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

Ezekiel 22:30  And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

To those who study the sorry state of Christianity in this land, these verses are painfully appropriate.   The news in Christian circles is constantly full of leaders who have fallen.  Almost daily I read the sad news of some fellow-soldier who has weakened, to say nothing of the hundreds who never make the news, or the thousands of Christians who daily lay down their arms and retreat from the fight.  As a fellow soldier of the Cross, I feel compelled to ask you to stay in the fight for these reasons.

We are in a war. To most Christians, spiritual battle is about as real as the war in Afghanistan.  We read about it, but have never truly experienced it.  But to those who will surrender their wills and fully enlist in God’s service, the battle is intense and constant.  Hebrews 12:4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. We are in a bloody battle, don’t forget it. The only way out is surrender or victory!

War requires sacrifice. I am reminded of the battle recorded in 1Sam 14, where there Jonathan attacks the Philistines on his own.  But there were also 600 men doing nothing(v.2 Lazy), Hebrews fighting on the Philistine’s side (v.21 Traitors),  and men hiding in the mountain (v.22 Cowards).  Out of thousands of men, only Jonathan and his armour-bearer were willing to sacrifice their lives to win.  It is much the same today.  There are many who claim Christ, but few who bear His cross.  There are many who will sing, but few who will serve.  And there are many who have surrendered to the enemy, but almost no one who will sacrifice for Christ.  Christian, what class are you in? Traitor, coward, lazy, or Sacrificial Servant? If you are not the latter, repent and join in the fight!

War’s require reinforcement. Casualties are a fact of war, and in the spiritual war, there are always soldiers who go AWOL, have self-inflicted wounds, or are ambushed by Satan.  And as the ranks thin, the pressure on those remaining increases.  There is an ever present and always increasing need for skilled, sacrificing servants of God to join the battle.  I beg you; let nothing deter you from putting on the whole armour of God.  Let nothing stop your service for Christ.  Decide right now that you will be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 2:3-4  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Christian, the gap is widening.  Will you step into the fight?

Pastor Charles Hollingsworth

My friends, this life is too short to use it in any way except in whole-hearted, single-minded devotion to Christ. I urge you to spurn all earthly considerations in favour of eternal rewards. I encourage you to begin running NOW with courage, determination, and passion. I implore you to order your life after Heaven’s values – for we shall soon be there, worshiping Christ in our glorified bodies. And when ten millenniums are past, and the feeble joys of earth long since forgotten, we will wish we had spent more for others, less for self, and all for Christ.

“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,” Philippians 3:7-8