A Word from THE WORD

Good Morning Happy Church,

Today is Saturday, March 12^th 2016. Today is the 72^nd Day of 2016.

Today is David Ard’s Birthday!

There are only 294 days left in this year; and, there are only 29 Days Left until Our Spring Revival Meetings Begin!

We will begin the Revival Meetings on Saturday, April 9^th with a Banquet and Sermon at 6pm.

Sunday, April 10^th, we will hear Bro Bobby at 10am and again at 6pm.

Monday and Tuesday, April 11^th and 12, we will hear Bro Bobby at 7pm each night!

Please clear your schedule to attend as many of these meetings as possible.

As I often say, “The two things you have to invest to be blessed are your Attendance and your Attention!”

Please be in prayer for Dr. Bobby and Sandra Boyles as they travel here and back.

Pray that God will pour out HIS SPIRIT on us as never before!

Pray for the salvation of the lost; repentance and renewal in the life of God’s people; new people to become part of our Church Family; the calling out of ministers and missionaries; a spiritual awakening in our area; and, for Jesus Christ to be glorified in all that we do!

Joel was a Prophet to Israel just after the end of the Babylonian-Media-Persian Captivity that ended around 516 BC. The people had not completely turned back to Jehovah and HE responded to their continuing rebellion with continuing judgments – primarily through a devastating plague of Locusts. (Joel 1:1-2:11)

Here is God’s inspired action-plan for revival:

¹⁵ “Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;
¹⁶ gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.
¹⁷ Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Joel 2:12-15

(1) “Blow the trumpet in Zion!”

(2) “Consecrate a Fast!”

(3) “Call a Solemn Assembly!”

(4) “Gather the People!”

(5) “Consecrate the Congregation!”

(6) “Assemble the Elders!”

(7) “Gather the Children, even Nursing Infants!”

(8) “Bring the Newlyweds!”

(9) “Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Let us commit ourselves to doing all 9 of these preparatory steps; for today, I want to focus on Step #5 – “Consecrate the Congregation”

“Consecrate” means the exact same thing as “Sanctify” and this word is often translated that way. It literally means, to set someone or something apart as being “holy” or “sacred” for the LORD and for HIS use.

Sadly, we do not often think of our “Congregation” as being consecrated, or sanctified; but, that is exactly what God calls us to be.

Like the people of Israel, we (as the people of God) should always live holy and sanctified lives. But, since we are human and therefore do not always live holy and sanctified lives, we need to prepare ourselves for a special act of God – or, as in this case in Joel 2 – a special meeting with God.

Revival meetings are no more special than any other time we meet as a Congregation with God; except that God clearly commands HIS people to set aside these special times and to prepare themselves for these special times of meeting with HIM.

So, what does this mean for us? As we prepare for these special days of meetings, we need to carefully and prayerfully seek to come to this time with clean minds, clean hearts, and clean hands.

(Of course, I am speaking spiritually.)

OK; so, how do we do this.

Prayer; conviction; repentance; and obedience.

Prayer. We need to earnestly pray that the LORD will reveal to us those things in our life that displease HIM and can keep us from experiencing all that HE plans to do in our life.

We rarely see all of these things, so we pray that HE will reveal them to us.

Conviction; no one enjoys this, but we need to ask the LORD to burden us about our spiritual health. Pray that HE will make the true condition of our spiritual condition clear to us.

Repentance; since this is a gift of God, we must pray that God will grant us to not only see what is wrong in our life; but, that HE will grant us the grace to forsake what is wrong in our life.

Finally, Obedience. Once we see where we are spiritually weak, we must seek to begin again (be revived) to walk in obedience to Christ and HIS will and HIS work.

Consecration is much more than a formal prayer at the beginning of a service; it is an act by the people of God to set ourselves apart for HIS Word and HIS use.

By HIS grace and for HIS glory, let us start today.

Our Revival Meetings begin in only twenty-nine days!

Get ready now… set aside the time now… Start praying now… DO NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY to experience a great moving of God!

Revival CAN happen, it really CAN happen!

Will we really have revival?

Carpe Diem!