True Revival

Wherever the Word of God has been faithfully preached, results have followed that attested its divine origin. The Spirit of God accompanied the message of His servants, and the Word was with power. Sinners felt their consciences quickened. The “light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” illumined the secret chambers of their souls, and the hidden things of darkness were made manifest. Deep conviction took hold upon their minds and hearts. They were convinced of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come. They had a sense of the righteousness of Jehovah and felt the terror of appearing, in their guilt and uncleanness, before the Searcher of hearts. In anguish they cried out: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” As the cross of Calvary, with its infinite sacrifice for the sins of men, was revealed, they saw that nothing but the merits of Christ could suffice to atone for their transgressions; this alone could reconcile man to God. With faith and humility they accepted the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Through the blood of Jesus they had “remission of sins that are past.” … Revivals brought deep heart-searching and humility. They were characterized by solemn, earnest appeals to the sinner, by yearning compassion for the purchase of the blood of Christ. Men and women prayed and wrestled with God for the salvation of souls. The fruits of such revivals were seen in souls who shrank not at self-denial and sacrifice, but rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer reproach and trial for the sake of Christ. Men beheld a transformation in the lives of those who had professed the name of Jesus. The community was benefited by their influence. They gathered with Christ, and sowed to the Spirit, to reap life everlasting…. Wherever men neglect the testimony of the Bible, turning away from those plain, soul-testing truths which require self-denial and renunciation of the world, there we may be sure that God’s blessing is not bestowed. This is the result of the work of the Spirit of God. There is no evidence of genuine repentance unless it works reformation. If he restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, confess his sins, and love God and his fellow men, the sinner may be sure that he has found peace with God. Such were the effects that in former years followed seasons of religious awakening. Judged by their fruits, they were known to be blessed of God in the salvation of men and the uplifting of humanity. But many of the revivals of modern times have presented a marked contrast to those manifestations of divine grace which in earlier days followed the labors of God’s servants. It is true that a widespread interest is kindled, many profess conversion, and there are large accessions to the churches; nevertheless the results are not such as to warrant the belief that there has been a corresponding increase of real spiritual life. The light which flames up for a time soon dies out, leaving the darkness more dense than before. Popular revivals are too often carried by appeals to the imagination, by exciting the emotions, by gratifying the love for what is new and startling. Converts thus gained have little desire to listen to Bible truth, little interest in the testimony of prophets and apostles. Unless a religious service has something of a sensational character, it has no attractions for them. A message which appeals to unimpassioned reason awakens no response. The plain warnings of God’s Word, relating directly to their eternal interests, are unheeded. With every truly converted soul the relation to God and to eternal things will be the great topic of life. But where, in the popular churches of today, is the spirit of consecration to God? The converts do not renounce their pride and love of the world. They are no more willing to deny self, to take up the cross, and follow the meek and lowly Jesus, than before their conversion. Religion has become the sport of infidels and skeptics because so many who bear its name are ignorant of its principles. The power of godliness has well-nigh departed from many of the churches. Picnics, church theatricals, church fairs, fine houses, personal display, have banished thoughts of God. Lands and goods and worldly occupations engross the mind, and things of eternal interest receive hardly a passing notice…. In many of the revivals which have occurred during the last half century, the same influences have been at work, to a greater or less degree, that will be manifest in the more extensive movements of the future. There is an emotional excitement, a mingling of the true with the false, that is well adapted to mislead. Yet none need be deceived. In the light of God’s Word it is not difficult to determine the nature of these movements. Wherever men neglect the testimony of the Bible, turning away from those plain, soul-testing truths which require self-denial and renunciation of the world, there we may be sure that God’s blessing is not bestowed. And by the rule which Christ Himself has given, “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16), it is evident that these movements are not the work of the Spirit of God. In the truths of His Word, God has given to men a revelation of Himself; and to all who accept them they are a shield against the deceptions of Satan. It is a neglect of these truths that has opened the door to the evils which are now becoming so widespread in the religious world. The nature and the importance of the law of God have been, to a great extent, lost sight of. A wrong conception of the character, the perpetuity, and the obligation of the divine law has led to errors in relation to conversion and sanctification, and has resulted in lowering the standard of piety in the church. Here is to be found the secret of the lack of the Spirit and power of God in the revivals of our time.

