Revival Night 2007

Revival night 2007 could have been the same revival night of 2006 or 2005. Whenever you hear of Revival Night, you would think of a service similar to a Praise and Prayer. That's what I had thought when tonight's program started, but as it went on, I knew it was THE service that would jumpstart my post-Urbana life.

The worship was wonderfully led by Justin and Kristen, but it wasn't their worship that ignited the fire I felt tonight. It was from the following passage:

"He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished."

-Isaiah 53:3-8

To understand the meaning of Revival is to understand how little and how small we are. Because of our sins and our failures, we are small compared to our Almighty God. Because of our weaknesses, we need our God to revive us so that we may be worthy of worship to Him. We need Revival because of who we are as sinners. This passage really helped me understand how Jesus suffered in order to grant us the salvation in His name. Just reading each verse and picturing how Jesus suffered would hopefully give you a good grasp of how Jesus took each pain in order for each one of us to come closer to Him.

The realization of how unworthy I am to my one and true Saviour allowed me to follow worship Him with all my heart. Who am I compared to Him? He gave me life. He gave me His blessings. He gave me my salvation to eternal life. And I still can't worship Him with all my heart? No! Even if I may seem like nothing to God, He sees me as something, and because of that I owe Him every single part of my life, including my worship. That is why tonight's worship was really the first time in a long time outside of Urbana where I could freely worship God with all my heart. I felt like nothing could hold me back. No worries in life could stop me from worshipping my true God and Saviour of my life. No one who saw that awkward guy with his arms raised up can change the focus I had on worshipping God. No matter how hot and uncomfortable I felt because I was sweating and felt really sick for the past week could stop me from just singing with my true heart to worship God. No matter if my body was tired and I needed to sit down to rest my legs and no matter how my throat wanted to rest from singing, would I stop singing tonight. I felt God. I felt my true worship. I let it all out. And I believe with all my heart that tonight, God was glorified for who He is.

I really pray that if anybody also felt the same was as me and was singing his/her heart out as me to really put that into practice. Worshipping to God should not be restricted to "Revival Nights". Worshipping to God is in every single action everyday for the rest of your life. I pray my heart out that every single person who was in the Sanctuary would mean every single word they sang out of their mouths. May God be blessed through our singing tonight and through every action we do for the rest of our lives.

Lord, 2007 is Your year to shine. Through every single one of us, we would light this world of darkness so that they may see Your light. May our worship be glorifying to Your name and may we continue our worship to You in everything You do.

Just like the passage above said, You suffered to save us. You alone are God who loves us and deserves all of our praise. I pray that everybody would remember that He saved us and He alone is our God.

Il m'a sauvé! Solo tu eres Dios!