Seasons -- A Time For Everything

Today, our daughter graduates from her university studies. For our family, today is a season to laugh and to dance. Yes, I awoke with Ecclesiasties 3 on my mind.

Click - Turn! Turn! Turn! The Byrds - Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 MV

(1) For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. (2) A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. (3) A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. (4) A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. (5) A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. (6) A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. (7) A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. (8) A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.
(9) What do people really get for all their hard work? (10) I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. (11) Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. (12) So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. (13) And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. (14) And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. (15) What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.
-- Ecclesiastes 3 (NLT 2007 Edition)

Lord, We Are...
Grateful

Can We Live Without Revival?

If we can Iive without Revival?
Then we're not where God wants us to be!
-- Leonard Ravenhill

Let's humble ourselves before the Lord, praying and seeking, that is, desperately gasping for Revival with every breath we take. Let's turn from all other deceptive imitations of life-support, and only inhale and exhale God's holy invitation found in 2 Chronicles 7:14 -- yes, indeed, His invitation to breathe, to really live in the realm of Revival for forever and today.

If My People... Will? I Will! -- God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14
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Under God or Gone Under?

"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." -- President Ronald Reagan

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. -- 2 Chron. 7:14 (NLT)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Prayer: Simple & Profound

Prayer is so simple that even children can pray, and it is so profound that unless adults have childlike hearts they cannot pray.

Then He (Jesus) said, "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven." -- Matthew 18:3 (NLT)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Enter The Mystery

Psalm 40, verses 1-4, from the Message Paraphrase is a testimony and an invitation that touches the depths of the soul:

I waited and waited and waited for God.
At last He looked; finally He listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to God.
Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
turn your backs on the world’s "sure thing,"
ignore what the world worships.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Turn From Sin, Be Like Children

(1) About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Which of us is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" (2) Jesus called a small child over to Him and put the child among them. (3) Then He said, "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. (4) Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. (5) And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on My behalf is welcoming Me. (6) But if anyone causes one of these little ones who trusts in Me to lose faith, it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around the neck. -- Matthew 18:1-6 (NLT)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Seven Verbs for Revival

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. -- 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT)

Could it be that God's simple, yet profound formula for revival is all written down in the form of seven verbs in 2 Chronicles 7:14?

In this verse there are four verbs for us and three for God:

If we will...
(1) humble (2) pray (3) seek (4) turn?

God says He will...
(5) hear (6) forgive (7) heal!

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Wholly His

The most passionate desire of God's heart of hearts is not to see us as holy heroes -- doing everything for Him, but as wholly His --being everything to Him.

Isaiah 43:1 (NLT) -- ...the LORD who created you says: "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are Mine."

2 Timothy 2:19 (NLT) -- But God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are His," and "Those who claim they belong to the Lord must turn away from all wickedness."

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Turn & Believe

As the Lenten Season commences, there is one verse in particular that should be remembered over-and-over:

Mark 1:15 (NLT) -- "At last the time has come!" Jesus announced. "The Kingdom of God is near! Turn from your sins and believe this Good News!"

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful