revival and renewal within the CRC. The first and most important element of revival and renewal is humble prayer. It is coming before the Great King and Lord and praying for His arm to act.
In fact, the real work of ministry is always prayer!
This has been lacking within the CRC even though it is such a part of our theological heritage. How did this get lost? I am sure it is a long story, and I can guess at many parts of the tale. Yet, I think what just happened and what I pray continues to happen is a step toward correcting this loss. Dependent, humble prayer must be part central in any renewal and it is the heartbeat of every revival. I am thankful to see it, to experience it, to be part of it, and by God's grace I plan to continue to help lead it!
My second observation is not quite as rosy. Our denomination still, as a whole, lacks in its understanding of the message of the gospel.
The gospel, which is the power of God for salvation, for life-change, for revival, and for renewal, is about repentance and faith. Even in the above passage from 2 Chronicles where Solomon is dedicating the temple, the Lord spells out the criteria for revival.
Repent in the fullness of repentance! Repentance is not what someone does to enter the Kingdom and then they are done with it. Repentance brings us to right relationship with God and it is what keeps us in that relationship. Anything that we trust to bring us righteousness, transformation, and satisfaction apart from God alone can be and probably is an idol. We need to repent from this trust in other things and return to the Holy covenant keeping God!
In other words, our sin is not merely against "the other" as we were reminded at the Summit. Our sin is against the Living God. We prefer our tradition, our comfort, our thoughts to the great Holy fire that is the Living God. We are starting to see, just starting, how we sin against others. We were called to repentance for our attitudes toward "the other," which included those of different races, sexes, ethnic backgrounds, and socio-economic backgrounds. This is well and good. We also heard that this is an unnerving time for many within the CRC because "everything is changing." Again, this is well and good because such change might well be brought by the Spirit.
What we lacked at this summit was a confession, a repentance, an understanding that our true sin is against our Lord. All of us, from the newest believer at the Summit to the most seasoned saint, have hearts that wander. All of us need God to change our heart toward Him! Such transformation is found in repentance and faith. When God brings us to this place, then we also get off our knees with a new attitude of love toward "the other." I think what we do is that we get up and see that the other is just like us- a needy sinner in need of Grace!
I truly felt like there were some with this gospel understanding. Yet, often the words spoken from up front and mentioned in conversation with me focused less on this vertical repentance to the Father and more on the horizontal repentance with other people.
Still, I am very hopeful! Why? When people enter into real, intentional, and focused prayer, God will lead them to true repentance and faith. "Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand," (Matt 5:17) was not only Jesus' first public message, but it remains the heartbeat of God's advancing Kingdom.
This post is getting long, so I will continue with my observations tomorrow.
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