News
No News Today
If you want to give a newspaper editor a heart attack, then tell him, "There's no news today!"
I am from time-to-time reproached for not writing frequently enough to justify this page's existence. But the plain (and perhaps sad?) truth is, I do not consider myself sufficiently newsworthy. And I base that judgement on my having spent a quarter of my working life as a professional journalist and subeditor; on newspapers metropolitan, provincial and religious...and radio stations run by state broadcasters and private enterprise.
"Revival Streams" is not a (self) promotional website. I am not interested in organising a following, obtaining more speaking engagements, or drumming up finance. My goal, if possible, is to feed a few morsels of Truth to those who have the appetite...and will employ its energy to crash on and "do the business" for Jesus.
So...any news today?
Well...it is Ash Wednesday. It is always very good to remember (in the words of P.T. Forsyth), "O Lord, Thou knowest our frame, and rememberest that we are dust."
And I will be in Wellington this Sunday. I'm to preach at Hope Centre in Lower Hutt; a church which is determined, constant and sincere in its holding the door open and keeping the deck clear for a spiritual awakening that's Heavenly in origin, national in scope, and eschatological in focus!
"Revive Thy work, O Lord:
Give power unto Thy word;
Grant that Thy blessed Gospel may
In living faith be heard."
(PCNZ Hymn 679)
A Great Sign
I have this week published a new collection of essays entitled "A Great Sign". In it I endeavour to address biblically and creatively the perennial "hot-potato"...Jewish-Christian relations. The subject has been described as one that "has the potential to either split the Church or unite it". I earnestly hope this book will aid and abet unity amongst all of the People of God...most especially in these Last Days.
"A Great Sign" consists of 15 essays (including the introduction and conclusion), contained in 100 pages. You may purchase a copy directly from me for $15, by writing to:
Revival Streams,
PO Box 38031,
Howick,
Auckland 2145,
NEW ZEALAND.
Bruce Berryman - Promoted To Glory
(A tribute to the Leader of the 90s Red Shed Revival)
Reading: Hebrews 11
In recent weeks, Bruce said to me on a number of occasions, "Brother, I'm preparing practically for the worst. But I'm hoping and believing for the best." Part of his preparing for the worst, included talking a little bit about his funeral. He was unusually adamant about two things. Firstly, that I should deliver a eulogy...his choice of words. Secondly, that there would be much laughter at this service. Sadly, I cannot contribute much to the laughter, because Bruce's loss for me is too grievous. I mourn the loss of a very dear and close personal friend. And I grieve that New Zealand has lost one of its greatest modern revivalists. These days, it seems to me, that every second chorus is about revival...and every man and his dog is a revival expert. In fact, very, very few Christians actually carry about in their hearts and spirits the seeds and the sparks of revival...described by someone as, "A work of God, which consists of a powerful intensification of the ordinary work of the Holy Spirit (convicting, converting, regenerating) poured out upon large numbers of people at the same time". Bruce did carry revival seeds and revival sparks.
He was one of that rare breed created by God to cry out over cities and provinces and nations along with the great Isaiah, "Oh, that You would rend the heavens, that You would come down, that the mountains might flow down at Your presence." He was prepared repeatedly to risk everything, to risk the loss of everything, for the possibility, for the faint chance that God might open Heaven over us, even for a few brief minutes. So that His power from on high could rain down upon us, and make all things new. He was, in the words of the great 16th C intercessor, Teresa of Avila, "Like the apostles, flinging it all aside and catching fire with love of God."
I am very, very sorry, but I have to say in the words of verse 38 of our Scripture reading, "Of him the world was not worthy...He was a man the world was unworthy to contain...The world did not deserve a man like that." Neither the world nor the Church deserved Bruce Berryman. He was quite simply too good for us, and as Leonard Cohen has sung, "He sank beneath our wisdom like a stone." And yet in spite of this, Jesus did send him to us. As it says in Ephesians 4.8, "Jesus ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and He gave gifts of men (such as Bruce) unto us."
How easy it is to eulogise such a man. For "eulogise" means to praise and to bless. When John the Baptist's father recovered the power of speech, it says in Luke 1.64 that he eulogised and praised God. But also in Matthew 14.19, it records that when the Lord multiplied the loaves and the fishes, He eulogised, He blessed them, He gave thanks.
