“…and Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.” 1st Samuel 7:9b

We find ourselves these days in the midst of a hotly contested battle for who will become the next President of the United States. Needless to say this is a crucial time in America, and whoever is chosen faces an overwhelming task in leading this nation to where it needs to be in the sight of God!

That was also the case in ancient Israel after the death of Eli the high priest. At that time Samuel became their unquestioned leader. The nation had become embroiled in idolatry and accompanying immorality that extended into the priesthood (the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, who also died). How would Samuel react? What should he say? What should he do? It is to his everlasting credit that he did not appoint a focus group to study the problem and bring recommendations! Neither did he attempt to create a new strategy, or establish a new paradigm. Rather, he looked to the timeless, matchless Word of God, and declared the first order of business was for the people to repent (vv2-4).

The word repent is a familiar, but largely misunderstood word by believers today. It was the first message that Jesus preached in His public ministry. It literally means, “To have another mind.” It means a change of mind that brings about a change of behavior and attitude. That change is seen in the pouring out of water and the fasting in vv5-6 which is symbolic of rejecting the self-reliance and self-rule that resulted in God’s people straying from the Lord. The request for Samuel to cry out to the Lord speaks of a return to entire reliance on the Lord (vv7-8).

The future looks dim for America. We seem to be headed downhill at an ever-increasing rate, morally, economically, even militarily. The only hope for America is to put aside self-reliance and self-rule and return to entire reliance on the Lord. In the midst of a growing number of voices questioning whether there is a willingness, much less an ability to do so, we need to listen to the word from the pen of David in Psalm 127:1, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; Except the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain!”

Jon Moore

For a number of years I have made it a practice this time of the year to review the year that has just ended, and decide if I need to make some adjustments in my life for the coming year. This is a practice that is common to many people whether one is a professional, businessman, laborer, homemaker or minister. Every year I come to the conclusion that I need to repent!

Before you panic, let’s take a closer look at that word repent. There may be fewer words more misunderstood by Christians than this one. This was the message John the Baptist proclaimed, and it was the first message that the Lord Jesus preached. The Greek word in the New Testament they both used means, “To have another mind”. In Vine’s Greek New Testament Dictionary it reads, “To perceive afterwards, implying change”. In any case a study of the Bible reveals that true repentance is more of a process than an individual procedure.

First of all there must be an acknowledgement that something is missing! After all there is such a thing as doing the right thing in the wrong way. It is possible to attempt the worship and service of the Lord in the energy of the religious flesh. In 1st Samuel 7:2 after the Philistines had returned the Arc of the Lord they had captured for seven months, “All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord”! One would think that with all that is going on in our world today it would not be too hard for believers to recognize that we are missing something!

Secondly, there needs to be an agreement. 1st John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins, God will be faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. The Greek word translated into our English word confess means, “To say the same thing”. That is what Biblical confession means: To say the same thing God is saying. It is so easy to try to put the blame on someone else! Nehemiah did not do that in 1:6 as he confessed the sins of the nation. He started by praying, “Confessing the
sins of the sons of Israel”, but in mid-prayer the pronouns change as he continues, “as WE have sinned against you, I AND MY FATHER’S HOUSE have sinned!”

But there is a third step in this process, and that is abandonment. Agreement with the Truth must be accompanied with adopting the Truth! Years ago there was a tribe of Indians in South America who were dying at an alarming rate from infections. Specialists discovered insects in the walls of their adobe homes that were biting and infecting them. They were presented with a choice. They could continue to stay where they were, or they could move to a new location, build new homes and live. The choice was theirs! We can never know and experience the victory that is ours in Christ Jesus as long as we are content to live in the misery of defeat!

Heavenly Father, help us as your children to face the truth of where we are as believers, agree with You as to why we are here, and move on to the joy and victory you have for us in 2016!

Jon Moore

I’m sure you’ve heard that before, and you’ve probably asked that same thing before. It is a typical conversation starter, but there are times when it means more than that. There are times you are concerned about the physical or spiritual welfare of someone. Then the question becomes more personal, more serious. You want to fulfill Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” As people learn about my journey with lymphoma cancer I am being asked that question, “How are you doing?” I am confident there is more than curiosity involved. Friends are concerned and want to know, so I will attempt to answer that question here.

