Devotion of the Day

Christ’s Program For Ephesus

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.
Revelation 2:5

A revival is the church remembering, the church repenting, the church repeating. Modern Ephesus may be orthodox and busy but she is far from her first love. She must have her mind stirred up by way of remembrance. She must discover how far she has slipped from her first estate. This is not easy and often is resented, for she may be very proud of her works and labor and patience and her hatred of the deeds of the Nicolaitanes. But revival begins with remembering, and to “jog the memory” is not easy for a preacher in Ephesus.

The church must repent, as our Lord commanded five out of seven churches in Asia to do. The average “revival” gets nowhere near a call to genuine repentance. And the church must repeat, do again the first works. To halt all the vast machinery today until we remember, repent, and repeat the first works would disrupt our program. So we dispense with real revival and face the “or else” of removal: “I will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”

Quote of the Day

It seems to be an accepted rule in American foreign policy to avoid all showdowns. Confrontations are definitely out. Statesmen face issues but politicians dodge them. The same policy prevails in the religious world. If this rule had been followed in the past, Joshua would never have demanded that Israel choose whom they would serve. Elijah would have worked things out with the priests of Baal on Carmel. Paul would have had a summit conference with Peter at Antioch. Above all, our Lord would not have had a head-on collision with the devil at the very beginning of His ministry. Today we are told that issues are not black and white and cannot be met by direct “yes” or “no.” Black and white have indeed been smudged into indefinite gray, but not so in God’s Book.