A Response to "The Response"

   You will recall that a few weeks ago there was this meeting at Reliant Stadium in Houston, hosted by Texas Governor Rick Perry, called "The Response." The basic purpose for this gathering according to their website was "a call to prayer for a nation in crisis."  The objective was to spend a day in prayer, asking the Lord to intervene in the affairs of our nation. As estimated 30,000 people actually attended the event, and about 80,000 more were reported to have watched it from simulcasts located throughout the nation.

   Two observations I want to make concerning this event:

   1. I believe that this is definitely a move in the right direction. There can be no question but that our nations is going through one of the most potentially perilous times in our history. It is almost impossible to look at our national landscape, and find anything working like it is supposed to. There is no question (in my mind at least) as to the fact that we today are under the judgment of God. And, from what I find as I read and study my Bible, this judgment is going to become more and more serious, until either we repent or God brings to pass the destruction of this nation.

   2. This is only the beginning, the first step, of what needs to take place in our nation if we are going to be restored to our position of former greatness. It is not an end in itself. If we see "The Response" as a one-time-only event, as a miraculous cure-all for everything that is wrong, then we can write it off as a miserable failure, because the simple truth is that things are not better.
    However, if we see thing as the beginning of a necessary process, as the first of many similar events, both large and small, as an initial spark that is going to start a fire blazing, and if we use this as a motivation to begin a process of cleaning and restoration, then we could actually be at the starting point of an incredible move of God that is going to shake this nation from one end to another, that is going to bring changes from the White House to the Court house to the church house to your house and my house.

   As we study the Bible, we find that, almost without exception, before God sent revival, He first of all sought repentance. Revival came in response to the repentance of His people. As it was then, so shall it be today. There is a cleansing that needs to take place in our land today, and it needs to begin - it must begin - in our pews.