Post 42-The Boys of Summer, and Spiritual Revival

Begun on 6/14/17, the day Americana was attacked on a baseball field in Alexandria, VA

Hey Dana

            How is Trish doing? We’ve been faithfully praying.

            Not too long ago, I saw an old photo of two of the crown princes (although at least one of them would never call themselves that) of the grand group known as the Boys of Summer—Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. They were sitting next to what appeared to be a permanent batting cage. Each man was in his New York Yankee uniform, before the stylized NY appeared on the jerseys. Of course it was a black and white photo.

            They sat with hats in hand. The bats that made them famous were resting against their legs. Waiting. Waiting to connect with a solid  c r a c k  and knock that ole ball right outer here. The photo shows an almost mischievous grin on both the Babe’s and Gehrig’s faces as if they were caught in the middle of stifling a laugh at some joke.

            For those familiar with baseball today, something is missing in the photo. There are no tattoos and both men have neatly trimmed haircuts, and don’t need a shave. No Jason Giambis with skulls plainly visible on their necks or Jayson Werths with out-of-control beards or wild mops for hairdos. While I know this is not a prayer God is likely to answer, when Werth comes back to Philadelphia with the Nationals, I do sometimes pray that God will help him get hits or homeruns to serve the Phillies right for trading him.

            Speaking of the Phillies (if there are any fans left this season), I was listening to a popular sports newscaster discuss his reasons why the Phils are working hard to keep their losing streak going. Continuing to trot out “building for the future” is getting old. How many seasons does it take to “build for the future?”

            This leads me to the recent Leftist inspired  “attack on Americana,” as one television  commentator called it when the Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise, was shot and critically wounded, along with four other people on a baseball diamond, not far from my old home in Alexandria, VA, on Wednesday morning.  Fortunately, the crazed gunman was killed by heroic action on the part of Capitol Police.

            By now some of you may be asking, is today’s blog about baseball or the out-of-control political situation in America today, or is there some spiritual direction to which this is going to turn?

            I played Little League baseball when I was young. Back then, most kids with any athletic ability at all (and many without it) wanted to play baseball and Little League was the starting point toward a career in Major League Baseball, until the realities of life set in—like having only so much talent and waning desire as years past.   I remember my first pair of real spikes; when I got my team uniform (complete from hat down to the socks); playing second base; and my first out of the park homerun, hit over a real fence in right center field. Baseball was as American as mom and apple pie.  What has it become today? A killing field. A game where many of the players need an interpreter to talk to a newscaster. (What do the managers do when they need to talk baseball sense into a player, but the interpreter isn’t there yet?)

            While some may think this a stretch, I believe what we see happening in baseball is synonymous with what’s happening in the Church today.  America used to be a homogeneous accumulation of peoples from all over the world, who while perhaps keeping some of their old traditions, fully embraced their new country.  Wasn’t the Church known for embracing any person who came to it and who embraced Christ (Matt 22:35-40), James 2:1-4 NIV?

    My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism. ² Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. ³ If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ ⁴ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

            Trustworthiness in politicians is at an all time low, as is trust in church leaders. See this survey http://www.houstonpress.com/news/new-polling-shows-politicians-less-trustworthy-than-car-salesman-trust-in-clergy-dropping-as-well-6726697  from December 2013 that appeared in the Houston Press. (Any bets that the trust level would be even lower now—for both?)  When Democratic congress members don’t even acknowledge President Trump as the legitimate President, http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/john-lewis-trump-won-t-be-legitimate-president-n706676  is it any wonder that church goers are lulled to spiritual death by leaders who don’t believe the Bible or have not the power of the Holy Spirit when they preach because they don’t even believe in a Holy Spirit. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/october-web-only/new-poll-finds-evangelicals-favorite-heresies.html

            Rather than going on with comparisons, since hearing about politicians and the warring between factions is getting old to Americans, what can we do? In “Post 39- Is This Why There’s No Revival?” I mentioned Martyn Lloyd-Jones book Revival.  http://foxholecowboysblog.blogspot.com/2017/05/post-39-is-this-why-theres-no-revival_27.html Each chapter is full of sound reasons why Jones believes the Church is not seeing revival. I’m currently reading Chapter 6, Dead Orthodoxy. This is another of what he believes is one of many hindrances to revival. As part of Dead Orthodoxy, he looks at the various types of people in the church—both leaders and pew sitters.

            One of the types of people he considers are those who feel they need to be in church and need instruction (see pages 71 and 72) but they don’t want to “be disturbed” because there is nothing wrong with them.  He writes that those kind of people “dislike anything that searches them, or makes them feel uncomfortable, or probes them.” He goes on to say that, “There is nothing vital in the religion and in the worship of such people. They expect nothing, and they get nothing, and nothing happens to them.”

