Invitation to Revival

           You’re formally invited to the First Baptist Church of Allen, as we have scheduled February 16-19 as a time in which we will seek revival.  Much has been said about revivals.  Men have studied the great revivals and awakenings, trying to discern if a formula could be used to produce spiritual renewal.  Today, many still attempt different formulas to manufacture a revival, often only producing spiritual placebos.
          
            Ernest Gordon was a British soldier in World War II who was captured by the Japanese, and he was made to work with thousands of other POW’s on what was called the “Death Railroad.”  It ran along the valley of the Quai River in Thailand, conditions so awful that almost two-thousand prisoners died for every five miles of railroad built.  It got so bad, soon the prisoners were all at each other’s throats. 

Gordon writes:
            “Death was everywhere, and as conditions worsened our lives were poisoned by selfishness, hatred, and fear.  Formerly we had huddled together, believing there was safety in numbers, and still showing consideration for one another.  Now that was gone.  Existence had become so miserable, the odds so heavy against us, that nothing mattered except to survive.  We lived by the rule of the jungle, red in tooth and claw.  It was a case of, ‘I look out for myself, and to hell with everyone else.’  But one afternoon something happened.  A shovel was missing at the end of the day.  The officer in charge became enraged, demanding the missing shovel be produced or else.  When no one in the squadron had volunteered taking the shovel, the officer took out his gun and threated to shoot everyone on the spot.  Suddenly one man stepped forward.  “I took it,” he said.  The officer put away his gun, took a shovel and beat the man to death.  But at the second tool check, no shovel was missing.  The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp, ‘An innocent man had been willing to die to save everyone else.’  The incident had a huge effect.  We began to treat each other like brothers.  Another man was caught trading with the locals for medicine for a dying comrade, and was sentenced to death.  But he submitted to it, reading from a little Bible, then cheering up the chaplain right before his execution.  Death was still with us, no doubt about that.  But we were being slowly freed from its destructive grip.”

            It was sacrificial love, one man giving his life for others that changed independent survival into brotherhood.  And that was just a human being.  The Son of God gave himself for you.  Jesus Christ stepped forward and was beaten into the ground to save us from our sins.  When seeking revival, that’s the only formula that matters. 

 

            Please, I invite you join us.