Backdoor Revival

#1779

Is your life a channel of blessing?
Is the love of God flowing through you?
Are you telling the lost of the Savior?
Are you ready His service to do?

A weather vane preacher is any preacher who changes what he preaches or how he preaches when the wind changes direction. The preacher who alters his message or his method because of the ever-changing advice, counsel, and opinions of men is not a leader, but a follower. Such weather vane preachers are worthless! They only do harm to the souls of men, and they need not preach at all. True, gospel preachers are pillars in the church of God--not puppets in the hands of men.

This writer sits in judgment of no one.  I believe my mother told me that I started going to Sunday School and church when I was two weeks old.  Like my ancestors before me, my life, like theirs was punctuated by church activity.  When I have dealt with young people, university/military/as an employer I have faced the stark reality that my life has been different that I did not mind being different, that I could not choose the indifference of the unbeliever.  To me, like the most basic law of muscle physiology, "the all or none process" (a muscle fibril responds to a stimulus 100% or not at all).  A redeemed Christian is "swathed" in the precious blood of Jesus and his life is no longer his own, but in the "born again" salvation of God, the righteousness of Christ so permeates his life that God sees in the new creation the righteousness of Jesus.  You can no longer be a haphazard believer...just playing church, just pretending.  It has always amazed me that in most churches I have attended, in most churches where I have spoken, the pews were full of pretenders...not knowing the supernatural grace to which they so casually profess but did not possess.  I could never understand how any pastor, who lived off the money given by church goers, could stand and present the gospel (sins ruin and Christ redemption) knowing full well that most of the congregation had no more interest that they had at a civic club.  In fact, I have spoken at some civic clubs where there was more enthusiasm about their clubs mission than the enthusiasm expressed by the mission of some churches.  If you want to know the interested/dedication/concern of church members for God's work go to mid week prayer service and see how many church members are there.  Most Baptist churches must feed those who go to prayer service, must have refreshments for those who go to a youth service.

For a long time, I was convinced that churches should have "Backdoor Revivals" to cleanse the membership roles of the "card signers".  I have personally known church members even in Baptist churches, who were never baptized.  Who had never participated at the Lord's table.  At a time when many churches are just "drying up" when particularly in Baptist church, missionaries are being called FROM the mission field, when many pastors are now forced into bivocational work (church can no longer support the pastor).  We can know that something is wrong.  There should be no guess work about what is wrong, the gospel is no longer preached, the Bible no longer believed.  The cross of Christ presents both justice and love. 

The southern Baptist church, other Baptist denominations, other evangelical groups were, in my youth, the bulwark of God's strategy for the salvation of the world.  In my lifetime, 85 years, there has been a total change and God is not going to put up with this foolishness forever... our refusal to fight the holocaust of abortion, our refusal to fight the homosexual and psychiatric agenda's that have taken over the churches, and, indeed, the nation.

This writer was raised in poverty, many miles out in the country...the sweat and turmoil of a tobacco farm.  We were so far out that my mother said, often, only two vehicles on the road each day; the mailman and the school bus.  I know now that God had great plans for my life...even though from poverty and a small school, 13 in my graduating class, I did complete 8 years of university education, working at night, school during the day.  About my 3rd year, I purchased my 1st car for $85 a 1941 second hand Plymouth.  I never came home very much, always working.  But, I did attempt to drive home one holiday.  I thought there was enough gas in the car to get me there, where my father had a fuel tank for tractors but, the gas gave out about 4 miles from home.  So, I had to walk the rest of the way.  The two large Collie dogs, which we always maintained to patrol the farm (300 acres with many hogs, cows, mules, etc.) could hear anything at a distance.  They heard me coming and began to bark.  But, I had a "whistle" which they recognized and, before long, here they came jumping and licking...THEY KNEW ME.  AND, when I walked up on the front porch here was my mother in her long white night gown.  The truth of the gospel, the most precious satisfaction the Christian can realize, my mother will one day greet me in her long white robe which God gives to all those who are his.  Those to whom Christianity has been real.