Amen. Amen.
Good morning, saints. Let us just begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, I want You this morning, Lord, to answer the prayer of this song. Lord, open our eyes, open our ears. Illumine us, Lord. Give us insight. Give us light. Give us a vision of our Lord Jesus Christ this morning.
Lord, we have already talked of God’s great grace. And Lord, when I think of grace, I just see You. Lord, God’s mighty grace, poured out and made available through Calvary’s cross to us. Lord, we come back to Thee. We are ones, Lord, who have been purchased because of Calvary.
Lord, we want to give thanks to Thee today. Lord, we want to worship Thee. Lord, we want our hearts to be fresh with Thee. In Jesus’ name do we pray. Amen.
Well, it is interesting. I will just read this out of Psalm 107. That is what we have been sharing out of this morning. He says in verse 36:
There He maketh the hungry to dwell,
That they may prepare a city for habitation.
There He maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation.
My ministry this morning is not on Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, but just a thought concerning preparation for the conference—preparation not just really for the conference, but what I think the Lord has on His heart when He gave us this theme of preparing the way of the Lord.
Because I think it is evident in most hearts that the Lord indeed is coming soon. I do not know how much that grips us, or grasps our hearts, because He has been coming soon for so many years.
But because it has been so many years—actually, so many centuries—we are in the twenty-first century now, that sometimes we say yes and acknowledge it, but we do not feel it in our hearts and in our spirits so that we respond, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
So, He is coming soon, and that is partially what this conference is about. I just had some thoughts this morning that I wanted to share with the brothers and sisters.
You know, God had something unique, something special in His heart in eternity past—something that was really on His heart, something deep in His heart. God had a purpose.
And He purposed this purpose in His heart. The center of that purpose was focused on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He had something that He dearly wanted, something that has been on His heart ever since He thought of man, ever since He thought of creating man and creating this universe. It was all for His Son.
Something unique, something special on His heart. It was His eternal purpose. It is eternal because it originated in His heart eternally in the past and will have eternal consequences in the future.
We see hints of what was on His heart in the Old Testament. You know, He raised up Israel, the nation that is now currently surrounded by her enemies. He raised her up to be a testimony to the nations.
In order to be a testimony, God had them build a tabernacle in the wilderness. And it was His dwelling place, and there, that is where they met with God.
And we know that tabernacle—those who have studied it—that everything about that tabernacle spoke of Christ, Jesus Christ. In other words, that is where God is really at home: with His Son. That is what pleases the Father, His Son.
Later, we see the permanent place: a temple was made in the place where the Lord said, “I choose to put My name there,” in Jerusalem. A temple was built.
And once again, as you look at how the temple was built and all the parts of the temple, you realize that it all speaks of Jesus Christ and His work at Calvary. It is all there. That is where God found His home.
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus came, and He was the temple of God. All the fullness of the Godhead is in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the fullness of the Godhead manifested in Christ.
But God had something even more in mind. We see some beginning revelation of it in Peter’s confession when he said:
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
That was an amazing revelation. I do not know how amazing you think that is, but brothers and sisters, do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?
If you read the Scriptures, you will find out that if you truly believe that in your heart, it is only because God revealed it to you. It was not just because somebody told you that you needed Jesus. It was not just because you may have read the Bible and found this fact out or understood this doctrine.
But God had to reveal Jesus to you. It was an act of God, not of your mind and not even of your will, though you had to respond with your will.
Jesus, the Son of the living God. And when he said that, the Lord Jesus turned to Peter and He said:
Upon this rock I will build My church.
The first mention of the church.
Brothers and sisters, we know from Scripture that God had something special in mind. We know that Scripture says that Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone of the church. In other words, from the cornerstone everything is built; everything is lined up. From the cornerstone, the house is built.
And what God had in mind was a temple for Himself, a house for Himself: Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, and those who were made living stones through the knowledge of Jesus Christ were to be built together—a holy temple unto the Lord and a holy priesthood to offer up sacrifices.
It is a spiritual house that God said He would make and build without hands. And the pattern of this house, the pattern for it, is Christ. It only speaks of Christ.
