Khaw-yah

I've spent the better part of the morning seeking the Lord for Spring Creek. Not just the church but also the community. I asked God to share His heart with me so I could feel about the church and community the way He does.

I sat quietly before Him listening for His still small voice. An English word came to my mind but somehow I knew that was not the word He wanted to put into my heart. I looked up a verse with the word in it and then looked up that word up in the Hebrew language. Khaw-yah is what I found.

Unless you are a Hebrew scholar that word probably means nothing to you as it did to me earlier today. Just a weird Hebrew word. And yet that is the word the Lord put in my heart for all of Spring Creek. Khaw-yah means to quicken, live, revive. 

There are things that appear alive but are either dead or in the process of dying. Recently my boys and I helped some other men cut down a massive tree that fell on a widow's roof. Yet inside the tree was hollow. There was just an outer shell of bark and a thin layer of wood holding it together. You would have never known that just by looking at the outside.

So it is with many Jesus followers and churches. They appear alive but inside they are hollow. There is no life. They are cut off from the needed nutrients of the roots. Such people and churches need Khaw-yah. I saw Khaw-yah yesterday.

My family planned to join the church yesterday morning which we did. What made it more exciting is two other couples joined yesterday as well. One person commented it had been a long time since anyone had joined the church. I saw several misty eyes. I certainly didn't do that. I didn't make it happen. I just preached the message God laid on my heart and He used it. He brought Khaw-yah. I hope and pray He brings more.

While many churches hold weekly worship rituals there is not a lot of Khaw-yah in it. There is no life in it. God has not breathed life and quickened the elements of worship through His Spirit. God through His Spirit can do more in one service than we can do in years of trying to do it on our own. May His people wake up and cry out for Khaw-yah while there is still time.