4523713f-f550-4961-bce1-e41031c6ff7a

Y2:4523713f-f550-4961-bce1-e41031c6ff7a

http://www.adventistworld.com/issue.php?issue=2011-1001&page=18

http://www.adventistworld.com/issue.php?issue=2011-1001&page=18

Rediscovering a True Worship

As I’ve listened to you share many messages from God’s Word over the past 12 months, I’ve heard you often returning to the apostle Paul’s counsel in Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Why has this text become increasingly important to your ministry? Perhaps, Bill, because it so clearly sums up so much of what God has been laying on my heart and on the hearts of Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders everywhere about the importance of revival and reformation among God’s people. From the very beginning of Christ’s church, His followers were known as the ekklesia, “the called-out ones.” To belong to Jesus, to follow Him as Lord and Master, requires leaving something—and that something can increasingly be identified as the many ways in which we are tempted to follow and imitate the practices of the world in our life together, and even in our worship. I’ve always liked the way the Phillips translation rendered the first part of the text: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould.” God’s remnant people in every age, and especially in these last days, will be unusually tempted to accept and adopt practices that are essentially opposed to the purity and truth of the gospel. Reformation has always been the watchword of this Seventh-day Adventist movement, and always should be. You’ve also focused on the second phrase in Paul’s counsel: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” That’s what revival consists of at its core—a renewing of our minds. Even faithful followers of Christ can grow accustomed to the routines of spiritual life. That’s why church leaders have made such an earnest appeal for a special season of seeking the Lord through prayer and repentance, asking for the power of the Holy Spirit to be poured out on those waiting for the coming of Jesus [see “God’s Promised Gift: An Urgent Appeal for Revival, Reformation, Discipleship, and Evangelism,” Adventist World, January 2011; ]. As we gain a new appreciation for Jesus through deeper study of His Word, as we grow from the precious insights given to us in the Spirit of Prophecy, as we open our lives and our daily behavior to being reshaped by the Holy Spirit, we will be given what Paul calls “the mind of Christ” [1 Cor. 2:16]. Your emphasis on Paul’s counsel has also led you to speak out about the importance of worship in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Why has this topic come to the forefront of your preaching just now? For more than 150 years Seventh-day Adventists have understood that worship—true, biblical, commandment-keeping worship—is at the very heart of this movement. From our beginnings in the great Second Advent movement we heard and answered the first angel’s call to “worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” [Rev. 14:7], to keep holy God’s seventh-day Sabbath. That was quickly followed by a call to come out from those who stubbornly clung to false systems of worship, what Revelation 14 calls Babylon. And the third angel’s message is a call to persistence and faithfulness in worship—to not “let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould.” Worship has always been at the heart of our message and our mission, and now, more than ever, we need to respond to an urgent call to reestablish our corporate worship experiences on the principles of God’s Word and the guidance we have been given in the Spirit of Prophecy. Some will say that worship is a highly private and personal experience. Others will maintain that it should be allowed to be shaped by local customs and preferences, and that every congregation can decide for itself what style of worship is appropriate in their context of Adventism. In the global family of Adventism we of course have many different and varied cultural expressions, including differences in language, musical styles, and orders of service. God does not want, and His church should never seek, for just one expression of worship in a family of nearly 20 million! I give God the glory for allowing me the privilege of having lived in four different cultures in my life, on four different continents, and having spent almost 20 years living outside the North American culture. I’ve also had the privilege as a servant of God’s people to have traveled in dozens of countries, worshipping with hundreds of local congregations through nearly 40 years of ministry. I’ve learned to respect and appreciate expressions of worship that I did not grow up with. But when you get down to the basics of life, to the core motivations that cause us to want to worship the One who made heaven and earth, people are generally the same the world over. More to the point, the principles of God’s Word are the same the world over, and apply to all of us. All of that experience has reminded me and many other concerned church leaders that there is a worldly culture pressing in on us, and that there is a biblical/heavenly culture to which we are all called. Do you believe that worldly culture has been making inroads into Seventh-day Adventist worship in recent years? It pains me to say so, Bill, but yes, I do. In my travels around the world, through conversations with many church leaders, and through the letters and notes I receive from faithful Seventh-day Adventists, I’ve grown concerned that we are in urgent need of a “renewing of our minds” about public worship. Many practices that have seemed innocent on the surface have crept into Seventh-day Adventist worship, especially in the areas of prayer and music. As Paul warned us 2,000 years ago, we have to be especially vigilant to “not be conformed to this world.” Prayer practices, including what are sometimes known as “centering prayer” and “labyrinths,” and “contemplative prayer,” frequently draw on non-Christian philosophies that encourage the emptying of the mind. Biblical prayer, instead, draws us into a quiet and focused rational contemplation of God’s Word and His faithfulness that yields in “the mind of Christ.” Music, certainly one of God’s greatest gifts to human beings, has similarly become a vehicle for incorporating styles and performances that too frequently forget that the great God of the universe, our Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are the real audience. Simple questions will help all of us underline the true and biblical principles of both prayer and music in worship: “Would I pray this way in the very presence of Jesus?” “Would I sing this song—this way—in the presence of the Holy One?” Are you planning to keep talking and preaching about these themes in the months ahead? You and the millions of readers of Adventist World can count on that! The Lord has laid a burden on my heart about reviving biblical worship among us as His people, and I won’t lay it down until He tells me to.

