It is understood that the real worth, success, or effectiveness of something can only be determined by putting it to the test by trying or using it. Appearances and promises aside, the best test of a pudding is to eat it.
For Christians we know that we are not saved by our works, for GOD judges the hearts of men. Yet we also know that the works we do are the good measures of where our hearts truly are.
Throughout history, there have been many revivals when men returned to God. A cursory look through the book of Judges gives us many such examples. Maybe the greatest revival of the ancient world would be the one where a reluctant prophet led the whole city of Nineveh into repenting of their evil ways as their hearts called out to God.
We had great revivals throughout America’s history that changed the course of many lives. Chuck Smith, who started the Calvary Chapel movement, led the last great revival in America in the late 1960s. It was a revival that created a true Biblical soul saving movement, which blossomed into 1000’s of like minded churches the World over.
In modern history, other than the revival began by Chuck Smith, most have truly lasted as long as they should. Truth be told, other than Nineveh, there has never been another revival where all the citizens repented from the rulers on down to the common folk. Usually the true number of the saved is a rather small number compared to the population.
Why is that? Well, as I started off by stating, the true success of anything is the proof of the pudding. As I stated, we are not saved by our works, but the fruit of our works can be a good guide. Usually, the true sign of a successful revival is judged by the end result, or the works of the revival.
The thousands and thousands of Calvary Chapels all over the world tells us that Chuck Smith’s revival was a true one. Yet even it has wained drastically through the years.
The Scriptures tells us that our children are the fruit of the womb. They are our fruits, and happy is he who has a quiver full. Well, throughout history, one way to determine the success of revivals can be found by determined by who the arrows in our quiver follow. Are the arrows true believers as their parents were, or did the parents fail in leading their own children to Christ by raising them to love and understand the Scriptures as we are all commanded to do?
Our children can sometimes be the best outward sign of our works. When we raise them, we are commanded by God to raise them to love and honor God. This is something the Israelites kept failing at. God would send them Judges and they would come back to Him. This revival would last awhile, but then their children would grow up and wonder away from God. Throughout the book of Judges we read how the children would be the ones falling back into idolatry. Generation after generation, the children of those God sent Judges to save, would their parents God. Why? Well because the patents failed in their responsibility to teach them God’s ways.
A cursory look at our children today, tells me that we have become the people we read about in the book of Judges. We failed to lead our children to God. Not all of us, yet the proof is in the fruit of our works, and the taste of the pudding does not lie.
Lord Jesus, our nation is in distress, and the writing is on the wall. I pray for a Nineveh type revival in America.
>God bless you all, amen
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