There may be sin in God’s sanctuary that men think or know little of. The prophet was shown by God what the men did ‘in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagining.’ (Ezek 8:12) They still clung to God’s house, they called it the temple of Jehovah; they were ready to die for it as the centre and the symbol of their national religion, and yet they defiled it with their abominations. And they never dreamt how near and how terrible God’s judgment on them would be.
May it not be thus with the church of our day? May it not be that the formality, and the lukewarmness and worldliness, the self-seeking and pleasure-seeking, which marks the great majority of our professing Christians, are being looked upon by God as ‘wicked abominations’ in his house, while we have very little conception of their evil?
God led Ezekiel from the outer to the inner court. May it not be that the sins that are found in the hearts and lives of the more earnest and inner circle among Christians, the lack of humility and love, the trust in human wisdom and human support, the neglect of the continual leading of the Spirit and the full imitation of Christ… may it not be that these things are displeasing and grieving God to an extent that we have no conception of?
Let us ask carefully whether there be not in the church, or in our own heart, much that makes it most needful that judgment begin at the house of God.
(Excerpted from The Coming Revival, by Andrew Murray , pg. 43)
Be the first to react on this!
Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917)
Brother Andrew Murray was a well-known writer/preacher in South Africa who ministered amongst the Dutch Reformed churches. His writings now are widely accepted by modern evangelicals and he is published more than ever in his life-time.Some of his better known books titles are: "Abide In Christ", "Absolute Surrender," and "Humility." His burden for the body of Christ were teachings on the abiding Spirit of Christ in the believer, the life of faith with God daily, and the life of intercession and prayer in the Church.
Andrew Murray was possibly the strongest spokesman of the Philadelphian age to expound the Body's necessity to abide in Christ, like the Apostle John before him.
Murray was born into a family of four children in the then remote Graaff-Reinet region (near the Cape) of South Africa. Educated in Scotland, which was followed by theological studies in Holland, Andrew returned to his native land to work as a missionary and minister. Given the daunting task of ministering to Bloemfontein, a remote region of 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people beyond the Orange River, Murray already began to sense the need to for the "deeper Christian life".
Though successful in preaching and bringing many to Christ, Murray found many of his greatest lessons in the School of Suffering, as will all who follow in the path of obedience.
Andrew Murray was one of four children born to Pastor Andrew, Sr., and Maria Murray. He was raised in what was considered to be the most remote corner of the world - Graaff-Reinet, South Africa. Educated in Scotland and Holland, in 1848 Andrew, Jr., returned to South Africa as a missionary and minister with the Dutch Reformed Church. His first appointment was to Bloemfontein, a territory of nearly 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people.
Andrew and his brother John had been in close contact with a revival movement in Scotland, an evangelical extension of the ongoing Second Great Awakening in America. He prayed for the same sort of awakening for the church in South Africa and wrote, "My prayer is for revival, but I am held back by the increasing sense of my own unfitness for the work. I lament the awful pride and self complacency that have till now ruled my heart. O that I may be more and more a minister of the Spirit." (J. du Plessis, The Life of Andrew Murray)
In 1860, revival did come to the churches of Cape Town, South Africa, and subsequently spread to surrounding towns and villages. Even remote farms and plantations felt the impact as lives were changed. Where once the churches had not been able to find one man ready to be a leader for God, the revival raised up 50 in Murray's Cape Town parish alone. There were more conversions in one month in that parish than in the whole course of its previous history. (Leona Choy, Andrew Murray: Apostle of Abiding Love)
Greatly concerned for the spiritual guidance of new converts and renewed Christians, Andrew Murray wrote over 240 books. His writings reflect his own longing for a deeper life in Christ and his prayer that others would long for and experience that life as well.