Tag: Church

Celebrating 125 Years of the God’s Revivalist

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Church, Education, Ministry, Theology

No history of the Holiness Movement is complete without mention of Martin Wells Knapp and his “pulpit” the God’s Revivalist and Bible Advocate. With a circulation of 20,000 at the turn of the last century, it has played a significant role in the promotion and spread of scriptural holiness. When Knapp launched the paper (then named The Revivalist) in 1888 his purpose was “to proclaim the good news of salvation, to stir up a revival spirit among Christians, [and] to stimulate Christian growth and responsible Christian living.” For 125 years the editors and staff of God’s Revivalist have sought to carry out his initial vision of a paper in which the good done would not be through “human might, nor power” but only through “the Holy Spirit.” Knapp realized, and we affirm, that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

Knapp boldly proclaimed that he and the writers of this paper were only agents of God, committed to carrying out His work of promoting full salvation. He insisted that, should the paper die because of loyalty to these convictions it would be a “willing martyr.” Knapp’s belief in the power and providence of God’s provision for the Revivalist was sound. Only 12 years after Knapp launched God’s Revivalist, more than 50 holiness periodicals were in circulation across the United States. Today only one of those original publications remains in print. You are reading it.

As grateful as we are for 125 years of unbroken publication, we know that Knapp would have resisted the urge to engage in self-congratulation. All praise and honor belongs to the God who rules over all! Knapp frequently referred to the readers of his paper as “family” and this is a view we still share. So it is only right that we share with you, our family, some of what you can expect to see from the Revivalist in the coming years:

  1. A digital version of the magazine.
  2. Supplemental audio and video content.
  3. More special issues devoted to contemporary Christian living.
  4. An increased web and social media presence.

The Revivalist will, for years to come, be available in print. In the near future, however, we intend to offer the magazine in a format suitable to tablets, e-readers and smart phones. Already, the Revivalist Press has begun to issue, and re-issue, e-book versions of our most popular publications. We are firmly committed to upholding scriptural holiness to the coming generation of digital natives. We also intend to provide supplemental audio and video content via the web. In the immediate future you will begin to see a number of special issues devoted to single topics. These will, we pray, as Knapp promised “stimulate Christian growth and responsible Christian living.” All of these changes will mean an enlarged web and social media presence; changes we hope will increase the global impact and reach of this publication and its founding message, “Holiness Unto The Lord.”

Deep Calleth Unto Deep

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Theology

You can learn much about a person simply by knowing the things about which they are curious. Copernicus, Newton, Einstein and Edison were possessed with the kind of curiosity that lead to world shaping discovery and invention.  George Washington Carver’s curiosity of botany led to the development of over 300 uses for the lowly peanut.  Can you imagine how many people had held the peanut in their hand with only enough interest to open the shell and eat the nut inside?  But Carver was curious – curious enough to probe deep enough to unlock the vast potential of that lowly little legume.  The great discoveries in our world have always been the end result of a great curiosity – a curiosity so intense that it will seek to untangle the deepest mysteries and solve the most complex problems known to mankind.

The same is true in the spiritual realm.  The deeper life is always built upon the understanding that there is something more to discover – something deeper to faith than we have yet experienced.  One of the fundamental principles of spiritual conquest is that we must pursue and appropriate what God has provided and promised (Joshua 1:3). The great saints are those who possess a passionate curiosity to examine their faith and to know their God in an intimate way.

Moses was such a man.  When you read about Moses you are reading about a man of extreme faith and deep intimacy with God.   When you listen to the things Moses talked to God about; the boldness of his prayers; the things he wanted God to show him – you see an uncommon depth of spiritual character fueled by an even greater hunger to know his God!   An example of this is in Exodus 33 and 34.  Recorded here is an amazing “face to face” conversation Moses had with Yahweh (the personal name for God). He asks Yahweh for three remarkable things:

1. “Teach me your ways”

            Most of us use prayer as a means to alter our circumstances.  Not Moses –it was a means to alter his heart, mind and character. He was effectively telling God, “I need insight into your culture and world.  I need to know how You do things. I must know what Your expectations are for me and for Your people.” If you pray like this every day, you will have a new depth to your life as you concentrate on absorbing the culture of heaven.

 2. “Guarantee me your presence”

            Moses told God quite bluntly that he was not going one more step on the journey unless God promised to go too.  God’s presence meant rest, safety, guidance and identity. Moses would accept nothing less.  Whatever blessing God may offer, Moses would have none of it if it did not include His presence.  This was obviously gratifying to God and He assured Moses that “My presence will go with you.”

