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

Although I trusted Christ as my Saviour as a child I spent some time in my early teenage years where I was not excited about my faith.  I knew God.  I went to church.  I was saved.  However, I was sleeping away my life.  Many Christians are spiritually sleeping.  Are they alive, do they have eternal life in Christ?  Absolutely!  Do they give any signs of life?  No.  The life is there, but it is not doing anything.  In Matthew 25 Jesus told a parable about people waiting for the coming bridegroom.  The purpose of the parable was to illustrate their lack of readiness for his arrival.  They didn’t know when he would come, and while they waited they slept.  Too many Christians are saved but sleeping.  They get saved and receive new life in Christ, but after that they want to put their feet up, put their heads back, and snooze until Jesus comes.

In Jonah chapter 1 Jonah was on the way to Tarshish when a storm tossed the ship in which he travelled.  They were on the brink of destruction, and the Bible says that Jonah was asleep.  A sailor came and shook Jonah awake and asked him to call on God to save them.  Can we afford to sleep while people all around us face destruction?  Do we need them to come shake us awake and ask us to pray for their salvation before we will do anything?

When Christ went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray He asked His disciples to come with Him.  While our Lord planned and prayed over our redemption’s price, the disciples slept.  While His anguish showed in sweating great drops of blood, they dozed in the cool of a garden.  While Jesus thought of the cross and the crowd, they dreamt of a throne and a crown.  They slept while they should have been watching, working and weeping.  They failed not because their spirit was unwilling, but because of the fleshly weakness.  Can we cease from the most important calling of life simply because it is difficult or uncomfortable?  Is the satisfaction of the flesh worth sleeping away our one life for God?

Ephesians 5:14 says, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”  Isaiah 52:1 says, “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion.”  Romans 13:11 reminds us that it is high time to awake out of sleep.  Have you been sleeping?  Awake!!  Has your life and time for Christ been passing you by?  Awake, let Christ give you light!!  Can you see the need of the work?  Who will do it if Christians sleep?  Awake!!  Awake!!  Awake!!

Pastor Paul Gibbesh