~Daily Devotion 31st~

WOW! This year has gone by so fast and now it is New Year's Eve.

I know that there are things that have happened in our lives this year, that have been good, and some bad. We have all faced happiness and sorrow.

But we know that God has given us the mercy and grace to walk those paths.

Some of us may have had to hit bottom so we could reach up. (God never will let us fall any further than I knee's. Remember on our knees is where we will find God.)

Some may have been able to accomplish great things in their lives.

But either way we know that God was the one that was leading and directing us.

Joe and I have been working to plant a church. We know that we have had our ups and downs.

But we also know that God has great plans for the church in 2008.

In planting a church we have learned that there must be a Revival that begins with us. A Revival that revives our soul and strengthens us for the work ahead. A Revival that begins with prayer.

I read "Revivals That Stay", wrote by E. W. Mounds, he states;

"A genuine revival marks an era in the life of the church. It plants the germs of the great spiritual principles which grow and mature through all the changing seasons that follow. Revival seasons are favoring seasons, when the tides of salvation are at their flood, when all the waves and winds move heavenward...days of emancipation and return and rapture. The church needs revivals; it cannot live, it cannot do its work without them. Revivals which will lift it above the sands of worldliness that shallow the current and impede the sailing. Revivals which will radicate the great spiritual principles, which are worn threadbare in many a church. It is true that in the most thorough work some will fall away, but when the work is genuine and far-reaching, as it ought to be, the waste will scarcely be felt in the presence of the good that remains."

I agree with the statement above, mostly the last part. Revival in a church will show who is committed to the church and mostly committed to God.

When true Revival begins, some will fall away, but the ones that stay will be the workers that the Lord will use to build His church.

This year we need to work to win the lost to Christ. 2008 must be, "A Year Of Salvation."

Christ is soon returning, and we must be about our Father's business.

I do not know about you, but I want to hear my Heavenly Father say, “Well done, good and faithful servant . . . enter into the joy of your master” (see Matthew 25:21).