This morning I started reading a book that a friend of mine mentioned the other day. Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill. I've had the book on my self since 1986. I may have read it years ago, but I can't remember. I know I've used it and read some in it because there are several places underlined. Well, anyway, as another friend of mine would say, "man, it's ripping my face off." Allow me just to quote a few lines from the 1st chapter. "Preaching affects time; prayer affect eternity." "The tragedy of this late hour is that we have too many dead men in the pulpits giving out too many dead sermons to too many dead people." "... altar fires are either out or burning very low. The prayer meeting is dead or dying." "What church ever ask its candidating ministers what time they spend in prayer? Yet ministers who do not spend two hours a day in prayer are not worth a dime a dozen, degrees or no degrees." "Away with this palsied, powerless preaching which is unmoving because it was born in a tomb instead of a womb, and nourished in a fireless, prayerless soul." "We may preach and perish, but we cannot pray and perish." "If God called us to the ministry, then, dear brethren, I contend that we should get unctionized. With all they getting - get unction, lest barren altars be the bade of our unctionless intellectualism."
I'm not sure I can read on! I feel like I need to stop everything I had planned today and get "unctionized." Pray with me and pray for me. I don't want to be a powerless preacher. The hour is late and the needs are too great. May God help us all! Why not get a copy of the book for yourself and read along with me?
