A GUEST DEVOTIONAL

A GUEST DEVOTIONAL!

Placed in an orphanage at the age of seven, and sentenced to the Texas State Penitentiary at the age of nineteen, James Ryle's life is a powerful and uplifting story of how God's grace can work all things together for good. I thought his devotional for today was so good that instead of quoting from it I would post it as a guest devotional. I hope you enjoy it.

A Cardiac Revolution

"Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee? Show us Thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us Thy salvation." Psalm 85:6

There is no question that America is at a critical crossroads in Her history. There is also little doubt that the Church is faced with one of the most serious and demanding challenges that many of us as followers of Jesus Christ have ever known. To put it bluntly — how can we deliver a message of redemption to our troubled world when there seems to be so little difference between those who do not know Christ, and those who say we do?

The hour was never more urgent than now for followers of Christ to honestly come to terms with the claims of Christ. Certainly the need is great for a spiritual awakening in our land, but first there must be a revival in the hearts of God's people, and a renewal of the Church which now slumbers in a carnal stupor — intoxicated with affluence, and seemingly oblivious to the fact that for many in our nation she has lost her influence.

We are in desperate need of a cardiac revolution; a turning of our hearts fully unto the Lord; a reordering of our lives freely to His purposes.

Oh, sure, we have "our great cathedrals, our paradigm-breaking megachurches with ultra-cool satellite campuses, and our trend-setting postmodern un-churches"(CT). We have multi-media worship sets, pop-star worship leaders; stand-up comedian pastors, with high-tech video tools that let Hollywood illustrate the sermon.

Why, there's a church for every appetite known to man, and yet despite this abundance of religious options – this smorgasbord of spiritual selections — those who live within sight of these very worship centers admit their souls are still hungry and impoverished. And many who actually attend these churches confess the same. The words of Bono, though sung over a decade ago, express the heart cry of many, many people in our world today — "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.”

Are we a people dressed and ready for service? Is the Church in a state of preparedness for the epic events that loom large on the near horizon? Do we have what it takes to deliver the goods when desperate conditions drive men and women to our doors, looking for real answers to serious problems?

We need more than a cosmetic makeover; we need a cardiac revolution.