Above all things this afternoon, I eulogise, I bless, I give thanks for Bruce's humility, his modesty, his determination to take the lowest place...which is the greatest mark of Godliness, for our God is in His heart of hearts essentially humble. This may come as a terrible shock to some of today's men of faith and power, who glory in the size of their churches, their bank balances, their houses and their vehicles. For the King and Head of the Church (as we are taught in Philippians 2.6), "did not regard His equality to God as a thing to be clutched to Himself. So far from that, He emptied Himself, and really and truly became a servant, and was made for a time exactly like men. In a human form that all could see, He accepted such a depth of humiliation that He was prepared to die, and to die on a cross." As the Lord said in His own words (in Matthew 11.29), "Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly, humble of heart".
In fact Bruce's legendary and somewhat zany sense of humour can be traced back, I believe, to his humility. For it was definitely not of the bully-boy variety, which laughs to highlight and ridicule the failings of others. He loved to make us laugh over his own foibles and idiosyncrasies, hoping that might help to ease our own struggles and difficulties and disappointments.
Bruce was a considerable evangelist, who loved and lived to tell others in the words of John Newton (the author of the hymn "Amazing Grace"), "I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not even what I hope to be. But, by the Cross of Christ, I am not what I was."
He was also a compassionate and highly intelligent pastor-teacher, who understood along with the great Baptist pulpiteer, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, "Preaching is not child's play. It is not a thing to be done without labour and anxiety. It is a solemn work. It is awful work, if you view it in its relation to eternity."
And he most definitely deserves to share the mighty Finney's epitaph, "He narrowed his mind to revival."
If there are any here today who desire to follow in Bruce's revivalist footsteps, then look no further than his modesty and his lowliness of heart. The Apostle James(4.6) teaches, "God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble." Likewise Peter confirms in his first letter (5.5), "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
I bless the altar boy, who studied Latin through secondary school, perhaps pondering the priesthood. I bless the wiry 1st XV loose forward, always playing and punching above his weight. I bless the hippy in his van with the union jack. I bless the missionary to Asia, whom God sent back to us. But most of all, I praise and bless my friend, who was able to pray with complete authenticity along with Kathryn Kuhlman, "I ask but one thing. Take not Your Holy Spirit from me. For without Him, I shall surely die."
The last time we spoke about revival was by phone a short time ago. I read him excerpts from a venerable account of a local church revival in Scotland in the 1830s. As we spoke, the warming presence of the Holy Spirit settled about us. I quote.-
"While pressing upon them immediate acceptance of Christ with due solemnity, the whole vast assembly were overpowered. The Holy Spirit seemed to come down as a mighty rushing wind, and to fill the place. Very many were that day struck to the heart. The sanctuary was filled with distressed and inquiring souls. A vast number pressed in with awful eagerness. Meetings were held every day for many weeks. The whole town was moved. All Scotland heard the glad news that the sky was no longer as brass - that the rain had begun to fall."
This was ever Bruce's dream; that the sky over New Zealand would no longer be as brass...that the rain would begin to fall. I implore you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ...keep his dream alive.
A Desired Haven
Back on March 11 of this year, I came upon the following verses in the course of my daily Bible reading, "He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle ... He guided them to their desired haven." (Psalm 107.7 and 30)
At that time I did not really feel ready to give up our faith-"adventure" of the past two and a half years. But in my heart I nevertheless recognised that we had probably "done our dash" so far as living out of two suitcases and the boot of a car was concerned.
About a month later we returned to Auckland for meetings, where very old and dear friends invited us to live in their house, while they moved next door for two years. For some weeks we prayerfully pondered this "door" and concluded (after some wrestlings and debatings) that it was in fact the fulfillment of the promise of Psalm 107. Thus, we moved our possessions out of storage (on June 10) and into our "desired haven". We are now hidden away in bush close to the beach in that old part of Howick where Penny and I spent our childhood ... but a few steps from the church where we attended Sunday school and Bible class together.
With the Psalmist (107.30-31) we "give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men".
