Reclaiming What We've Lost

"Return to the old paths..."

It's been a while since I've wrote on this, but there's something that was said the other day that I can't get out of my mind. It went something like this:

"We don't need anything new, we just need to reclaim what we've lost!"

Now, understand that I attend a school that is in a city where one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the world began. Without much explanation, you can automatically assume that there is a lot of religious activity. With all of that activity comes a lot of motion. Religious motion.

I saw a cartoon the other day that showed two factory workers standing side by side. They were looking at a huge machine that had a lot of bells, whistles, smoke, gears, conveyor belts, and motion. On the next page, one of the men looked at the other and asked, "What does it do?" The other replied, "Do?! It doesn't do anything!" The cartoon was trying to use it to parallel to our government, but I believe it could be used for the church as well.

We have all of the religious motion. We have books, tapes, conferences, seminars, services, youth groups, fellowship meetings, committees, coffee shops, lights, pulpits, pews, and preachers. But, where has the fire of God gone? Where has the passion of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the church gone? Where has the seriousness of preaching and of worship gone? Where have the all night prayer meetings gone? How about the midnight services? How about the sinner, with hot tears running down his face, that cannot wait to kneel at the altar because he is under such a heavy conviction of the Holy Spirit?

Saying this, I think I can say with the writer, we don't need anything new. We just need to reclaim what we've lost.

Thank God for his mercy and grace. He's so patient with us, even when we are stubborn and rebellious. But, I believe that the greatest move of God is on the horizon. I'm not talking about some hyped up emotionalism, or some fad. I just want something genuine. I'm eager to see what the Lord is going to do through us. As Marvin Gaye says, 'Ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby'

Praying,
LTJ
Rom. 8:2