I hear a lot about revival. Pray for revival. Fast for revival. Write songs for revival. Clap your hands and shout for it. Wave a flag.
By themselves those things are something like sticking your finger into a socket and hoping the lights will turn on. It’s a whole lot of power going absolutely nowhere.
If I’m supposed to be a Christian, I should probably act like Jesus. Jesus didn’t fast and pray in the temple and wait for us to come to him asking for salvation. He clothed himself like us and went and lived life like us, and ate our food, and spoke our language, and went to our parties. He was friends with us. He ate dinner with us at our house BEFORE we looked like him, when we still had idols and were prostituting ourselves on weekends. He connected to us.
Why? Because the kingdom of God is built on relationship, with relationships. Father, Son and Spirit. It’s not about principles and authority and prayer. That’s all the other world religions. It isn’t even about worship. It’s about one thing: restoring broken relationships, and building family.
You want to end abortion? Love somebody before they get to the clinic door, don’t just stand there with tape over your mouth! Have you ever met anyone who got pregnant out of wedlock? Out of relationship? I have! I didn’t meet her on the doorstep of a clinic. I already knew her and loved her. Have you ever been friends with a prostitute, or a gay man, or a lesbian? Like had their phone number? Have you been to their house? Have you given them a Christmas gift? Have you stayed up late to cry with them on the phone when they tell you WHY they’re gay?
Don’t despise the weak, vulgar, and broken when they cuss and drink and sleep around. Don’t raise your eyebrow and cross to the other side of the street. Do you know who did that? Do you remember that story?
If you want laws and morality to change, love people. If you want revival, love people. Love never fails.
I think we’ve got a ridiculous idea of what revival is, and where it comes from. See, revival comes when you REVIVE someone who is dead. That means, first of all, that you have to actually be somewhere dead people are. Dead people don’t walk up to you and say, “Hi, I’m Mr Dead guy. I want to live. Please, revive me.” Nope.
You have to be where the dead person is. You have to already be in the gutter, and see them before it’s too late, lying there. Then you have to lock lips with them and breathe your own breath into them, and pound on their chest with your own hands, on your own time. You’re going to get wet and dirty and close. Revival is a proximity thing. It happens when you want LIFE for an actual person you love so badly that you pump it back into them yourself. And if you want them to stay alive, then you have to help them while they learn to breathe by themselves again. You might have to let them live in your house, or pay for them to get help while they recover. Do you remember that story?
Prayer is like electricity. It can only bring power to things you are connected to. Where are you getting your haircut? Where do you drink your coffee? Are you reading your bible on your lunch break, or are you connected to the people you work with?
You are the Body of Christ. God wants your hands and feet. The more you say you’re called to a ‘life of prayer,’ the more I say you are called to be connected. Be connected to God. Be connected to people. Intercession means ‘standing in the gap,’ right? So stick your finger in the socket and grab onto someone who needs to be revived. Be prayer. Be intercession. Don’t be lip-service to the ideology of revival. Be a Reviver.
Lets be honest here….
Shaming a woman who wants an abortion is not productive. People are gay because they are born that way. I didn’t wake up one morning and decide to be attracted to the same sex, its always been that way. Don’t try and tell me that being gay is a defect, that it is a sin, because its not.
Reading this tripe makes me physically sick. Whenever I encounter zealots like you I am reminded why I don’t attend church anymore…it is because of ignorant, nosey, pushy “Christians.” Keep your agenda off the internet.
This kind of hate mongering disguised as morality is what is turning this nation into a theocracy.
It really broke my heart to hear you interpreting the following statement the way you did:
“Love somebody before they get to the clinic door, don’t just stand there with tape over your mouth! Have you ever met anyone who got pregnant out of wedlock? Out of relationship? I have! I didn’t meet her on the doorstep of a clinic. I already knew her and loved her.”
She is clearly not talking about shaming someone who wants an abortion. (In fact, she’s refering to a specific type of protest that was done by a specific group of people.) She is really saying the opposite – that those women need love, and to be befriended and supported. Abortion should not need to be resorted to in the first place if the women is loved and can count on loving, sincere people to help her when she needs it most.
I’m sorry that your whatever your past experiences are – whether with Christians, those who claim to be Christians, or whoever else – have led you to take a call to love as a call to shaming and judgement.