In the book of Ephesians, we find that it is also referred to as the body of Christ, with Christ being the Head. Did you realize that Jesus Christ today has a body? We think of Him as Spirit, and He is, but He has a spiritual body, and that is the church.
And something so precious on God’s heart, that we find has been revealed in the New Testament through the apostles, is that this church one day will be without spot or wrinkle and will become the bride of Christ, His helpmate.
That is right. Whatever He said. I have grandchildren; that is why I know.
Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, is to have a helpmate. Now we see God’s heart even in Genesis, remember? Adam. He told Adam, “It is not good to be alone, Adam,” and a helpmate was built for Adam out of his side.
We have come out of the side of Christ, in the sense that, you know, that spear pierced His heart—His side.
You know, when I became a Christian, I thought the gospel consisted of being saved—being saved from hell. And you all have heard my testimony before.
For some of you young ones who may not have heard, when I was twelve years old, my mother had caught me in two or three lies. She brought me before her and said, “Son, you have offended me greatly with your lying. But there is One who is more offended than I am, and that is God. You need to get right with Him. Son, if you do not get straight, you are going to hell.”
Now, I got on my knees once Mom left the room, and I prayed for the first time in my life. I came under repentance, by the grace of God, for my sin. And I thank the Lord that He met me that morning.
Now, I want to tell you, my primary interest was not just forgiveness. I wanted to escape hell, because I saw the fury in my mother’s face. And I said, “Wow, if hell is anything like that, I do not want to go there.”
So, that was my first experience with the Lord, my first real experience with the Lord. And so that was my motive. That was what I thought the gospel was about at that time.
And then, in my teen years, I began to discover this matter of union life: this matter that there was to be a life that could be achieved with the Lord. Oh, how can I say it? It was more than just a life dependent on Him being good to me and giving me all of His promises, but a union life—a life where you get heart to heart with the Lord, where you are in fellowship with the Lord, and where His heart becomes your heart.
And I discovered something of that in my teen years. And I thought that must be the highest road. You remember the book, My Utmost for His Highest? And then the other one about Hinds’ Feet on High Places. Those books really touched me.
Anyway, I thought that was it. I thought that was the end in itself.
Then, frankly, through the ministry of a brother we all well know—Stephen—I had been searching. Now I was in my twenties, about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, and I was searching. God had put a question in my heart.
It was a strange question for a lot of folks, I think, maybe. I said, “Lord, what is the church? What is it? Is it just a committee of men who love the Lord and get together? Is it an organization developed to spread the gospel? Is that what the church is?” I did not know. I had this question.
Our brother Stephen, the first time I ever heard him, shared out of the book of Acts—Acts 1—the birth of the church. You know, that was the first time I ever realized that the church was born. I always thought it was the organization that I was a part of.
But I found out that there was something organic and living about the church, in the body of Christ. It was revolutionary to me.
And I discovered that union life was not the end of what God was after. Actually, union life was mostly for me. But there is something that has been on God’s heart all along: to have a people who would simply gather around the Lord Jesus Christ, Him as the center, let Him be the Head, let Him really make the decisions.
And even more than that, that I would have to commit myself not only to Him but to my brothers and sisters. Now, I loved brothers and sisters, always have, but there was a commitment in a different way. It was a commitment like getting married.
I knew that kind of commitment would be needed for God to have the house He wanted: to be built together, a spiritual house, the spiritual body of Jesus Christ.
I found out that this is what God had had on His heart for eternity, because that simple expression of the church—brothers and sisters built together in Christ—would become His bride.
And what He has in store for eternity future, brothers and sisters, we do not know. There will be a new heaven and a new earth.
Now, I really—even though I know things are decaying, and I am decaying, as you can see—my foot, my teeth, and everything else. I have this condition now where my feet go numb, you know. I think it is because the little pads in your spine, the discs, I think they are squishing. And over the years, I have gotten about an inch shorter, so I know they are squishing.
The point being is, we have an amazing body. We have an amazing world, and yet it is flawed. The flaw of fallen man has affected creation. But, you know, one day there is going to be a new heaven and a new earth. It is going to be amazing.
And what we will be doing with the Lord, I do not know. But I know one thing: it will be something. I do not think we are going to be playing our harps and fiddles up on clouds, like we picture so often or think of. It will be a wonderful purpose.