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Y2:4523713f-f550-4961-bce1-e41031c6ff7a

http://www.adventistworld.org/issue.php?issue=2011-1008&page=8

http://www.adventistworld.org/issue.php?issue=2011-1008&page=8

integral rebels

Otieno Wambui

_Rebels

She was a granddaughter of the Kikuyu Paramount Senior Chief Waiyaki wa Hinga who was buried alive by the British in 1892 for his anti-colonial stand. She too would be a rebel, first against the British for which she would pay with several years in detention, and then against independent Kenya’s political class and African convention. She married a Luo lawyer, S.M. Otieno, and when he died she fought a long unsuccessful court battle to have him buried in their home near Nairobi rather than amongst his people in Luoland. Years later when she was 67 years old, she would choose to marry a 25-year old man, much to the consternation of family and friend

founding patriots

Kaggia Bildad

_{Founding Fathers}

He was one of six legendary Mau Mau freedom fighters, including Kenya’s future President, Jomo Kenyatta, whom the British colonial government arrested and tried in a hastily made-up court in a small town in north-western Kenya called Kapenguria, convicted and locked up in jail and detention for nearly a decade before the country’s independence. After independence, he and Kenyatta would go their separate ways, with Kaggia sticking uncompromisingly to his socialist principles and choosing to live a simple unpretentious life devoid of the pomp and glory that independence had brought to some of his former freedom fighting colleagues.

patriotic leaders

Murumbi Joseph

_{Famous Leaders}

He was Kenya’s first Foreign Minister. In September 1966, hardly six months after President Jomo Kenyatta appointed him Kenya’s second Vice President, he resigned following the assassination of his close friend and socialist strategist, Pio Gama Pinto. He would devote the rest of his life collecting works of African art. By the time he died in 1990, he had put together the largest private collection of African art, crafts and books in the world. Part of that collection is now on permanent exhibition at the Kenya National Archives in Nairobi.

founders of a free nation

Kungu Karumba

_{Founding Fathers}

He was one of six legendary Mau Mau freedom fighters, including Kenya’s future President, Jomo Kenyatta, whom the British colonial government arrested and tried in a hastily made-up court in a small town in north-western Kenya called Kapenguria, convicted and locked up in jail and detention for nearly a decade before the country’s independence. He was the only one of the Kapenguria Six who did not go into politics after being set free, preferring to resume his business career instead. But two decades later he would send shocks waves through the country’s political system when he mysteriously disappeared never to be seen again following a business trip to military dictator Idi Amin’s Uganda.