3. “Show me your glory”

            Moses asks to see God’s glory and God responded with, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you.” Moses wanted to see God’s glory and God said I will show you my goodness. There is a very important difference here. Dennis Kinlaw explains that difference with this insight, “You can have a spiritual experience that is very exciting yet contentless, or you can gain an insight into the character of the Eternal One that will change you forever.”

If you are one of those souls that long to go deeper,  the place to begin is the same place that Moses began – the place that longs to , “know  God, have His presence and to see His glory.”  This is “deep calling unto deep.”

Living Beyond Ourselves

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Church, Theology

The Christian life can  be  marked by such a sense of God’s presence and power that one is enabled to live and work in a way that is not easily attributable, if attributable at all, to merely natural or human ability. The effect of this kind of life is totally incongruent to natural ability. It is clearly marked by something beyond oneself! From a biblical perspective, this is not something that merely can be but something that should be.

D. L. Moody lived such a life.  He was a source of constant wonder because the results of his ministry were so totally incommensurable with his obvious personal qualities.  He had a very ordinary appearance, was not ordained by any religious body and was uncultured and uneducated – even crude and uncouth to many.  This was a constant bewilderment to many of Moody’s contemporaries including Dr. R.W. Dale, a leading clergyman in Great Britain.  Dale attended Moody’s meeting in Birmingham, England to see if he could discover the “secret” to Moody’s power in preaching and evangelism.  After hearing Moody speak, he concluded that the work had to be of God as he could see “no relation between Moody personally and what he was accomplishing for God’s Kingdom.”  Moody’s ministry was marked by something beyond himself!

The Biblical explanation for a large part of this is called living “in the power of the Spirit.”   Paul illustrates this principle in Galatians 4:22-28 using an Old Testament character, Abraham, to give us an example of the contrast between life enabled by the Spirit and life simply lived in the energy of the flesh.  Abraham fathered Isaac, the son of promise, with Sarah, contrary to the natural order of things.  Isaac’s conception was altogether beyond their natural human ability.  It was Divine intervention that enabled them to bear a son.  However, at an earlier point Abraham fathered Ishmael with Hagar – an act that was clearly the result of the natural human energies of their bodies.  The spiritual lesson of this story is that any life that has results beyond natural human ability is a life that is being lived through the enabling power of God’s Spirit.  With this in mind, we should see spiritual significance in the Bible’s many stories that revolve around barren women.  Sarah, Rebecca, Hannah, Manoah, Elizabeth – all barren until God “opened their womb.”  God is teaching us that if we are to have any spiritual fruit, do any spiritual work, then it will be because of what He does through us and not what we do within our own human energy.

The alternative to Spirit enabled living is living “in the flesh.” When the NT speaks of those who live in the flesh, it speaks of those whose lives are oriented around themselves and who know only their own resources.  Paul describes this in Romans 8:5, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. . .”  To live in the flesh is to think and work in the context of one’s natural abilities.  It if life on your own!  Those who live in the flesh may be educated, refined and cultured but they still will produce nothing beyond what the flesh can produce.  Their life can always be explained in terms of human ability and accomplishment.

The question which we must ask ourselves is this:  Is there something about me that cannot be explained in natural terms?  Is there something found in my life that is never to be found in a non-Christian?  Do I evidence a life that is lived beyond my own resources?

The Church – A Community of Faith

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Church, Culture, Theology, Worship

America is blessed with a lot of churches.  Some sit astride prominent street corners proudly displaying their architectural glory while others are tucked away indiscreetly between a used shoe store and a day old bakery in a weary strip mall on the tired side of town.  Some have one word names like “Grace.”  Others have names so long that you can’t say the full name without stopping to breathe. Most have the stereotypical church look, while others resemble something between a cinema and a warehouse.  It is not, however, the architect they display, the appellation they wear, or the affiliations they boast that makes them a church.

The New Testament doesn’t provide a simple concise definition of the Church other than what is found in the meaning of the Greek word for Church (ekklesia) which is “the called out ones.”   What it does provide is long narratives portraying the Church in action, colorful word pictures of what the church is like, specific duties that the Church should fulfill, doctrinal standards that the Church should teach and prophetic insights of how the Church can stray from the path and lose its way.

History has taught us that the Church needs periods of reformation and times of revival to keep it doctrinally sound, morally pure and faithful to its calling. At other times, the Church needs change that is less radical and might be described as a course correction.  These internal corrections need to be made because the Church has a hard time keeping its balance.    Certain imbalances can be attributed to the peculiarities of leadership.  Others are derived from simply over-emphasizing one truth to the neglect of other balancing truths. The worse imbalances, however, grow out of the fertile soil of fear. When the church and its leaders do what they do or fail to do what they should do out of fear, the church will inevitably suffer from some imbalance.