Some will be playing their guitars, huh? Maybe even I will be able to sing, brother—on the note.
So, it will be an amazing time. We will know Christ in a way that we have never known before. We will experience that spiritual life in a way we have never experienced before. This is God’s eternal purpose, and yet it has to begin now on earth, in a place.
And in the early days, brothers and sisters, we found others of like mind that the Lord had opened their eyes and hearts to see the same thing—not only here in Richmond, but in other places. And we decided, you know what? We need to give voice to what we have seen and heard, because it was more than doctrine. It was life.
And that is why the conference came about: that voice might be given to what had been seen and heard, not only here but in many, many places.
And today we have the conference. The conference theme is “Preparing the Way of the Lord.” Now, often when we talk of preparing the way of the Lord, we think of getting ourselves ready. And that is a part of it, but brothers and sisters, the Lord is looking for a vessel that will prepare His way—not just individuals, but individuals committed together to prepare the way for the Lord’s return.
And that is what this conference is about: a voice.
Now may I share what is on my heart. In Matthew 3—Matthew 3:1-3:
In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying,
The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Make ye ready the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
A voice cried out, brothers and sisters. That voice electrified the nation of Israel. It had an impact on Israel that had not been seen for hundreds of years. Why?
Because that is the first voice that they had heard from the Lord in four hundred years.
The last time the Lord had spoken to His people was in the book of Malachi the prophet, 433 BC. The Lord spoke through Malachi to His people. These are some of the words:
I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Yet ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us?
In other words, they were no longer recognizing the love of the Lord that He had for them. They had lost that edge. They had lost that first love, that spiritual response.
And the Lord, in Malachi 3:7, after He goes through all the reasons why they had turned from Him, says:
Return unto Me, and I will return unto you.
And in Malachi 4:5, He actually prophesies of the spirit of John the Baptist:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
Now, Elijah will come during Jacob’s trouble. But you remember the Lord Jesus said that if they would willingly receive what He had to say, John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah. He was a voice.
But who was he speaking to? This is critical, brothers and sisters. Who was the Lord speaking to through Malachi the prophet? He was actually speaking not to all of Israel. He was speaking to a remnant.
A hundred years before, in 536 BC, Cyrus, king of Babylon—Babylon had come and taken Jerusalem captive and taken the inhabitants off back to Babylon. Jerusalem was in ruins, and they were in captivity seventy years.
At the end of that seventy years, which had been prophesied by Jeremiah the prophet, Cyrus the king found favor with God’s people. He said, “Go and build a house for your God in Jerusalem.”
And you know, there were millions of Jewish people in Babylon at that time. Fifty thousand returned. Only fifty thousand returned.
And you have to understand a little bit here: the others did not return because they were already satisfied with what they had.
And what they had was, brothers and sisters, a religious system called the synagogue. You know, God had told them they needed to go to Jerusalem to worship Him and to offer the sacrifice of the lamb once a year for their sins, but they could not do that. So they developed the synagogue.
And they would get together, and they would read the Torah, and they would read the Word of God. Did I say the right thing? Yes. And that satisfied them.
They were satisfied with their religious life. They were at ease. They had built houses, they had farms, and they were doing pretty good in Babylon because the king was good to them. And so they were happy. They were satisfied.
But you know, God was not satisfied. His house had not been built in Jerusalem. It was destroyed. It had been destroyed by Babylon’s assault.
But fifty thousand had a heart to return to build a house of God. They did it for God’s sake, not their own. They returned because they knew this was what the Lord wanted. The Lord had touched their hearts. It says that the Lord was able to stir up their spirit for something that God wanted.
This was what was going to please God. Remember, the tabernacle and the temple represented Christ Himself, and this is what pleased God. They were to go back and build this thing. And thank the Lord, fifty thousand with a real heart left and went back.
Well, they began to build, and you can remember the story. They built a foundation, and then through political opposition by the peoples of the land and other things, the building actually stopped for thirteen years. Then it got started again, and they had a difficult time building this house—a very difficult time. Enemies within and enemies without.
