Rut, Rot or Revival 4

It is really an amazing time to be alive. There is an acceleration of change, conflict and communication that is palpable in our country and the world. The acceleration is so real. I wonder what's brewing? I wonder what God is up to?

Since my last writing, one of my mentors, Larry Crabb, whom I wrote about last week, died to this world and was welcomed to new life. I don't know how that all goes. We're told things with certainty. I'm not sure that anyone still here who doesn't yet know what Larry knows now can really be all that certain about what it is that really happens. I am certain that God had Larry here and that God has Larry there. Beyond that, my certainty is limited at best. And that leaves me needing Jesus, which is a healthy spot. Knowing that you need Jesus is a desirable posture among the accelerating change, conflict and communication of this moment in our history.

I have been thinking about the bride of Christ, the church, over the last month or so. Aiden Wilson Tozer wrote, taught and preached about the church for 44 years, from 1919 to 1963. AW spoke passionately and pointedly to the ideas of the church operating in a "rote" mode which, he says, can lead the church to be in a "rut", which ultimately can lead to the church being in places of "rot". Rote, he is saying, is the church just repeating a weekly routine without meaning, without wonder, without expecting any surprise from God. We can predict what will happen today, next week and a year from now because it's what has happened for the last 10 years the same way, all the time. Rut, he says, is when we are in bondage to the rote and perhaps not even know it. And today, I'll share some of his words about the idea of rot.

The fresh thought for me this morning is that Tozer was writing about rote, rut, rot and revival 60-70 years ago. He must have been writing about it six and seven decades ago because he sensed with the Lord that those were the themes present in the church during those days. And they still are today. NEEDY THEN. NEEDY NOW. Knowing that you need Jesus is a desirable posture today. I know my church needs Jesus desperately. We don't pretend to have things figured out. Lord, please have mercy on your people, your church. Save us from ourselves. Surprise us. Revive us out of unnecessary routining.

Rot. Tozer continues. "There is a third word, and I do not particularly like to use it, but the history of the church is filled with it. The word is rot. The church is afflicted by dry rot. This is best explained when the psychology of non-expectation takes over and spiritual rigidity sets in."

He says, "There are many who respond by arguing, 'I know lots of evangelical churches that would like to grow, and they do their best to get the crowds in. They want to grow and have contests to make their Sunday school larger.' That is true, but they are trying to get people to come and share their rut. They want people to help them celebrate the rote and finally join in the rot. Because the Holy Spirit is not given a chance to work in our services, nobody is repenting, nobody is seeking God, nobody is spending a day in quiet waiting on God with open Bible, seeking to mend his or her ways. Nobody is doing it - we just want more people. But more people for what? More people to come and repeat our dead services without feeling, without meaning, without wonder, without surprise? More people to join us in the bondage to the rote?"

Non-expectation takes over. What a phrase. What a reality.

Needy then. Needy now. "Apart from Me, you can do nothing.", Jesus says.

I want to pray this for myself and my church.

I need to pray this for myself and my church.

Lord, You doused us in crimson. So there is hope.

You're our only hope.

We, the church, haven't needed a pandemic to know how needy we really are.

But you're using it to highlight that reality.

We really are needy.

Tozer was saying the same thing 70 years ago.

Needy then. Needy now.

We know it's true.

Abba, would you protect me from a weekly routine of gathering without any expectation of Your presence meaning something. I want to wonder about Your wonders with Your people and new Your people.

And my church, Papa.

Abba, would you protect me from being in bondage to this routine, not longing for or expecting anything more from You than what I can come up with on a Sunday...... Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

And my church, Papa.

Abba, would you protect me from soul rot in my inner life. New life please. New hunger please. New desperation please. New vision please. New power please.

And my church, Papa.

Abba, protect my heart from spiritual rigidity.

And my church, Papa.

Abba, protect me from deadness repeating in my life.

And my church, Papa.

Abba, more love. More power. More wind. More fire.

And my church, Papa.

Maybe the neediness in the routine of the rote, the neediness of being in the rut of bondage to the rote, the neediness of knowing that there is rot in my heart that needs the crimson dousing is a real pathway to the possibility of reviving from the heart of God.

There's more.