So, we have settled, but continue our journey. We are housed, but not caged. We have landed, but will continue to fly.
"They founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest." (Psalm 107.36-37)
Revive Us Again
"Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy." (Habakkuk 3.2)
"We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what You did in their days, in days long ago." (Psalm 44.1)
"Revive us, and we will call on Your name. Restore us, O Lord God Almighty; make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved." (Psalm 80.18-19)
"Restore us again, O God our Saviour, and put away Your displeasure toward us. Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger through all generations? Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?" (Psalm 85.4-6)
How do you end up leaning against a lamp-post, outside the picture theatre, in a country town in New Zealand? Lost? Nothing better to do? Waiting for a bus?
None of the above ... but something infinitely more interesting and exciting! A pilgrimage to the scene of an authentic, local church revival back in the mid-1990s!
In this photo (taken a few days ago) I'm outside the Thames' (on the Coromandel Peninsula) mainstreet, picture theatre, paying a nostalgic visit and recalling the meetings when Heaven itself seemed to have invaded the old cinema's then-decaying interior.
Perhaps my sweetest memory of all, is the little children who Sunday night after Sunday night crowded into the front-row seats to be as close as possible to the "action". Then during the worship, as the presence of the Lord and His anointing intensified, one-by-one, without prompting or human pressure, the children would fall to the floor under the Holy Spirit's power. It was worth going to a meeting just to see these spontaneous and entirely innocent encounters between God Almighty and little kids!
"Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Matthew 19.14)
Folk came to those revival meetings in flash clothes (their "Sunday Best") and work clothes; church shoes and no shoes. I remember at one evening meeting, praying for a fellow who'd come straight from his work in jeans and an old "bush" singlet. God, who is no respecter of persons, did not despise or disdain his attire. The Holy Spirit touched the man, down he fell and away he rolled. He came to rest on the footpath outside. We went on praying for him beneath the stars, observed by tourists out for an after-dinner stroll.
"I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right." (Acts 10.34-35)
People with no faith, had faith towards God revived in them. People with some faith obtained more, and those with much faith discovered that even they could be revived and granted an increase!
"The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith.' " (Luke 17.5)
"Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end." (Isaiah 9.7)
At another meeting, a pastor (with many of his "flock") from another church in the district, stood up and apologised for injury and hurt which had occurred between the two fellowships some years earlier.
Today it amazes me how quickly so many church leaders in New Zealand have "moved on" from the 90s Revival. Some become quite aggressive in their denial that revival ever even occurred here; They actually enjoyed it hugely until it became theologically challenging and/or administratively inconvenient!
It surprises me too, that many who flocked to revival meetings (which took place simultaneously all over the country) flocked off so quickly when they received "the bill", or the excitement seemed to wane.
"If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." (Matthew 16.24)
Every time I go past the picture theatre in Thames I feel nostalgic ... I yearn for the return of revival. But such visits and reminiscences don't end in nostalgia. They disturb and provoke me to pray with renewed faith and fervour,
"Lord, I have heard of Your fame; I stand in awe of Your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known...Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? ... Revive us, and we will call on Your name." Amen. Come, Holy Spirit!
Our Prevenient God
A few days ago I took Penny for an evening stroll through some winter-dank, inner-city streets of Auckland, to show her what had been an equally dank apartment where I lived back in 1971. The flat and it locale were the launching pad for my monastic "life" during 1972-73. While living in the city I made a one-week visit to the Trappist Southern Star Abbey in the Hawkes Bay where my determination to be a monk intensified. From that flat I corresponded with Father Basil who was then the sub-prior...and later became the community's abbot. He it was who opened the door for me to return, and made possible my eventual entry into the novitiate. (See the article below, "Honour Your fathers".)
On this most recent "pilgrimage" to my old urban hideout, I was surprised (and deeply affected) to see something I had not really observed or appreciated before. The old apartment is only a few steps away from St. Benedict's Street. Benedict of Nursia is the patron saint of monks and the founder of institutional, Western monasticism.
I was profoundly moved by the realisation that during those "olden" days of spiritual and intellectual wrestling ("Should I go?" "Should I stay?") I had often passed by a sign pointing to St. Benedict. On top of that, during my time living in the monastery my novice master was Father Benedict, and I was received into the Church on the feast of St. Benedict!