In the year 458 BC, seventy-eight years after the first return, Ezra came with a couple of thousand, and it says, to strengthen the house of God. And they did. They restored some of the services that had been stopped, and they reestablished the priesthood. Once again, there was a recovery of what the Lord was after.
Then we remember the story of Nehemiah, 445 BC. This is ninety-one years after they had first come back. There had been a couple of generations. The wall was still down around Jerusalem. There was no wall there.
You have to understand that wall represented testimony: testimony to the world that this was God’s place, that what was inside was of God, and what was outside was the world. It was a testimony.
And the wall was broken down and in ruin. Nehemiah came back, and they rebuilt the wall. It was a glorious time because a lot of things that had gotten out of order were restored, and they had something of a full testimony.
And this is the remnant, the history of the remnant. So, 445 BC. Now in 433 BC, twelve years later, after the wall, we see the Lord speaking to them through Malachi the prophet.
“I say I love you,” but you respond by saying, “Well, okay, but we really do not see it.”
This was the remnant. He was speaking to those who had actually come out and returned so that the Lord could have what He wanted. But somehow, through the years, their attention had turned back to themselves instead of what the Lord was after.
So, what did God do? When God’s people begin to separate themselves—and it does not have to be a large separation; it is just the edge taken off of our first love, and we step back—what does God do?
Well, if we do not respond to His pleas, He backs off. And He backed off for four hundred years. He waited and waited and waited until His people would cry out.
And under Roman oppression, under the fist of the Roman Empire, the Jews finally began to cry out to God. They were looking for a Messiah. Of course, they were looking for a Messiah who would come and overthrow the government of Rome and establish them as the head of state.
And so, when John the Baptist rose up and said, “The kingdom of God is at hand,” everybody was stirred. Even the Roman government was stirred.
They listened to John because here was a voice of authority, a clear voice, a clarion bell, so to speak. And everyone took notice.
But how many heard, brothers and sisters? How many really heard John the Baptist?
You know, John gave full testimony to the Lord. He said:
Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.
That was quite a revelation. They knew about God’s lamb and lambs that they needed to sacrifice, but for the Son of God to be the Lamb of God, that was something they could not even grasp.
He also said He is the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit. Another Comforter will come, the Holy Spirit, and He will baptize you. I baptize you with the water of repentance, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
And then he said, “I am the friend of the Bridegroom.” He realized through revelation that Christ had come to be a Bridegroom, but He could not find His bride.
A few responded. A few were baptized with repentance, but we know that most did not. And the religious world, the Pharisees, ridiculed his ministry.
Brothers and sisters, they heard the voice, but they did not listen.
They did not even listen when the King Himself came—Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ spoke Himself, and they heard, but they did not listen.
How many heard? How many actually heard with their heart? How many actually responded?
Well, we do not know how many actually came to the Lord Jesus at that point. But we do know from Scripture that when He ascended from the Mount of Olives, five hundred gathered and watched Him ascend—five hundred witnesses.
You remember, after His resurrection, He appeared for forty days, on and off. He would appear and make Himself known.
And as He was ascending, He told them, “Now I want you to remain here and wait until power from on high comes upon you.” Five hundred were there. But brothers and sisters, we find only one hundred and twenty in the upper room. Only one hundred and twenty.
Listen: five hundred heard, but only one hundred and twenty listened.
Is there a voice today? I think there is. I think God has been speaking, not only to His own, but to the whole world, to the nations.
I think He spoke loud and clear on September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center Twin Towers came down.
The Lord had to allow that. Brothers and sisters, it was a word to the nations that things were changing quickly. Things were about to happen in this world that had not been seen or heard of before.
The strongest nation in the world at this time had been attacked, and the Twin Towers in the heart of New York City came down.
I think it was a clarion call. I think the Lord was trying to wake this nation up. I think the Lord was trying to wake the world up. Have we heard? I think we have heard, but are we listening?
You know, this nation was raised up. In fact, on our coins it says, “One nation under God.” I understand that many of our forefathers were theists, they say, but they did recognize God.
Thank God honored the ones that had come here, many under spiritual persecution, who loved the Lord and had come here to really take a stand and have a testimony for God on His earth. I think the Lord recognized that.
Brothers and sisters, do you know that this house is at 4424 Huguenot Road? Do you know that? I think most of you do. You might not know about 4424, but it is Huguenot Road.