The Call to the Conservative Holiness Movement, by its very nature, is a challenge to the CHM to address particular areas of weakness or failure. The call is not designed to enumerate all the good things that could be said about the CHM.  Article III of the call speaks to the CHM’s community of faith and addresses some of the imbalances in the way the CHM views its own community of faith and the community of faith at large.  I think it is important to note that even though these imbalances are real and need addressed, the average conservative holiness church is a wonderful place to worship.  In my opinion, they still offer one of the best environments available to raise a family; hear the Word of God fearlessly proclaimed; feel conviction for sin while at the same time find the power of grace; hear fervent praying; sense the moving of God’s Spirit; worship with people who are serious about everyday holiness; and find an environment that truly helps one to keep his feet on the narrow path that leads to life eternal!

Nevertheless, the CHM does have a significant imbalance in the way it views its own differing communities of faith as well as how it views the larger community of faith.  The Movement at large and the various denominations within suffer from a culture of suspicion toward those who do not share their particularities.  They also suffer from a certain insularity that robs them of the insight, wisdom and balance that could be derived from the larger Christian community.  This condition varies in degree from denomination to denomination and from church to church, but it is present and needs to be honestly confronted and openly addressed.

A Culture of Suspicion

            The CHM highly values the Biblical call to separation from the world.  As appropriate and good as this may be, inherent in any serious commitment to “Biblical separation” is the temptation to be suspicious of others who may have a lesser degree or even a greater degree of separation that we do.  Just as the call to holy living can veer off the path into perfectionism, the call to separation from the world can veer off the path into isolationism – an isolation that breeds a carnal suspicion of anyone and everyone that doesn’t see it like I do or share my particular version of how the faithful ought to manifest their faith. This has been a perennial bane for the CHM.   Rev. Tom Reed says this kind of suspicion has caused us to “play God – determining who is or is not a Christian based on the way we see things.”  Clearly if this suspicion is left unchecked, it will lead to a spirit of judging and condemnation of the larger community of faith as well as to divisions within our own CHM family.  Even now many groups within the CHM will not use a speaker from another group within the CHM because of suspicion and fear. Conservative leaders could use their influence and voice to help remedy this disease with a cure that doesn’t require anyone to compromise their corporate values or personal convictions.  It only requires a renewed understanding and commitment to the teachings of I Cor. 8-10 and Rom. 14.  Add to that a fresh supply of the “love of God poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” and we can be well on our way to removing the ethos of suspicion and division among us.

A Detachment from the Larger Christian Community

            In I Cor. 12 Paul reminds us that the Church is a body made up of many different members; each contributing something that the other members cannot give.  This has an application to both the local body and to the larger body of Christ.  It seems to me that God has given the various traditions of the Christian Church particular insights into truth and practice that He has not given in the same degree to all.  He must expect us to learn from one another.  I have learned much about prayer by reading from both Catholic and Evangelical writers.  I have   been immeasurably enriched by the writings and teachings of evangelicals like C. S. Lewis, Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, Ravi Zacharias and Chuck Colson.  The expository preaching and teaching of men like John MacArthur, David Jeremiah and Howard Hendricks have added great value to the life of the whole Church and challenged others to take the Scriptures more seriously.  The work of William Booth, Mother Teresa and Erlo Stegen have challenged me to the core of my spiritual being to be mindful of the downtrodden and disenfranchised among us.  Where would America’s families be today without the ministry of James Dobson?  Personally, no one has challenged me more in the area of spiritual intimacy and holiness than Dennis Kinlaw and John Oswalt.

It must be noted that not a single name mentioned above identifies with the CHM.  Yet each one of them has spoken powerfully into my life and the lives of many conservative holiness people.  In preparation for writing this article I spoke with the Rev. Tom Reed, who is an elder statesman within the CHM.  He shared with me a list of men outside our tradition who have been used of God to advance his own spiritual life.  He mentioned: H.A. Ironsides (a former pastor of Moody church), A.W. Tozer (he visited his church often on Sunday evenings), Paul Rees, Vance Havner, S. M. Lockridge and Howard Hendricks.  He added this insightful comment, “these were not holiness men but they were holy men and I refuse to write them off just because they see some things differently than me”.

The CHM has tended to isolate themselves from these “outside” voices.  They fear that they might be a corruptive or a persuasive influence, or even worse, that if we allow anyone to minister to us that does not fully share all our values we have somehow compromised and demeaned those values.  Some of this kind of thinking grows out of simple fear.  In other cases I think it is because we have failed to distinguish between a Romans 14 category issue (opinions, preferences, interpretations, etc…) and a Galatians 1 category issue (false doctrine or heresy) and have treated all outside voices as if they were in the Galatians 1 category.  Mature leaders should be more discerning than this. I know many laymen who already exercise this kind of discernment by means of radio, books, CD’s and DVD’s that they buy and listen to.

