The Good Old Days
Professors and peasants, educated and illiterate, rich and poor, we were all one. We loved one another, stood up for one another, encouraged one another, cried with one another, rejoiced with one another, prayed for one another, shared with one another, and truly cared for one another.
Beloved, "Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast..." Revelation 3:3
Ponder the verse above and get wild for Jesus! Only one life, only one opportunity, only one destiny. Once we have walked the last mile of this way, there will be no other chance to come back to correct the mistakes we are now making. There will be no second chance to finish our unfulfilled destinies. 'I must work the work of Him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no one can work'.
Remember the old times, years ago when we got converted. Remember the sense of urgency God put within us. Remember how we wanted to tell everyone we met about the Lord. Remember how much we prayed those days(not for money, mansions, or material things), but to know Him, be like Him , live like Him, and live for Him. Those days ALL we thought about was Him! ALL we talked about was Him and ALL we WORRIED about was pleasing HIM. He was all we had and He was more than enough.
We had no cars but we were more satisfied than those who had limos. We had no money, but we felt richer than Bill Gates! We had no wives, no husbands and no kids, but we were not lonely or depressed, because we had found a new family; the family of God. We wanted to be with God's people.
Those days we had no big and beautiful cathedrals, but we were happy to fellowship in those small ramshackle structures, they were like heaven because God was there and the brethren were there. Those days, we were not conscious of fame, fashion or finance. Position and worldly power held no attraction for us.The world was nothing, heaven was everything.The glory of this world was crap, heaven was the real deal. Professors and peasants, educated and illiterate, rich and poor, we were all one. We loved one another, stood up for one another, encouraged one another, cried with one another, rejoiced with one another, prayed for one another, shared with one another, and truly cared for one another.
Gossip, slander, backbiting, tale-bearing, and selfishness were unheard of and unimaginable amongst us in those good old days.Those days we tried to outdo one another (albeit unwittingly), not by flaunting our cash but by increasing our consecration. Our cry then was always for more. More of Jesus. More of holiness. More humility. More tenderness. More love. More grace. More souls. More fire. It was more! More! More! All the time. We were not satisfied with crumbs, we wanted meat. We wanted bones. We wanted depth. We wanted the cross. We wanted the narrow way, we wanted the deeper life. We wanted the higher way.
Then, it was the hotter the better. Everyone wanted to give; everyone wanted to serve; everyone wanted to pray; everyone wanted to evangelise; everyone wanted to visit; everyone wanted to to be pure; everyone was ready to even die for the Lord.
Our bibles were well used and well worn in those days. We read them like our very lives depended on them. We believed everything we read, hook, line and sinker. There was no arguing with God's word those days. We read the word because we wanted to know it; we wanted to know it because we wanted to do it. So we read the word, we knew the word, and we obeyed the word.
Those days we really knew how to pray! We prayed to impress God, not men. We had read stories about men like Apostle James who prayed so much that his knees became like that of a camel with massive callouses and lumps.So we prayed. Some of us prayed so loud, so hard, so long, and so often, that we felt our hearts literally shifting out of place like Praying Hyde's!
WE thank God for our secular achievers. But those good old days, God's people were our examples. We were challenged by the stories of great Christian heroes. We shed many tears as we read about their uncommon love for God. We dreamt dreams, as we heard of the exploits they had made and the territories they had conquered for Christ their King. We wanted to be like them. We wanted to follow in their footsteps. We did not strive to become like secular worldly heroes. Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Obama, and contemporary political figures, black or white, were not our role models those days. We were inspired by heroes like Hudson Taylor, David Livingstone, C.T. Studd, D.L.Moody, William Booth, and William Carey. We were moved by the likes of John Wesley, John Fletcher, Charles G.Finney, Florence Crawford, Madame Guyon, Fanny Crosby, Martin Luther, Savonarola and others of like passion. We read their stories, admired their exploits, and emulated their examples. To us, those were the real heroes, those days.
Those days we hardly prayed for material things and personal miracles. We were not going to church because we wanted to become millionaires or get rich quick. We were not in church to get worldly success at all cost. Those days we went to church because we wanted to please God and live for Him.
Those days we did not run from one crusade to another, one church to another, looking for healing, deliverance and 'blessings'. We knew that we would get God's best and whatever extras He had for us, including persecution, only by seeking Him. So, we sought God. We prayed, we fasted, we yielded, we cried, we tarried.
When we sought Him, He blessed us. When we sought Him, He gave us success. When we sought HIM, He gave us money. When we sought HIM,He gave us houses, and lands and spouses and children. We did not follow the signs, but they followed us. We did not follow the miracles but they followed us. We did not go seeking for the good things of life, but goodness and mercy followed us. That was the story of our life those days. That was the way we lived those days. That was how we were those days. That was how I was those days. That was how YOU (probably) were those days. Whatever happened to those good old days? I think I need help. What about YOU?
Yours in need of prayers and revival,
Charles