After the first century, the church went into total darkness, brothers and sisters. And we did not really see any true light until the Reformation, sixteen centuries later.
People were being told, “You are going to go to purgatory, and the only way you can get out is to pay your ransom with the money you earn.” They even went so far as to list all the possible sins and the amount of money it would take to be freed from all those sins.
The church went into terrible, terrible sin and darkness. It was only through the Reformers, brothers and sisters, that light returned.
“The just shall live by faith,” as Martin Luther had discovered and spread the word. Many, many brothers and sisters lost their lives during those centuries simply because they believed in Jesus Christ, simply because they believed that He was a Savior.
We think of Wycliffe and Tyndale and many of the martyrs.
Brothers and sisters, the Huguenots in France were people who were devoted to the Lord. They simply would meet together around the Lord, have His table, and believe that the Word of God was the authority from God. That was their simple belief, and they gathered very simply in that way.
And the Roman church hated it. The religious world hated it. They hated the Huguenots. They hated the Waldensians. They hated the Paulicians, because these were ones who had seen something of the truth, and they declared the truth.
St. Bartholomew—I think it is St. Bartholomew—in France: fifty thousand Huguenots were gathered together, those who confessed Jesus Christ, and they were all slaughtered. Fifty thousand Huguenots at one time.
These are saints that had a simple testimony and were martyred for it because of what they believed. Some escaped to this world, to America. And some of the Huguenots actually settled in this area, and this is Huguenot Road.
I did not know that when we built this house, or this place here. But what a heritage: saints who gave their lives for the Lord’s sake, who would not deny that He was the Savior.
And we listen to what God has been saying. The Twin Towers came down. Brothers and sisters, remember the tsunami of a number of years ago? One hundred and forty thousand around the world died, and that is unprecedented.
The earthquake in Japan was unprecedented—the damage, unprecedented. The recent tornadoes that we have experienced in the USA, the amount, the number, the power, was unprecedented.
The floods on the Missouri and the Mississippi, which are still going on—unprecedented. Wildfires: we have floods, and at that same time we have wildfires wiping out the state of Arizona.
What is going on? Is there a voice speaking? I think there is. But are they listening? Are we listening?
I do not know, brothers and sisters, but my sense is that no. I have seen no turn in this nation, no cry for the living God. We are still pursuing the humanistic agenda of our government. We have not turned back to God.
Even the religious world—you know, the Protestant churches were raised up during the Reformation. They were Protestant because they were protesters. They stood firm on the fact that Jesus Christ alone—you could only be saved through Jesus Christ.
They stood alone on the fact that the pope did not have authority. It was only the Lord Jesus Christ.
But today, in some of these churches, those whom they are named after would flip in their graves. They are now saying, “Hey, yes, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, but there are other ways. There are other ways of salvation.”
Out of the Protestant church, out of the religious world, brothers and sisters, the Lord says, “When you see these things happening, look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.” What should the church be crying? “Come, Lord Jesus.” Do you hear the cry, “Come, Lord Jesus”? Oh, no. I do not know.
Brothers and sisters, as I have said earlier, some of us came out of the religious world. Our heart was to simply meet around the Lord Jesus Christ, to honor Him as the center, to honor Him as the Head.
To have a priesthood of all believers, worshiping the Lord, all responding, all being a part, all entering in, all being built together—the house for the living God. That was our heart. That is what we came out for.
Recently, on Wednesday night and in the Sunday message, we heard these words: “I am afraid we have become saturated concerning the conference and hearing God’s Word. I am afraid we have become saturated.”
In other words, you cannot really take in anymore. You are kind of satisfied, like the ones in Babylon were. They decided not to return because they were just satisfied where they were—saturated, unable to take in anymore.
From our ministry last weekend, we heard that the Lord detests lukewarmness.
Now that is interesting to me, because that is one of the things that I can relate to. I am not trying to be light, but when I get coffee, I do not want to be able to drink it right away. I want it that hot. I want to have to actually blow on it a little bit before I drink it.
I do not want to be able to just take it and gulp it down because it has already gotten warm and lukewarm. And when it comes to cold things, I like plenty of ice.
