Help!

I remember when we first moved to Beacon Hall. There was a massive thicket of trees, shrubs and briars that encased the left side of our front yard. I remember when Lea first had a vision about cleaning that area out to reveal the further beauty of our new home. We sawed, cut, pulled, raked, ripped and shredded until we got to the point that we saw a lovely, ivy-covered landscape with definition and vibrant green. There is always so, so much to battle into. So much to saw, cut, pull, rake, rip, and shred on the way to relational health and beauty with Trinity and each other. We'll come back to this thought in a minute.

Lloyd Jones says that revival is God acting. It is God dealing with me, changing me, giving me new birth, giving me new life, a making new men and women of us. And part of this dealing with me is helping me to see that the continuous revival of my own flesh to make things happen on my own dies slowly. Satan took Jesus into the wilderness and told him that HE could give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus just needed to bow down and worship Satan. Jesus said no. Jesus battled relationally in that moment to be able to tell us what He says in the Bible book of John, chapter 15, verse 5. Apart from Me you can do nothing. Does this bedrock reality just roll off my brain? Jesus battled in the wilderness so we could grasp relational integrity. I have the opportunity to relate with God and you healthily because He fought and won it to the death.

So why do I choose so many other pathways to live? Technological, entertainment, sexual, political, financial, bitterness, sarcasm, numbness, comedy, educational. And I could quickly stroke another fifty pathways I'm sure. My friend TM wrote these words.

Revival is....

EVERY Christian's need

EVERYday

for EVERY aspect of life.

Revive everything about me, constantly. The quick 10 pathways, with 50 on deck, are proving that this is real. When I'm melding into a technological, sexual, political, sarcastic frenzy, I'm living out my hunger for some pathway of reviving. It's just that the buzz wears off really quick. It wasn't as reviving as I imagined. I really believe we know that letdown to be oh so true.

So not in a way of being cute, but in a way of being desperate, what pathway is there? In the Bible, book of Psalm, chapter 119, verse 154. Revive me according to your Word. How non-glitzy, life enthralling is that? Is there some pathway of reviving that actually really works? "Relate WITH Me in My Word". Yes there is. We live in a time when you wonder if you almost need to apologize for how simple and straightforward this is. The world, the flesh (that's me) and the devil have so mocked and mucked up the relating pathway of the Words of God. Relating with Trinity and relating with one another according to His Words. Remember that?

Remember our thicket up there? Chainsawing, macheteing, and yanking our way through the bramble of vines and vengeful overgrowth. There is always so, so much to battle into. So much to saw, cut, pull, rake, rip, and shred on the way to relational health and beauty with Trinity and each other. On the way to the continual reviving of God, everyday, for every aspect of life. Each of us will grapple with whether we really think this is the scope of our need. So what am I thinking about as I depict this brambly, vibrant green hiding, mass of intertwined overgrowth? I am thinking about the book of Psalm, still in chapter 119, moving on to verse 175. "Let my soul live that I may praise You. And....(here it comes) let your Word HELP me. Battling through all the self protective, arrogant, at ease, nonchalant, I got this, unrealized doom of relating MY way being transformed to a God lit place where we say......

HELP!

There's more.