First of all, I am periodically sending out an email to those who want to be updated about my physical condition. If you want to receive that email, you need to let me know at jmoorejmea@aol.com. I do not wish to randomly “spam” anyone with emails they don’t wish to receive. Briefly, as of this writing I have received one chemotherapy infusion, and the side effects are minimal at this point. I would say it is not a good route to follow just to lose weight!

How are you doing psychologically, or more importantly spiritually? That is a good question, and I’m glad you asked! In the first place I would not be much of a believer if I did not believe God’s Word, and I am a whole-hearted believer! The Bible says in numerous ways in numerous places that I am One in Christ; that I am in Our heavenly Father’s hand, and that my steps are ordered by the Lord! There is no way any disease or affliction could touch me apart from the Lord’s permission any more than Satan could touch the old testament character Job without the permission of God! Knowing that puts a different perspective on this journey to which I have been introduced. I’m on a mission for my Lord. No! I’m on a mission with my Lord, and it is my privilege to do so.

As the song goes, I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I do know Who holds tomorrow!

Jon Moore

“I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” Nehemiah 1:4

Recently I was visiting with a friend with whom we had been members of a local church back in the late 1960s and early 70s. God graciously visited that church and area with a mighty demonstration of revival power. Over a period of a number of months we saw numerous lives changed, salvations, deliverances from various sins and dependencies, supernatural provision of great needs of every kind and most of all an awesome abiding presence of the thrice holy God!

Before this period of time that forever marked all of our lives that were there, it was preceded by a time (some three years) of praying, confessing, repenting and purifying that is difficult to put into words if one was not there!

It would be easy to magnify the times of glorying in the presence of our glorious savior, Jesus Christ, once the time of reviving came. But the thing I am remembering today is the times of prayer before the glory of God came to dwell. Every time of meeting eventually evolved into a prayer meeting, whether it was a church committee meeting, a Bible study class, a group social gathering, or just two couples going out for a meal together, eventually winding up in one of their homes in prayer together. Prayer had become contagious! Through the centuries countless numbers have looked to the Psalms and asked many similar questions that the psalmist asked in his day. “Will You not Yourself revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” What is missing today? Why in such a time of obvious need does heaven seem to be silent?

I asked the friend mentioned above if he was seeing what I refer to as “the activity of God” in his area, reminding him of the difference between religion (Men working for God) and Christianity (God at work among men). His answer was, “Sadly, no!” I then asked him if he could put his finger on what is missing so often today in our churches. He told me his pastor had recently felt led by the Lord to return Wednesday nights from Bible study to a time of prayer (What a novel idea!). He said that Wednesday night attendance dropped drastically for the next several weeks with some saying, “If all we are going to do is pray, I can pray at home! There just seems to be no burden to pray!”

May God in His gracious mercy and goodness open our eyes to see that all of the problems and challenges facing this generation will never be met until we as believers join Nehemiah on our knees to weep, mourn, fast and pray before the God of heaven!