I remember when I went to Hong Kong the first time and got a Coke. It was hot, you know, just straight out of the shelf. No ice. No ice. I like things hot, and I like things cold. So I can relate to this personally.
The Lord said, “I do not like lukewarmness. I am not satisfied with it. I will not have it. It is not a part of My kingdom.” There needs to be heat. You have got to be hot.
In other words, first love, brothers and sisters. It gets down to this first love. Do not let the edge go off of our first love for the Lord.
Let us not be the ones when the Lord says, “But I have loved you and loved you and loved you,” and we say, “But Lord, You know, I have got this and I have got that and these other things.”
You know, I doubt any of us would straight-faced say to the Lord, “You do not love me.” And hopefully we have not gotten this far as they did in Malachi.
But this was a remnant He was talking to, the ones who had come out to build His house and to see that His eternal purpose for a bride for His Son would be fulfilled. And they had gotten dull. They had gotten dull.
We hear, but are we listening?
Going in with a little story I actually told us only a few Sunday nights ago. I would not tell it today except a sister encouraged me recently and said, “Jerry, that really has meant a lot to me. You ought to share it again.” And may the Lord do with it what He will.
But I think most of you know I have three grandchildren. I have said it enough—three boys. They are all handsome and all very smart. Grandpas and moms can say things like that with no pride.
Of course, we love our grandchildren, and one of the things we do is occasionally have one of them over for the night. Well, the little two-year-old had never been to our house to stay over. He was a little young.
I think he is two years and three months now. But a couple of months ago, we had had the other two boys over, so we said, “Well, we will have Cooper over.” His name is Cooper. The parents were, of course, thrilled. No, they really were.
And so we did. We were a little trepidatious because, you know, he is two years old. You never know. But my wife is very good with children, so we had him over. And of course, it was an adventure for him. He loved it. He just loved it.
And of course, we played with him, and he loved that even more. That night, when it came time to go to bed, of course, he did not want to. He was having too much fun and everything.
So we finally got him in bed. I do not know how late it was—he normally goes to bed about 7:30—so this was about 9:00. We finally got him in bed, and everything got quiet.
All of a sudden, he just sat right straight up in bed and said, “Choo-choo train! Choo-choo train!” And we said, “What?”
We live a mile from the railroad track. Actually, as the bird flies, it is probably six-tenths of a mile. There are about thirty trains a day that come through, and at our crossing they blow the whistle. So, you have whistles blowing and the train going.
But we have been there since 1970. How long is that? Forty-some years? I do not know. I do not hear that train anymore. You know, I may hear it, but I certainly am not listening.
But boy, was he listening. It just excited him because of Thomas the Train. You all know. All right, the grandparents know about Thomas the Train, and the little ones. He was all excited about Thomas and that he would visit him while he was going to sleep.
But I thought about that. I said, “Lord, how easy our hearing gets dulled. How easy, after hearing Your voice for so long, we hear, but we are not listening.”
And then it kind of gets where we never even hear it anymore. It is just that simple retreat from really paying attention, really listening.
You know, as we come to this conference, and the little song we sang, I do pray the Lord will give us a hearing ear. Because much of what we will probably hear, we have heard something of before.
But you know, the Lord’s words are life and reality and living, and they are always that way. And we always have a tendency to be fleshly instead of spiritual. I want to say, I think it is our natural tendency to just lose that hearing ear.
And so I would pray, in this week ahead, that we would ask the Lord to really give us a hearing ear, eyes to see Him afresh and anew, alive and awake to Him, and not let the freight train with its mighty whistle go by and we not hear it.
Lord, we just come to Thee today. We confess, Lord—at least I do—dullness of hearing, Lord; eyesight that has gone dim; Lord, the passion of the fire that has turned to embers.
Lord, I pray that You will stoke the embers of our heart. Lord, that You will cause them to flame again. I pray, Lord, that You will open our ears—get the wax out, so to speak.
Lord, cause us to be alert and attentive to the sound of Your voice. And Lord, most of all, that we will have a responsive heart, Lord—a real responsive heart to what You have to say.
Now, Lord, we ask You: bless Your Word to our hearts. In Jesus’ name. Amen.