Big deal. So what?
Well for me, all of this is a tremendous reminder that God's knowledge of us, care for us, and involvement with us always predates our interest in Him. Mind you, not all Christians really love this great truth. They gnash their teeth against the sovereignty of God; preferring to claim for themselves the initiative (and glory!) in all their various dealings with the Lord of heaven and earth.
"O Lord God, You are my confidence from my youth. By You I have been sustained from my birth; You are He who took me from my mother's womb." (Psalm 71.5-6)
"In Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them." (Psalm 139.16)
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you." (Jeremiah 1.5)
"You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit." (John 15.16)
Even the incomparable Anglican divine, John Wesley (of 18th C 1st Great Awakening fame) gloried in the prevenient grace of God. Wesley was a tinder-dry Arminianist, attaching tremendous importance to the will and choices of men in all the comings-and-goings of the whole salvation process. But Wesley was always particularly careful to give even greater credit and weight to God's role; especially His work in and for yet to be regenerated souls!
Perhaps we 21st C, "I've done it my way!",franchise-Christians should be significantly more careful along these lines too!
"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." (Romans 11.36)
"To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honour and glory and dominion forever and ever." (Revelation 5.13)
Uncharted Territory
At the beginning of 2006 Penny and I gave up our home of 9 years, stored all of our worldly possessions, loaded two suitcases in our car and took off. We "hit the road" to obey God and to be more available to Him along whatever lines of service and ministry seemed best to Him. I think we anticipated spending a significant part of the year overseas, returning by the end of last year to "settle down" and set up home again.
Well, here we are ... still out "on the road", a little wiser in some respects, but still feeling inspired to continue to pursue this most interesting and challenging call and lifestyle.
In some respects we feel like travellers whose maps ran out quite a while ago. We're now in uncharted territory ... so far as we are concerned. But, not so far as the Lord is concerned.
"For we walk by faith, not by sight or appearance." (2 Corinthians 5.7)
"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4.18)
As long as God leads, we will do our best to follow.
The photograph below is of a little-known side-road in New Zealand. Hundreds of cars hurtle past it every day, never seeing its signs. And yet for me it is the junction which leads to one of the most important places in the world. It reminds me that large, flashing, neon signs usually point to nothing more than our gross fascination with superficial novelty ... even concerning matters of the spirit.
More often than not God is happy to test our hearts by disguising His greatest treasures in brown-paper and string parcels. We merrily parrot "all that glitters is not gold", but then tear off like crows in pursuit of every tiny flash and sparkle.
Oftentimes it is the faded sign obscured by overgrown hedges, and the crude, meandering, dirt track which will most surely lead us "home".
"And I will lead the blind in a way that they know not; in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them." (Isaiah 42.16)
Honour Your Fathers
"Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you." (Exodus 20.12)
"Honour your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise) that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth." (Ephesians 6.2-3)
The greater part of this year of 06 has for us been concerned with honouring Penny's mother and father. This we have endeavoured to do by supporting them both through her father David's faith-filled suffering and dying with motor neurone disease.
We have also been fortunate this year to be able to get across the Tasman Sea to Sydney twice to spend time with my father and mother as they cope valiantly with all of the challenges and trials which go along with living into your 80s.
We recently (late November) spent a few hours visiting Southern Star Abbey in the central Hawkes Bay, which was my home in the early 70s. On this occasion (we last visited in mid February) I spent quite a time at the cemetery. Most of my closest friends from those days are now with the Lord; their bodies are "sleeping" at Kopua...waiting for the Lord's return, the last trumpet and the Day of Resurrection. (1 Corinthians 15)
While standing in the graveyard in the profound peace which saturates the monastery, I thanked God and honoured the fathers He gave me back then. I thanked the Lord for:
- Father Basil, who took the time when I first visited in 1971 to find out why I was there; he later made it possible for me to return and eventually live in the novitiate.
- Brother Martin, who kept me supplied with fresh fruit and some extra food during the months when I lived by myself in a wattle shed out in the back of the abbey's apple orchard.
- Father Benedict, the novice master who seemed to toil 24/7 to help me try to be a monk.
