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I had a cup of coffee with a retired vicar after a service of his. “You impress me as one who really believes in what you´re preaching”, I said. He exhibited an honest and good spirit. “But we´re lacking the voice of revival from of old”, I continued. He agreed. He humbly admitted that he didn´t have that voice.
A close friend of mine, another vicar, - son of a good, old fashioned revival minister – had read a lot about the revival history, and I found him very interesting to relax with. He was intelligent, humorous and had a pretty good knowledge of human nature. He sometimes poked fun at my emphasis of the Lord´s words, ”You must be born again!” He didn´t mean to be rude or sarcastic, but I still felt grieved about it. How I wished that we understood one another, not only intellectually, but also about the seriousness concerning the new birth. Eventually he got severely depressed and committed suicide.
”A grave tone of solemnity has come into my life which the young people don´t understand”, I heard a Norwegian “freedom fighter” (member of the resistance movement during World War II) once say on Norwegian TV. Life had to him become more than superficial frivolity. – It´s the same with me. I´ve seen in my own family the emptiness of religious piety without a genuine experience with Christ. I´m usually a man of humor myself, but when it comes to my personal testimony, that grave tone of solemnity is also there when confronting souls with their eternal choice. I just can´t help it.
”I think it is right to stir you up by reminding you…” Peter wrote (2 Pet. 1:13, 3:1). ”By reminding you!” Exactly, not by new ideas, but by the things they already knew. That applies to you and me too on the basis of a personal, intimate fellowship with the Lord, for “the secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” Psa. 25:14.
The secrets of the Lord are always of a reviving nature, but that´s not just a matter of theological knowledge, but of secret intimacy.
June 18, 2011
-jn-
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