A need for revival in our lives and Churches!


Ezra 9:5-10

At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God. And I said: "O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as it is this day. And now for a little while grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments.................


I was teaching Ezra last week in Sunday School and these passages jumped out at me. We in America have let the Christian Way become a whole world away from what is written in Scripture. I have friends in Pakistan. One in particular is in charge of security not just for his particular church, but for a couple others in his city. He is a marked man! At any moment he could die for his simple faith in Jesus Christ. All he does is warn those who are in worship of approaching danger. I asked him once if he had any fear for his life. He told me that he is NOT afraid of any of the Taliban because they couldn't do anything to him till Jesus was done with him.
I see so many Christians in other countries with a faith that should shame us in America. They put their lives on the line for owning a Bible. They meet in secret to learn as much as they can of what it means to be a Christian, fully pleasing to God. They put their lives on the line to walk to fully understand what is involved to be a born again Christian. They have to hide to study so they know what is displeasing to God and then go and live that life and reach those around them with the truth.
In the above portion of Ezra, Ezra just found out the leaders and priests were fully involved in sin. They were in the process of rebuilding the Temple that was destroyed. When Ezra found out what the people were doing, he hit his knees and prayed for revival in and among the people. He was so ashamed for the sin and truly cried out to God for Grace and Mercy. What happened next was amazing!


Ezra 10:1 ~ Now while Ezra was praying, and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the house of God, a very large assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept very bitterly.


The people realized their sin and they came to confess and to start anew to walk the walk that scripture guided them to.
We need revival in America. We need to hit our knees and confess our sin. Unlike my friend in Pakistan, we have freedom to have our Bibles. We are free to fully follow Jesus. Yet we don't. We have taken the gospel and decreased it to saying a prayer and getting dunked in water without ever changing our lives to please Him. We say we are Christian and yet cheat our fellow man and call it business. We have filthy mouths. We say we love God and then love and marry anyone we want, either same or opposite gender. We fill up the bingo halls and casinos. We don't come together for worship, we feel that what we did as a child is good enough. Our "Christian" men are addicted to porn. We love alcohol to make our days better and overcome stress. We jump from one sexual encounter to another. We have twisted Gods word to fit our chosen life style instead of moving our hearts to love Him and follow the freedom from sin that He has so graciously given us through Jesus Christ.
We who confess to being Christian,  need to ask ourselves, 'Am I a part of the solution or a part of the problem?' Jesus is coming soon and I want to be a part of His solution. We need to reevaluate what we have done to His great name, hit our knees in confession, and start living His way. His way will win in the end anyway.