Let me clear, I am not advocating an open door policy on “outside voices”.  I am certainly not encouraging local churches to open up their pulpits to men and women from other traditions.  What I am suggesting is that in our large conventions, conferences and forums we need to occasionally hear what our brothers and sisters outside the CHM have to say to us. God is working powerfully in His world through many of these choice servants. There are many outside our little circle who are far outstripping us in their passion for the lost, their zeal for the disenfranchised, their insight into scripture and their love for holiness. To hear what they are doing, to be challenged by their successes and to learn from their insight will not and does not diminish my love for my Zion nor make me want to jettison my spiritual tradition and values!  It simply makes me a better servant of the Lord!

We Have Something to Offer the Church

            The sword of isolation cuts two ways.  We are cut off from what the larger Christian community can give us and the larger Christian community is cut off from what we can bring to it. The CHM is the beneficiary of hundreds of years of rich holiness heritage.  We have grown up embracing and experiencing truths that some in the body of Christ will never know or experience. We have some preachers who are as capable and anointed as any out there anywhere.  Our emphasis on personal transformation, purity of heart, perfect love, real character development, growth in grace and freedom from the power of sin are emphasis that are needed by the larger body of Christ!  Surely what God has freely bestowed on us we ought to freely share with others!

My plea is not for some silly, stupid ecumenicalism!  It is a simple plea for us to both reap and share the bounty of spiritual riches that are ours in Christ and found within the various members of His Body – including our own.  The late H. E. Schmul, one of the greatest conservative holiness statesmen I ever knew, use to lead us in singing, “I don’t care what church you belong to, Just as long as for Calvary you stand.  Just as long as your heart beats with my heart, You’re my brother, so give me your hand”.  Somebody strike the tune and let’s sing it again!

Don’t Miss Christ This Christmas

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Church, Culture, Ministry, Theology, Worship

The early American spiritual, “Sweet Little Jesus Boy” has a profound insight running through its lyrics.  The writer appropriately reflects the world’s failure to recognize the incarnate Son of God when He says: “We didn’t know who You were.”  The third verse proves to be even more remarkable. “The world treats you mean, Lord, treats me mean too, but that’s how things are down here. We don’t know who you are.”  The writer deliberately shifts from a historical ignorance to a present-day failure to recognize the Son of God and then to live out the implications of knowing Him.

The world completely missed Him on that first Christmas (John 1:5, 10).  Their kings were born surrounded by pomp and circumstance.  But Jesus came silently, in a stable, with only a few shepherds to pay him homage.  Their kings lived in palaces, dressed in splendor, dined with heads of state, and traveled in gold plated chariots pulled by majestic steeds.  Their vision of a king was one to be served, feared and honored from a distance.  Jesus wore the garb of common men, had no place to lay his head, traveled by foot, rubbed shoulders with the poor and diseased, held children on his lap and first revealed His glory at the wedding of a poor village girl.  The very thought of a king, dying on a cross to redeem his people and establish His kingdom, was to the world foolishness.

His own people missed him (John 1:11).  The Jews were looking for a conquering warlord that would throw off the yoke of Rome, liberate their country and return them to the golden age of Solomon.  But Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world, spoke of going the second mile, turning the other cheek, and loving your enemies.  The Jews watched in complete horror as He healed a Roman’s Centurion’s servant, talked to a Samaritan adulteress, stayed in the home of a tax collector and spent most of His time with a group of ignorant fisherman.  For their Messiah to be crucified on a Roman cross as God’s perfect sacrifice, proved to be a huge stumbling block.

His disciples had problems recognizing who He was.  Peter, speaking for the twelve, announced at Caesarea Philippi that, “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.”  Jesus’ response to that was to explain that being the Christ involved a cross.   To which Peter replied, “Not so Lord.”  When Jesus washed the disciple’s feet, Peter’s paradigm of the Messiah came out again, and it was not one of self-sacrificing servanthood.  Even after three years, His disciples saw His death and resurrection as the ultimate end rather than the consummate victory.

You don’t have to miss Him.  Those who were in tune to God’s redemptive plan and activity recognized Jesus right away.  Simeon and Anna recognized Him as God’s means of salvation when He was still a babe in His mother’s arms.  The wise men worshipped Him, John the Baptist announced Him as the “Lamb of God,” and the woman of Samaria said to her friends, “Is not this the Christ?”

Even a Roman Centurion who witnessed His crucifixion said, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

If Jesus were reincarnated among us today, would we be prepared to recognize Him?  Or have we created a Jesus so much to our own liking that we would never know the one walking through the pages of our New Testament?  This Christmas season, go back to the gospels and look for Him.  You will be awed by what you find.