Pointer's

PRAY AND PLAN REVIVAL

Down through the centuries the Christian church has many times experienced a fulfillment of the promises of God through such prophets as Zechariah and Hosea. As men and women have opened their hearts to Him asking for the rain of the Holy Spirit, the Lord has graciously answered. Showers of blessing have brought refresh­ing and new life to the church.

The times to which we have come hold more for God's people than any in all history. The potential for good and for evil was never greater. When the Advent Movement came into being more than a century ago it was first and last a deeply spiritual movement. Plans and programs were secondary. The presence of the Spirit of God in the lives of leaders and members was primary.

Now that we have grown and our influence reaches to the very ends of the earth, it is easy for us to get our eyes on the greatness and extent of our organization and feel that we have attained. While we would never express it in those words, yet our actions too often betray our thoughts. There must never come a time in our work when it could be said that we are doing "business as usual."

In the great pile of mail that comes to our desk, we at times receive a letter in which a fellow minis­ter unburdens his soul. To read something like this is refreshing: "I long to see the work finished. It appears to me we need a ringing call to revival and reformation . . . and such a mighty emphasis on a spiritual awakening that our own dear people will he aroused to pray for the baptism of power. I am not satisfied with my own experience. I long for God's renewing grace to have full play in my heart." Then he goes on to say: "I cannot but think of what it would mean if we could have the outpouring on this great church."

Is that not our great need, brethren, as we move into our work for this new year? Let us put first things first. Let us pray and plan for real revival. The Spirit is waiting. The church is waiting. The world is waiting—waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. As leaders let us take the lead. "O Lord, revise thy work in the midst of the years."

R. A. A.

SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR TRACK?

Native Christians in a West African village found no pri­vacy in their huts for prayer. They therefore went into the bush for quiet moments of prayer. In time a track was beaten down from each hut in which lived a Christian to the prayer spot in the bush.

When a Christian grew slack the watchful senior Christians would go to the careless one with the comment: "Brother, there's something wrong with your track. Beware!"

We all have habits, and we all leave tracks in the highways of life. Are they right tracks to the right places? And well worn?

H.W.L

GOD-CENTERED PREACHING

It is customary for a preacher to notice unusual audience response to a particular ser­mon. We wonder why there is stronger appeal and persuasiveness in some of our sermons while others leave us and the audience "cold." Too often our busy program prevents us from considering the elements of a truly appealing sermon. Recently a little boy helped me to consider what makes a seinion really "click" with the audience. During the service he had taken a piece of paper and di­vided it into sixteen columns. At the head of each column was a religious term such as "Bible," "hell," "sin," "love," "lost," et cetera. Then he pro­ceeded to keep a word score such as you would keep the score of sixteen baseball teams. At the end of the service he timidly handed me the piece of paper and asked whether I would be interested in how many times I had used these sixteen words. This startled me and I immediately wondered how much this boy had gotten out of my sermon. My disappointment, however, soon changed to apprecia­tion when in the quietness of my study I began to analyze this lad's findings.

Here are some of the results. The word "God" took top honors, for I used it sixty-nine times. The second-place winner was "love" at fifty-nine times. Negative, condemning words scored the least points, while terms relating to God and His attri­butes were far ahead.

I came to the conclusion that this particular sermon, which seemed to strike the hearts of the people deeper than most of my other sermons, was because of the emphasis on God's character, His attributes, and attitude toward man. In short, it was a God-centered message rather than a man-centered one. The statement, "Bear with a certain voice an affirmative message. Lift Him up, the Man of Calvary, higher and still higher," (Evangelism, p. 187) came to me with fresh force. Maybe that boy didn't get much out of my sermon, but I got a lot out of his experiment. Perhaps it would be well to assign this task to one of your young people and see what the results are in your own preach­ing. It could be very enlightening.

J. R. S.