My plea for revival

“Again, I observed all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who are oppressed; they have no one to comfort them. Power is with those who oppress them; they have no one to comfort them.” –Ecclesiastes 4:1

“They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, undiscerning untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.  Although they know full well God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die–they not only do them, but even applaud those who practice them.” -Romans 1:29-32

“For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have an easy time until they die, and their bodies are well-fed.” –Psalm 73:3-4

“I hate your New Moons and prescribed festivals. They have become a burden to Me; I am tired of putting up with them.  When you lift up your hands in prayer.  I will refuse to look at you; even if you offer countless prayers, I will not listen.  Your hands are covered with blood.” –Isaiah 1:14-15

I have had more than a few sobering talks with my dad to know that a prosperity gospel will never suffice the soul.  Such gospels abound in our culture, feeding off the greed of many in the American public.  They exist within and without the church.  They wear the hat of both the Republican and Democrat.  They are both imported and exported.  A whole lot of people believe them.  But if you have lived any amount of time and deserted the delusional worldview that all is right in the world or that people can fix their own problems, you know that such gospels give you know hope.  If blessings from the heavens or from the earth come to you based on your merits, then there is no hope for redemption for the broken, forsaken, low sinner.

My dad and I have talked about this in detail, especially when either one of us has felt like that sinner.  Once, when my dad was having a bad day, he told me, “sometimes I wonder why God doesn’t just send us to hell.”  I tried to comfort him.  But after I gave it some thought, I began to wonder the same thing myself.  Why doesn’t God send us to hell?  God doesn’t have to redeem us to be a good God.  He doesn’t need us.  He doesn’t owe us anything.  We’ve never merited His kindness, both in the sense that His kindness is so valuable and our evil is so sinful.  God doesn’t need to save us.  And on our worst days, we can think that perhaps God should just end it all and send us into that abyss that stares back at us constantly.

More than anything else recently, the Haiti earthquake has awakened us to the state of our world.  That country was in great need long before this tragedy.  People were living off less than $2.00 a day.  That’s unimaginable for us who live in the West.  Such poverty made this earthquake much worse as the buildings crumbled and people were thrown into disarray.  Even as compassion ministries came in to help clean up that desperate country, the sin of man was on display.  Looting, murder in the streets, philanthropists using charity as an opportunity to flaunt how much money they have–all these things and many others gave us, or should give us, a wake up call.  Our world is in travail.

Do you love that our God is a God of justice?  With all this sin and all this tragedy, it confounds me that more people are praying for the wrath of God to come down upon those who would commit such sins when compassion and love is necessary.  Don’t you love that God will punish the indifferent hearts that go on while so many people could use our money much better than us?  Don’t you love that God will give justice to the widow rather than sheer revenge, discerning the human heart and exposing the wickedness within it?  You should.  It would be unjust for God not to punish sin with flaming fire in full when the blood of the oppressed cries out as it lays on the ground.

It isn’t just limited to Haiti.  This suffering abounds in lives of people across the globe.  Where is the God that will uphold the way of the righteous, they ask?  What does good do if God is not there?  He will do justice in His time.  Though suffering abounds in this life, He will repay us doubly for our sins.  He will be just.

When you are so aware of the darkness of man’s heart, and of your own, it isn’t uncommon for you ask like my dad did, “Why doesn’t God just send us to hell?”  It’s a good question.  We all deserve it.  At the very least, God could kill us all and extinguish the human race or begin it again with a more righteous earthly father than Adam was for us.  But He doesn’t.  He passes over sins.  He forgives iniquity.  He is long-suffering, patient and ever compassionate.  He allows everyone to live and He redeems His people, not only passing over their sins but justly taking their due punishment on the cross so that no one could accuse or condemn them.  God adopts sinners as sons and daughters.  His Spirit dwells within them as He conforms them to the image of His Son and promises them a reward in heaven for their obedience, which could never merit such a reward.  He doesn’t send us to hell.  Why?

God is simple in His reply.  ”The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and full of faithful love” (Psalm 103:8).  We cannot fully understand that compassion.  But it is the source of hope for us in a world filled with injustice.

Christ died for our sins.

TagsChrist, compassion, cross, David Wells, glory, God, grace, injustice, Jesus, justice, mercy, revival, Sovereignty, Suffering, Wells