great expectations.

I don't know about your community, but here, there has been a lot of talk of "revival" and the desire for revival locally. When I was growing up in the mountains, our church held a revival at least once a year. As a child, I saw "revival" as a time where the community came out to hear a "fresh message" from a different pastor. Even people who went to other churches or people who didn't normally come to church at all would come to hear what the pastor had to say. I think the hope was that if you got the new people in, the Holy Spirit would "show up" and people would find salvation.

Now, I hardly hear of a church holding a revival. In a way, that makes sense, we should be daily seeking a new word from God for our hearts, thus reviving our fervor for God personally each day. We should be seeking out the lost sheep and bringing them to the fold ourselves each day through our actions and words. But are we? Maybe revivial, a fresh look at our spiritual life, is just what our communities need. I have been praying for community transformation for years. Moving to Greenville was an eye-opener in some ways for me. There is such a racial divide here. Why? What can heal those kinds of wounds, the ones that run deeper than we can fathom? What can reunite this place and revive God as the authority in this town and not drugs or gangs or even plain old political power? I came across this scripture in Isaiah recently and it really made me think of the place we are today. The Hebrew people have been in rebellion for quite some time and God is speaking to the people through the prophet, Isaiah:

Isaiah 58 1-12
"Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.

3 'Why have we fasted,' they say,
'and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?'
"Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

Talk about revival! In these times, "fasting" was more than praying for an answer, it was a religious ritual, something to do when everyone else did or something you did when you needed something. It's much like today when many of us make going to church on Sunday or Sunday and Wednesday ritual. We may also pray when we need something, but what do we do with the rest of our time? Sometimes, we even make our devotional time a ritual. A stale experience, not really seeking anything new, just going through the motions. What I get from this scripture is that we can not continue to have "superficial" faith and expect revival in our community or change in our own lives for that matter. You can't heal a deep wound with a bandaid, you have to get down deep a lay a foundation of suture (stiches) to pull it together from the inside out. We can't rebuild the foundations of a community without reaching into the depth of the problem and pulling it together, layer by layer, no matter how nasty it is on the inside. We have to make our words and our actions match, then "No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise." (Isaiah 60:18).

Praise you Lord for your greatness and your mercy. Praise you that you alone have this world in the palm of your hand. Thank you for your kindness, even when we are selfish and ungrateful. Help us Lord to call on your name, earnestly, passionately, wholeheartedly. Help us to have a better relationship with you. Let your glory fall on this community so our city can be guarded by Salvation and so our city gates will always usher in your praises, they will open and welcome you in. Out of our praise for you, let us open the gates to those who do not know you, welcoming them and equiping them for your service. Thank you Lord that you have heard our prayers. Let your will be done.