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by Lt. Colonel Raymond Peacock –
Did you hear about the preacher who replaced his altar calls with alter calls?
No, that is not a misspelling. The altar calls were receiving little response. The preacher thought how, when the Israelites crossed the Jordan, they built an altar from stones. For his service that day, he determined he would give all participants a stone. Each would determine how God was asking them to “alter” their behavior, write that on the stone, and then build an altar of those alter stones in the chapel later that day. He described this as an “alter call.” This alter call received wide response.
Crestmont College wants to invite you to join us now in preparation for the Prayer and Revival Summit at Crestmont College May 13-16, 2004. Our speakers include Commissioner Linda Bond, Dr. Kenneth Ulmer, Dr. David Hocking, Captain Oscar Tippol, Major Lee Lescano, Captain Ivan Wild and Captain Robert Marshall. As you know Commissioner Linda Bond called on Salvationists throughout the West in her New Frontier article of March 8, 2003 to pray “that God will sweep over us in a tide of revival.” That’s what this summit is all about. We are praying the fire will fall and spread across the territory.
The question is, are we “response able”? Or, are we response disabled? R.D. (response disability) is a terrible malady. Are we able to respond to the call for prayers for a tide of revival to sweep our territory? Are we able to alter our priorities, register before the deadline and attend the summit? Are we able and willing to invest resources to attend the summit? Are we able to alter our behaviors and hunger and thirst for revival in our territory, our corps, and our families? Are we able to ask that our faith increase for our emerging age?
Ephesians 5:15 reminds us that we are to “live life with a due sense of responsibility, not as those who do not know the meaning of life but as those who do.” (J.B. Phillips) If we want to be world class Christians instead of worldly Christians, we have to live responsibly. We have to be response able. If I am understanding Rick Warren’s new book The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? world class Christians think and act responsibly. He suggests they shift from thinking of excuses to thinking of creative ways to fulfill their commission. He says they act responsibly by making a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission…Rick is big on “accepting our assignment” and our being “made for a mission.”
Our mission just now is to pray for a tide of revival. Warren says, “People may refuse our love or reject our message, but they are defenseless against our prayers.” Pray for the lost in our communities across the territory, the lost in America, the lost globally. Pray for the saints that the fire will fall and burn. Pray for the Prayer and Revival Summit. Pray like you have never prayed before. Fresh wind and fresh fire are on the way!
(Your corps officer has registration materials or you can respond to the ad below, which provides registration details for the Prayer and Revival Summit.)
Are we response able to pray for the lost opportunities, lost faith, lost strength of God’s people? Are we response able to pray for the lost in America and the world?
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