Jon Moore

“One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord And to meditate in His temple.” Psalm 27:4
One of the more fascinating verses I have found in the Bible is 1st Samuel 13:14. The prophet Samuel is speaking to King Saul concerning David and says, “The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart!” Immediately a question arises in me, ‘What was there about him that so captured the Lord’s attention and admiration that He would make such a statement about David?’ That led me to search the Scriptures concerning David, and there are numerous indications as to why. One is found in Psalm 27:4 printed above. David does not take a “shopping list” of things he desires from the Lord. He only desires one thing: that he may live all the days of his life in the Lord’s presence. He makes a similar statement in Psalm 63:1, “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly (early); My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
A second thing David states in Psalm 27:4 is that he not only has made the request to live in the Lord’s presence, but he will seek to do so! Most will remember their school grammar lessons that “seek” is a verb, and verbs are action words. That requires a discipline to be established in one’s life. By the way, the word ‘disciple’ comes from the word ‘discipline’.
One day a young man came to the fourth century leader Augustine and asked, ‘Can you help me know God?’ When Augustine asked the young man if he really wanted to know God, the young man enthusiastically answered, ‘Yes’! Augustine walked out into a garden, got on his knees next to a small pool of water, bowed his head, clasped his hands and closed his eyes. The young man, following, did likewise. Suddenly, without warning Augustine reached over grabbed the young man by the arm with one hand, and with the other hand he grabbed the back of his neck and pushed his head under water, holding his head under water for several seconds. Finally he pulled the young man up so he could take a couple of gasps of air, then he plunged his head under water again! After what seemed an extremely long time, Augustine pulled the young man’s head up, turned his head to his own and said, “Young man, when you want to know God as badly as you want to breathe right now, then you will get to know God!”
What would happen in churches if believers today had a priority for the presence of God like that? What would happen in your life if you had a priority for the presence of God like that?

Jon Moore

“Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, That the mountains might quake at Your presence—As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!” Isaiah 64:1-2 (NASB)

Slowly, but surely more and more Christians are coming to realize that our world needs something more that any man or method can produce. Today we stand in desperate need of a mighty work of God! We need spiritual renewal (revival) among the saved! We need a spiritual awakening among the lost! It is at this point we would be wise to consider what the great old Methodist preacher, John Wesley, had to say. “Prayer is the engine that drives revival!”

If revival is the need of the hour, and prayer is the engine that drives revival, then that poses a valid question. “How should we pray for revival?” The disciples were on to something when they came to Jesus in Luke 11:1 and said, “Lord, teach us to pray!” Surely many have learned by now that the more we know about prayer, the more we understand how much we don’t know about prayer, bringing us to the place of repeating the same prayer the disciples prayed!

Add to this what Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 10 concerning the Old Testament scriptures, “These things happened as examples for us” (v 6), and “they were written for our instruction” (v 10). We are told to avoid the bad decisions of the old testament saints, but we are to adopt the good decisions! With that in mind let’s learn from Isaiah in 64:1-2 how to pray for a mighty work of revival in our day.

Notice the terms that Isaiah uses: Rend (tear) the heavens; Quake (shake) the mountains; Boil the waters (oceans, rivers); Tremble the nations! The Bible teaches God is always and every where present (theologians refer to this as His omnipresence), but Isaiah goes beyond that, asking the Lord to manifest His presence in an supernatural fashion. We see this illustrated in many of the great historic revivals. People testified in the great Welch revival in the early 1900s that the presence of God was “indisputable and inescapeable!” A woman converted in the revival in the Hebrides Islands in the mid-1900s said, “The islands were saturated with the presence of God!” Reports in the New York City newspapers in the prayer revival of 1858-59 stated that crew members sailing into New York harbor from foreign lands would fall under heavy conviction and cry out to God before the ship ever docked and anyone had an opportunity to speak to them!

It seems more than apparent that we need to learn from Isaiah and adopt his practice when it comes to praying for a mighty work of God in America today, asking the Lord to make His presence, purity and power known in an unusual way!

Jon Moore

“Surely the Lord is in this place…” Genesis 28:16

The first time I ever experienced genuine revival I was a layman, a member of a local church where we had been praying for revival for three years. We were honest with both ourselves and the Lord as we prayed. We admitted that we did not know what revival is. We knew one thing for certain. We needed what only God could give us, both as individuals and as a church body.

I have often compared the preparatory work that the Holy Spirit did prior to the coming of revival to that of a dove building her nest! She flies away and selects a twig, or a leaf, or a feather or a piece of cloth, then returns and fits it in to what she has already begun. She comes and goes numerous times. Finally, when she decides the nest is fully finished, she sits and lays her eggs, birthing new life!