            We (Carol and I) have seen this many times before in various churches.  At times it is a struggle not to give up and just stay home because we know the service will be the same old, same old. There is no vitality. There is nothing dynamic. On page 72 Jones writes, “They go to God’s house, not with the idea of meeting with God, not with the idea of waiting upon him, it never crosses their minds, or enters into their hearts that something may happen in a service. No, we always do this on Sunday morning.” (Italics mine)

            I honestly don’t get it. We serve the God of creation. He is the Healer  (Ex 15:26) He is the God who at His name demons must flee (Luke 10:17 or Matt 10:1 or Acts 16:16-18 to name just a few) He gives peace to troubled souls (John 14:27). He is the Provider (Gen 22:7-14)  He hates robbery and loves justice (Isa 61:7,8) He gives rest to the weary, whatever the burden might be (Matt 11:28, 29). He has come to give us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10)! And He will make up for all the years the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25). Jones says about this, again on page 72, “But the idea that God may suddenly visit his people, and descend upon them, the whole thrill of being in the presence of God, and sensing his nearness, and his power, never even enters their imaginations. The whole thing (the church service) is formal, it is this smug contentment.”  

            The paragraph that I took this from is a long one. Jones speaks as the Apostle Paul writes. But I’d like to close with this from that paragraph from which the above was taken. Jones tells of a man who talked to him about this sickness in the church. “’They give me the impression that as they go to their churches, they are really just paying  a morning call on the Almighty.’ It is the right, and the correct thing to do. (e.g. go to church) And they believe in doing it. Ah, yes, but there is no conception that God may suddenly meet with them, and that something tremendous may happen. We must examine ourselves. Do we go to God’s house expecting something to happen?”

            I say more succinctly, we need to let God out of the box and let Him be God.

            James Burns, in his book The Laws of Revival, (http://www.svetrunas.lv/JBurns/default.html ) reprinted in 2013, frequently agrees with Jones, or should I say it is the other way around. Jones’ sermons were given 1959, and Burns wrote his book in 1909  Burns writes on page 27 that preceding each outbreak of the Holy Spiirit, e.g. revival, there is a spiritual desert in the Church and man (humankind). “In those dark days unbelief reigns while the enfeebled Church, without the strength to fight back, sits in humiliating impotence. “ He continues, “The loss of spiritual power is the result of leaving the heart of the Church unprotected against the world....We still act like Christians....we may even look more spiritual in our effort to cover up our spiritual decay.”  Does this ring a bell about what we see happening today?

            While Burns wrote broadly about revival, it causes and cures, he especially looked at the Welch Revival of 1904. On pages 42 and 43 he writes about what happened. “In 1904, all Wales was aflame with revival. The nation had drifted far from God, and spiritual conditions were at the lowest. Church attendance was pitiably poor and practices of immorality and sinful indulgence abounded on every hand. Suddenly through the power of prayer (and Jones said that that means as little as two or three gathered in His name praying), like an unexpected tornado, the power of God moved in and swept over the land.”

            We hear about this kind of thing. But what does that mean, “the power of God swept over the land?”  Burns tells us on page 43, “Infidels were converted. Drunks, thieves, and thugs by the hundreds were born again. Multitudes of the most respected and socially prominent were converted, and the mules in the mines refused to work, being unused to the transformed attitudes of the workers, nor were they thereafter required to work on the Lord’s Day.”  I love to read this. I’ve read it many times, “...and the mules in the mines refused to work being unused to the transformed attitudes of the workers....” The animals were treated horribly in the mines at the hands of the workers. You will know if revival ever comes to your house or church because the transformation will be like the difference between night and day.

            In the Preface to This Edition (of The Laws of Revival) the well known Calvary Chapel pastor, Joe Focht, whose church was instrumental in having the book reprinted, wrote, “May (this book) stir an attitude of expectation in our hearts.”

            What is missing in our Churches today is what three Godly men from a period of time spanning over 100 years say we as individuals and the Church need.  Focht wrote, “...an attitude of expectation....” Burns wrote, “...like an unexpected tornado, the power of God moved in and swept over the land.” And Jones preached, “Ah, yes, but there is no conception that God may suddenly meet with them, and that something tremendous may happen. We must examine ourselves. Do we go to God’s house expecting something to happen?”

            If revival were to come, it would impact, change, the Church and church leaders, politicians, what the American way of life has degenerated into—for example, shootings on the baseball diamond—our bosses, our neighbors, and most of all ourselves. While I want to see Americana return to the baseball field and all over our fair land, without revival, we can kiss it off.