Is Christianity boring? To be honest, Christianity is very boring to many mediocre and non-active Christians. There is very little joy or no joy in their Christian life. Everything is a spiritless routine – Bible reading is uninteresting and dull, prayer is lifeless and impersonal, Christian fellowship is nothing than a means of socialization, and Sunday worship is a kind of soul therapy.

My dear Lifer, how are you spiritually? It doesn’t matter how long you have been a Christian, what matters most is the state of your spirituality now. That is why you and I need to check our spiritual thermometer every moment of the day. I have no doubt that all of us desire to live victoriously and triumphantly for the Lord. We desire personal renewal but deep within us there are many struggles. The worries about this life, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things crowd in, put a stop to the growth of the Word, and it becomes unfruitful (Mark 4:19).

Personal renewal ought to be a daily prayer to the Lord. The Psalmist cried to the Lord, "Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" (Psalm 85:6) Here lies the answer to a sleeping Christian! A sleeping Christian does not have the joy of salvation (Psalm 51:12). He needs the Holy Spirit of God to wake him up by His mighty breath.

My dear Lifer, I am sure you would agree with me that some of us are in need of a fresh breath of the Holy Spirit to descend on us. How we long for our spiritual drought to be over and a lifestyle of holiness and love and power for God renewed! O Spirit of the living God, come and fall afresh on us!

There is no shortcut to spiritual renewal. There is a price to pay. Paul said to young Timothy to discipline himself for the purpose of godly living. Are we willing to pay any price for spiritual renewal? Spiritual renewal requires spiritual surgery. This delicate act is done by the Holy Spirit of God. The operation may be painful and at times embarrassing, but it is necessary to restore our spiritual vitality.

Personal renewal comes when a Christian faces his sin honestly. King David was an excellent example. When he was confronted with his double deadly sins – sin of adultery and sin of murder – he did not justify himself but admitted them immediately (2 Samuel 12; Psalm 32; 51).

Confession is not wholesale. The process of confession is tedious and thorough. Notice how the Psalmist confessed his sin. He said, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23, 24). That is why confession must be done unhurriedly and not precipitately.

Confession and repentance go hand in hand. There is no such thing as confession of sin without repentance from sin (Luke 3:8; Acts 19:18, 19). Jesus, speaking to the church of Ephesus, said, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent" (Revelation 2:5a). When it comes to confession, reflection is necessary. We need the Spirit of God to search and show us where we have gone astray. When He reveals our unholy activities, we must confess them one by one without any justification (Psalm 51:4). We must not confess them wholesale but particularize them one by one.

Dr John Sung said, "… if a preacher could not identify his own sins and empty himself, he would lack the power to penetrate the strong citadels in other people’s hearts" (The Journal Once Lost, p. 120). He also said elsewhere in his Journal, "The church must first empty itself of sin before it can shine for the Lord" (ibid, p. 71). This is one of the key reasons why so many Christians today are so powerless to shine for the Lord. Confession and repentance is the key to spiritual renewal (Acts 3:19). There is no other way.

Jesus said that if you are presenting an offering to the Lord and suddenly you remember that your brother has something against you, you are to leave your offering before the altar and go and be reconciled to him, and then come back to present it to the Lord (Matthew 5:23, 24).

Where does the power of prayer lie? James said that the secret to the power of prayer lies here: Confess your wrongdoings one to another. Pray one for another. When the above is done, there will be spiritual healing. That is why he concluded that the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much (James 5:16). Mutual confession and prayer is the key to spiritual healing, and also to the many unanswered prayers.

The Psalmist said, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). We have lost the art of stillness. We do not know what stillness is all about. We do not know how to be still anymore. This is detrimental to our spirituality!

Jesus was a busy man (Acts 10:38) and yet He did not neglect the importance of spending quiet moments with His Father in heaven (Mark 1:29-35). One day He told His disciples to go to a lonely place where they could be alone and find some rest because of the busyness of the ministry (Mark 6:31, 32).

We are living in a crazy world. Everybody seems to be rushing to somewhere. Some of them work ten to fifteen hours a day. Some of them even bring back their work home to do. No wonder they hardly find time to socialize or be involved in church programmes. No wonder their personal relationship with God and people are so shallow. No wonder God is a stranger to them.

My dear Lifer, have we forgotten the wise words of King Solomon? He said, "What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" (Ecclesiastes 1:3) He was not saying that you shouldn’t work or work hard, but why do we spend our lives working and labouring, and what do we have to show for it? As far as he was concerned, life is more than work. That is why his conclusion of the pursuit of life was "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2).

Dr John Sung said, "Henceforth, I have to examine my sins everyday. I also plead with God to show me my sins and to forgive me. Leading the whole of China to the Lord would then not be difficult. Seek your own spiritual revival and revival will come upon everyone else. Know your own shortcomings and let the Truth live in you" (ibid, p. 107).

My dear Lifer, as a church, we can bring blessing to others. As Dr Sung said in his Journal, "Seek your own spiritual revival and revival will come upon everyone else." To do that, we need to help one another. We need to be one another’s keeper.

The words of James are apt here. He said, "Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins" (James 5:19, 20). All of us stray from the truth at times. We need godly brethren to bring us back to the fold. Sometimes it is very painful and it can be very embarrassing. But it is necessary to spiritual renewal. The Holy Spirit of God can use you as His special designed instrument to bring spiritual renewal to others.

My dear Lifer, here are five resolves to spiritual renewal for your prayerful consideration. I know of a couple of prayer fellowships meeting regularly to pray for the spiritual awakening of the church. Why don’t you gather some likeminded brethren to do the same? Surely, this will be very pleasing to the Lord as He sees His children pleading with Him to do something for His Church. Amen.

"Revival is not an evangelistic campaign. It is the restoring to life of believers and churches that have previously experienced the life of God in being born again of the Spirit, but who have become cold, worldly and ineffective. It is the greatest need of the Church of Jesus Christ. Revival will later affect the unbelievers. Revival cannot be organized, for it is given by our sovereign God when He sees fit and in answer to prayer" (Operation World, 1978).

—CW

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Saturday, 17 Nov 07

3 to 6 pm

Chinese Service Hall

Being a Godly Christian Worker

by Elder Ng Beng Kiong

Knowing God’s Will For Career Changes

by Elder Sherman Ong