The Holy Spirit would on occasion visit powerfully in one of our church services. The presence of holy God would be awesome, and the Spirit would convict of sin. Then it seemed like the Spirit would leave for a time, sometimes weeks, sometimes longer, giving us time to deal with the issues of sin both in our personal lives as well as in the life of the church. Then we would have another obvious visit of the Spirit, and He would once again convict of sin. Then there would be a period of no outward sense of His presence for a time. Then He would return. This continued for a period of about three years. Then the Spirit came and dwelled!

At this point I am going to be careful about what and how much I say. I dare not risk grieving the Spirit by touching His work with a single finger of the flesh. But I am compelled to testify that the presence of the Lord both in the building and on the grounds of that church was incredible! We had to leave the building unlocked and open 24/7. People (church members and non-church members) would come all hours of the day and night just to be in God’s presence! Consequently, we saw scores of people saved, Jews, Muslims, addicts, and one occasion even a witch!

Rev. William Macleod, pastor of the Parish Church in Uig on the Isle of Lewis (in the Hebrides Islands) off the west coast of Scotland was interviewed concerning his conversion during the Lewis Revival in the 1950’s. He was asked what it was like on the island during the Revival. His reply was short, but full of power. “You could feel God everywhere!”

If you share with me the conviction that “we are doing many of the right things in our churches, but we are doing them without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit,” then join with Phyllis and me praying believingly for a fresh coming of the Spirit in this our day…

Jon Moore

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” Psalm 51:17
After hearing about a continuous spirit of revival in Central East Africa, the door of opportunity opened for Norman Grubb to visit there in 1950. Later he wrote a little booklet entitled, “Continuous Revival” in an effort to put into words what the Lord taught him personally through that visit. According to Grubb, he learned that brokenness is the key word in continuous revival!
David learned this truth at the critical point of his own brokenness in Psalm 51. Some question why David’s repentance was acceptable to God after he had seen to the murder of the husband of Bathsheba, and Saul’s repentance was unacceptable for the sin of failing to slaughter the Amalekites that many would view as much less serious! Each was confronted for their sin by a prophet of God, Saul by Samuel, and David by Nathan, and both admitted their sin before God. However Saul’s repentance was shown to be defective, because he asked Samuel to hide the sin from the people!
It is imperative in such a time as this that we as God’s people re-learn the value the Lord places on humility. The kind of humility that leads to one’s brokenness. Listen once again to the Lord’s first condition for revival, “If My people who are called by My Name, HUMBLE themselves…”.
The enemy will always have voices that conflict with His Word of Truth! Why do you think there has been such an explosion of emphasis on self-seeking, self-reliance and self-justifying in the Christian life? We avoid brokenness at our own peril!
Micah Stampley wrote the little chorus that includes these lyrics,
“Brokenness, brokenness is what I long for. Brokenness is what I need. Brokenness, brokenness is what You want from me. Take my heart and form it. Take my mind transform it. Take my will conform it. To Yours, to Yours, O Lord!”
Amen,

Jon Moore

“…and the prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25b

Sooner or later we all have to learn that being saved by faith in Christ does not make us exempt from adversity in life! The spirits of discouragement and despair are always lurking nearby just waiting to attack when problems arise. Fortunately for us, people like the apostle Paul learned how to deal with these circumstances, and both his writing and experience under the anointing of the Holy Spirit are instruction and guidance for us today.
One day Paul and his missionary companions were falsely accused, illegally arrested, beaten severely and thrown into the deepest cell in a prison. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, all the prison cell doors were opened and their chains were unfastened. Miraculously, none of the prisoners even attempted to escape! Why didn’t the murderers, thieves, arsonists, rapists, etc. escape? The answer is found in Acts 16:25. When Paul and Silas could have been complaining about the painful and unjust things that had been done to them, instead they prayed and sang songs of praise to God, and all the while “…the prisoners were listening to them!”
Sometimes Christians wonder if their life is counting. They are not seeing people publicly coming to Christ, lives being changed before their eyes, etc. Never forget the old adage, “You are the only Bible someone is reading!” And people especially observe how we react to adversity! Anyone can be happy when things are going well, but the person without Christ wants to know if Jesus Christ makes a difference when things go bad.
Remember Christian, the prisoners are listening to you…
Jon Moore