paul ngei

_{Founding Fathers}

He was one of six legendary Mau Mau freedom fighters, including Kenya’s future President, Jomo Kenyatta, whom the British colonial authorities arrested and tried in a hastily made-up court in a small town in north-western Kenya called Kapenguria, convicted and locked up in jail and detention for nearly a decade before the country’s independence. He was one of the most colourful political personalities Kenya had ever seen. He added spice to post-independence Kenyan politics in a way that put him in a league of his own.

i salute this man-a renowned journalist

Hilary Ng'weno

Born in Nairobi on June 28^th, 1938, and educated at Mangu High School and was the first Kenyan to attend Harvard (Class of ’61). He went back to Harvard as the first African fellow of the Harvard Center for International Affairs (1968-1969)

He got married to Fleur Arabelle Grandjouan on December 1^st, 1963. They have two daughters: Amolo Eva, until recently senior program director at the Gates Foundation and currently managing director of Digital Data Divide Ltd, and Bettina Amilie, until recently professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis, and currently on the academic planning team for the establishment of the Aga Khan University in East Africa.

Hilary Ng’weno has been a journalist since 1962, first with the Nation group of newspapers for which he was the first African editor in chief (1964-65) and later as editor-publisher of a number of his own publications, including The Weekly Review 1975-1999). For more than ten years he was also a Newsweek columnist. In 1992, he launched the first fully Kenyan-owned indigenous private TV station in Kenya, STV, but relinquished ownership in 1997 to go into freelance TV production. He has produced dozens of TV programmes, including The Making of a Nation (2007).. Until December 2011 he produced jointly with NTV the weekly TV biographical documentary series Makers of a Nation.

Outside journalism and television production, he has had, and continues to have, a wide range of interests. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Museums of Kenya (1964-1968); chairman of the Kenya Museum Society (1967-1968); a trustee of the East African Wild Life Society since 1978; chairman of Kenya Wildlife Service (1990-1993) as well as a trustee of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWW-International) from 1993-1997.

Though not a trained economist, he served as a member of the Council of African Advisers to the World Bank (1991-1994); for two years (1995-1997) as chairman of the Kenya Revenue Authority, and for three years (1996-1999) a member of Kenya’s Presidential Economic Commission.

He was a member of the Population Advisory Committee of the MacArthur Foundation (1991-1997) and chairman of the Advisory Board of the Rockefeller Foundation’s African Forum for Children’s Literacy in Science and Technology (1994-97). In 1968 was awarded the John D. Rockefeller III Award given to a person under 40 years of age who in the opinion of the trustees of the John D. Rockefeller III Fund has contributed most to the wellbeing of mankind.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe motorcade in deadly crash

One person has been killed and 15 others were injured in a crash involving President Robert Mugabe's motorcade in Zimbabwe, police say.
A car in the motorcade hit a commuter bus near the rural town of Zvimba - the third such accident in two weeks.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said Sunday's accident happened because the bus failed to make way for the president's vehicles quickly enough.
President Mugabe typically travels with an escort of around 10 vehicles.
His motorcade typically includes the presidential limousine, motorcycles and army vehicles.
The car involved in the crash on the Robert Mugabe highway outside the president's home town of Zvimba is thought to have been leading the motorcade.
The national police spokesman said the bus driver had failed to heed the siren and beacon of the escort vehicle, leading to a head-on collision between the minibus and a police car.
"One passenger in the commuter bus died on the spot while 15 passengers from both vehicles were injured in the accident," Mr Bvudzijena told the AFP news agency.
He urged motorists to "pull off the road when they hear a siren or see a red or blue beacon".
Police VIP protection spokesman Martin Mbokochena criticised what he called "some unruly elements in society who want to disturb".
Two weeks ago, a motorbike in the presidential cavalcade hit and killed a homeless man during another visit to the president's home town.
A member of the presidential guard died and seven others were hurt in a separate leg of the same trip, when a truck in the motorcade overturned after one of its tyres burst.