- Father Maurus, the real hermit who always managed to appear as if he had absolutely nothing else to do but talk to me, who was then a verbose, spiritual infant.
The list could go on. I honour these men for being good fathers, and thank God for putting them in my way.
"I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me." (1 Corinthians 4.14-16)
Travelling by Whale
"You’re looking for proof, but you’re looking for the wrong kind. All you want is something to titillate your curiosity, satisfy your lust for miracles. The only proof you’re going to get is what looks like the absence of proof: Jonah evidence. Like Jonah, three days and nights in the fish’s belly, the Son of Man will be gone three days and nights in the deep grave." (Matthew 12.39-40)
I have been thinking quite a lot lately about this phenomenon, of both the Lord Jesus and the prophet Jonah disappearing...dead and buried, so far as the world was concerned.
And yet, while hidden in their cocoons of death (from which they both escaped!) salvation was wrought. The unwilling and thus useless prophet was rendered willing and useful...albeit sloshing around in the pungent gastric juices of a whale.
"For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man builds upon the foundation..." (1 Corinthians 3.11-12)
The Lord (unobserved by human eye) sealed our salvation in Heaven (Zechariah 3), preached the Gospel in hell and there issued history’s first altar call. (1 Peter 3.18-20 and 4.6)
At the beginning of this year we made some quite radical alterations to our lifestyle with a view to being more available to the Lord...especially overseas. But here we are, seven months later still firmly anchored in New Zealand. So, what has happened?
We discovered ourselves overtaken and in a sense swallowed up by family responsibilities...helping care for Penny’s parents as her father David passed through an especially painful season of grave illness. It has been our joy and a privilege to be close to them and to help out through this time. But there have been moments when we have both stopped and wondered what happened to us and all of our dreams and plans?
We don’t pretend to know. But of this we are sure; being overtaken and overwhelmed by circumstances beyond our control (be it a whale, illness or even death!) is not the end of the story. Not by a long shot.
"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8.28)
So, we are trusting the Lord (who rose again on the third day) that in His time this particular "whale" will be steered to the right beach, and there encouraged to spit us out...willing and ready for His next assignment.
Humble Beginnings
During February we drove to Wellington very slowly; the trip took us 10 days. While in the Capital I preached for my good friend Senior Pastor Seth Fawcet at Hutt Christian Covenant Church. But sometimes the journey can be as interesting as our destination.
On this particular journey we stopped (albeit much too briefly) at my first spiritual home; Kopua Monastery. The Community (which is totally devoted to prayer) lies hidden in rolling countryside about 6 ks on the southern side (and halfway along) the main highway between Napier and Palmerston North. (Its website is listed here.)
From time-to-time I'm aware of people being bemused and even irritated by my love for the monastery, because I only spent 1 of my 56 years there. They miss the point that those people, places and experiences which the Lord Jesus makes foundational in us (our spiritual roots) forever loom larger than life. And that is exactly as He intends it to be. As long as we live, our spiritual foundations forever support and nourish and determine who we are in Him. (That's why discipling new Christians is so crucial !)
"For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man builds upon the foundation..." (1 Corinthians 3.11-12)
Great tragedies occur when gifted Christians (especially leaders) decide to be something other than what God in love planned for them to be. They are often motivated by lust for other men's spiritual success and status.
For me returning to Kopua is always haunting in a good and an uncomfortable way. But when it comes time to leave (to get back on the road), I always go blest having been resettled on my spiritual foundations.
On this visit Penny and I were both blest by a conversation in the Guesthouse with Father _____. When I lived in the monastery (1972-73) he was a monk to be respected; quite formidable. Now all these years later, here he is utterly abandoned to and spent on a life of prayer. In talking to him I was humbled by two things. Father ______ said that he felt he was now really getting focus-ed in a new way on his calling to live to pray. Completely unselfconscious humility. In watching him I felt I was really in the presence of a human being who has become prayer, along the lines of Psalm 109.4, "In return for my love they act as my accusers; But I am prayer."
As we begin this new season, it is salutary to be reminded of the difference between those matters which are merely extremely important, and those which are ultimate.
"Lord, teach us to pray..." (Luke 11.1)
