In the time of John and Charles Wesley, Epworth was much like any other English village.  As I was going through some history today I was reminded of what I learned of Epworth when I was there half a dozen years ago.  The Wesley boys grew up in an England much different than what we think of when we picture England of their day.  We picture a very religiously centred society with high morals and pure standards of living.  However the truth needs a little clarity.  What we imagine they grew up in is more like what they died in.  When they were growing up, England had become a place of rank ungodliness among the people.  Sure there were churches; their father was a minister.  But these churches had a form of godliness without any power.  The common man was mired in immorality.  Beer and ale were the universal beverages.  Drunkenness was commonplace.  Violence naturally followed.  Was it always like that?  No, there had been significant spiritual strength less than a hundred years before.  Things had reached a state where if something did not change, their society would face total collapse and anarchy.

Sound familiar?  I am shocked by the parallel between 18^th century England and 21^st century Canada.  Immorality is so rampant that standards of decency, chastity, and propriety are more often mocked than mimicked.  Alcohol consumption has reached the point that I don’t think I know anyone who abstains without strong religious or medical reasons (and even some who have these reasons partake anyways).  We are surrounded by churches bereft of the power of God.  Yet, the more I look at the similarities, the more I am struck by the fact that in such a time as this God sent revival.  During the lives of the Wesleys there was a mighty upheaval of their land through the power of God.  So mighty was the change that it inevitably spread to other countries as well.  By the time these men of faith had passed off the scene things were so shaken that the repercussions are still being felt today, nearly three hundred years later.

And so, I say, it is time.  It is time for men of God to shake off the formalism and fashion of religious exercise and take up their crosses to follow Him.  It is time for saints to shake off their love for the world and develop a love for witnessing.  It is time for us to stop talking about what we are doing and start testifying about what Almighty God is doing.  It is time for a great awakening.  It is time for purging.  It is time for revival!

Pastor Paul Gibbesh

Pastor Paul Gibbesh