BLJ: Today's reading speaks to what occurred when the emphasis on the death-route died. No case really needs to be argued. Just look around at the churches that used to profess holiness. How often do you hear a testimony of someone being saved and sanctified? How often do you hear of specific meeting for the purpose of promoting holiness? How much time is spent in prayer and fasting versus programs and entertainment? It doesn't take much more than casual observation to see how far the church has slipped. Bro. Boardman's book foretold what would happen.
WHEN THE DEATH-ROUTE DIES
When the "death-route" emphasis died in the holiness movement, the intense pattern of fasting and prayer which characterized so many of the early holiness people, tended to die with it. We are told that those early holiness folk, as a systematic pattern, used to fast two days a week until after three o'clock in the afternoon. Then, when revival efforts would fail, they would fast two full days as a group, and then eat for two days. They would follow that pattern, with intense intercessory prayer sometimes for several weeks until the Holy Ghost would begin to move upon sinners all over the area with tremendous Holy Ghost conviction, and revivals would break out. Multitudes of the hardest sinners (such as "Bulldog" Charley Wireman) would get soundly saved and gloriously sanctified in such revivals. Many of those converts became mighty preachers of Holiness, and ardent soul-winners.
BLJ: I would preach 10 day revivals. It would take that long to "dig out" some hardened sinners and also Christians so full of pride that they were resisting holiness. Where have these revivals gone? They have been replaced with a 3 day convention and when it ends, everybody feels better.
Why have we in the holiness movement of today abandoned the revival pattern which our forefathers found to be so successful? Is it not largely because the majority of our pastors and people (leaders and followers) have never died out to self, and have only the doctrine of holiness in their heads, but do not have the experience in their hearts? Even when they are sincere and try to be honest, they would make less regrettable blunders which injure the Kingdom of God if they were Spirit-led using God's judgment instead of their own.
BLJ: Where are the results today? Are churches reproducing or just serving as a child care facility for baby Christians?
KIPLING'S KEEN CONCEPTION
Has not our Christianity lost something vital when the worship of self replaces the worship of Christ, and our self-esteem replaces the self-humbling which Christ taught and practiced? When our lives are more controlled by the love and worship of ourselves, our interests, our possessions, our worldly friends and our unsanctified loved ones -- then we are not followers of Christ at all, and to call ourselves Christians is a misnomer (Luke 14:26).
BLJ: What is the focus of church? Is it to serve you, or to worship God? When it becomes man-centered, the Holy Spirit departs. When there is excessive joking and frivolity, the Holy Spirit departs.
"Something hidden," lamented Rudyard Kipling, "Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges -- something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"
Our hearts cry out: "Where could we go to find what we've lost from our basic Christianity? Where could we go but to our own Calvary -- our own crucifixion of self, and then to our own personal Pentecost?" Pseudo Christianity is all we can ever hope to realize unless we search for what we've lost until we find it. When we are controlled by the love of power over people, and the love of money, we have lost something. When self holds the controlling motivation in our lives, instead of God, through Christ, administered by the Holy Ghost, we've lost something. The analogy could go on and on, but the picture can never improve until the crucifixion becomes as real to us as it was to HIM (Christ) -- His crucifixion, yes, but ours also!
BLJ: It is time for individual soul searching, repentance, restoration and re-committing to the Lord before it is too late.
If it is a fire that has become mere embers, it must be rekindled. If it is a faith, entombed; it must be resurrected. If it is love for Christ that has become weak; it must be revived until it supersedes all other loves. If that is what we have lost -- we must hunt behind the ranges of humanism, materialism, rationalism and self-centeredness until we find it. It will take far more than a religious placebo to cure our spiritual sickness, because our problems are not psychological, but moral. All of our problems have a single tap root, and that tap root is not ignorance -- it is depravity. It is not that we need to be better educated; we need to be crucified! If we are not dead, then God might as well be, as far as we are concerned!
WHEN THE DEATH-ROUTE DIES
When the "death-route" emphasis died in the holiness movement, the intense pattern of fasting and prayer which characterized so many of the early holiness people, tended to die with it. We are told that those early holiness folk, as a systematic pattern, used to fast two days a week until after three o'clock in the afternoon. Then, when revival efforts would fail, they would fast two full days as a group, and then eat for two days. They would follow that pattern, with intense intercessory prayer sometimes for several weeks until the Holy Ghost would begin to move upon sinners all over the area with tremendous Holy Ghost conviction, and revivals would break out. Multitudes of the hardest sinners (such as "Bulldog" Charley Wireman) would get soundly saved and gloriously sanctified in such revivals. Many of those converts became mighty preachers of Holiness, and ardent soul-winners.
BLJ: I would preach 10 day revivals. It would take that long to "dig out" some hardened sinners and also Christians so full of pride that they were resisting holiness. Where have these revivals gone? They have been replaced with a 3 day convention and when it ends, everybody feels better.
Why have we in the holiness movement of today abandoned the revival pattern which our forefathers found to be so successful? Is it not largely because the majority of our pastors and people (leaders and followers) have never died out to self, and have only the doctrine of holiness in their heads, but do not have the experience in their hearts? Even when they are sincere and try to be honest, they would make less regrettable blunders which injure the Kingdom of God if they were Spirit-led using God's judgment instead of their own.
BLJ: Where are the results today? Are churches reproducing or just serving as a child care facility for baby Christians?
KIPLING'S KEEN CONCEPTION
Has not our Christianity lost something vital when the worship of self replaces the worship of Christ, and our self-esteem replaces the self-humbling which Christ taught and practiced? When our lives are more controlled by the love and worship of ourselves, our interests, our possessions, our worldly friends and our unsanctified loved ones -- then we are not followers of Christ at all, and to call ourselves Christians is a misnomer (Luke 14:26).
BLJ: What is the focus of church? Is it to serve you, or to worship God? When it becomes man-centered, the Holy Spirit departs. When there is excessive joking and frivolity, the Holy Spirit departs.
"Something hidden," lamented Rudyard Kipling, "Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges -- something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"
Our hearts cry out: "Where could we go to find what we've lost from our basic Christianity? Where could we go but to our own Calvary -- our own crucifixion of self, and then to our own personal Pentecost?" Pseudo Christianity is all we can ever hope to realize unless we search for what we've lost until we find it. When we are controlled by the love of power over people, and the love of money, we have lost something. When self holds the controlling motivation in our lives, instead of God, through Christ, administered by the Holy Ghost, we've lost something. The analogy could go on and on, but the picture can never improve until the crucifixion becomes as real to us as it was to HIM (Christ) -- His crucifixion, yes, but ours also!
BLJ: It is time for individual soul searching, repentance, restoration and re-committing to the Lord before it is too late.
If it is a fire that has become mere embers, it must be rekindled. If it is a faith, entombed; it must be resurrected. If it is love for Christ that has become weak; it must be revived until it supersedes all other loves. If that is what we have lost -- we must hunt behind the ranges of humanism, materialism, rationalism and self-centeredness until we find it. It will take far more than a religious placebo to cure our spiritual sickness, because our problems are not psychological, but moral. All of our problems have a single tap root, and that tap root is not ignorance -- it is depravity. It is not that we need to be better educated; we need to be crucified! If we are not dead, then God might as well be, as far as we are concerned!
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