Autumn Calls

Autumn calls, but few there be that hear her.
   The loud, bright glare of California sun drowns out her voice.,
So does the muted dinge of dusty skies and smokey sun.
   She thus calls but most listen not—by choice.
  
Oh, there might be a tree or two that starts to change its leaves,
   Dropping green for yellow—but usually brown like moldy wheat.
There are the cool mornings that almost speak of cold,
   But quickly lose their chill amid the blaring glare of summer's incessant heat.

Ah, Autumn can you speak louder and call more insistently?
   Call to us with cool, crisp words more persistently?

Our skies are choked with dust and heat,
   Our land is plagued with drought before.
We long to see the cool, cool winds.
   And feel the life-giving rains once more

Pray to the Lord of the Harvest that there may be
   Workers to come and harvest the fields.
But we also pray that the Lord of the Skies would send rain,
   Rain to soften the land to give fruit and yield.

Autumns calls, but no one listens
  The loud, bright dazzle of sins blocks her calls.
So few stop to listen to that still, small voice.

We need the softening rains of Autumn,
   We need the gentle rains from God.
We need the indwelling of His Spirit,
   We need His poke that will prod!

Send us Autumn rains and revival, Lord.
   Send us life giving refreshment from Your Grace
We will perish without the cooling rains;
   Let us Your Love and Law embrace!

- D. Benning

9 - 11

Fallen!  Fallen!
Wailed the Beloved.
Toppled Towers' twisted tonnage tangled tangibly.

The Dust!  The Dust!
Palpable presentiment; people press, plod, part, panic;
Collapse in despair and wail nationally.

Empty! Empty! are the skies.
She, whose skies were full of commerce,
   now grieves as a widow.
Bitterly bemoaning in bedarkened abandonment—
   Even her tears fail her in this malady.

Laughter!  Laughter!
How her enemies mock her fall:
  "She who was once mighty now sits in dust!"
She wraps herself in patriotism valiantly.

Meaningless!  Meaningless!
Her brief period of mourning proved insincere:
Faux fessing of faith and Fatherhood feigned for friendly favors.
She adds sin upon sin unto her vanity.

Repent!  Repent!
Therein is your salvation and your strength!
Yet she flees foolhardily for frittered fortunes, fell failure and future fires.
Sin has been her ruin yet she sinks further happily.

Have Mercy! Have Mercy!
O Lord and God we deserve not your grace,
But we beg, beseech, bid, bow, believe, beset and besiege Your Bench
For revival—the showers of blessing to heal our depravity!

- D. Benning

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
But you would not...

Isa. 30:15

Sunrise, North Dixon, 11-Sep-2015

The Wicked, O Lord, Increase

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
And floods on the dry ground;
I will pour My Spirit on your descendants,
And My blessing on your offspring;
They will spring up among the grass
Like willows by the watercourses.’
     ~Isa. 44:3-4


But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
     ~Isa. 40:31


The wicked, O Lord, the wicked have increased.
   They parade and prance, swagger and dance.
With mincing step and arrogant stride,
   the flood of evil rises like the tide
       threatening to sweep the very righteous away.

Are You not here?  Do You not see their vile advance?
   Why do heavens sound as brass as I storm its gates to cast
Petitions upon Your very Throne of Grace.
   It seems as though You've hidden now Your face
       because of our sins and our going astray.

But in Your Word I read of the faithful pardoning God:
   not a doddering, empty love, but a sure foundation from Above,
based upon Redemption's Work and the sinner's plea.
   We plead for mercy—from sin's dominion help us flee—
     we repent and Your Word we will trust and obey.

We read of times when You came in like a flood,
   times of refreshment sweet, times of respite from the blazing heat,
or times when You overwhelmed Your people with the joy of who You are.
   Oh, be not distant, remote, aloof nor far;
      Transcendent God, please come and all our fears allay!

We wait upon Your Name, O Sovereign Lord;
   You said that water You would pour, and on eagle's wings we'd soar,
Till Your Spirit springs up within us like flowing streams.
   This promise is to us a light that in deep darkness gleams—
      Now shine forth so Your mercy and glory are displayed.

                         Amen!
- D. Benning


God has used various means in various times to effect a great renewal and return unto Him. Such events are not limited to the Book of Acts, nor even to some time hundreds of years ago.  Such things happen even within the 20th Century.  So we have to ask, "Why not now? In the 21st Century too, O Lord!"

Here are links to two famous revivals where God moved excitedly and forcefully, but not according to any precondition of human—except that it was humans who were praying and preparing the way by seeking God's favor.

The Isle of Lewis, Scotland 
Revival in the Hebrides (1949) 
(Note: This is a transcript of a taped message on the Hebrides Revival. The report was given in 1968 by Duncan Campbell, a preacher in the Revival.)

Revival in Lewis 
(This report was compiled after an interview with a Mr. Hugh Black by Angus and Mark of the Glasgow assembly-groups.)

Asbury College, Kentucky, 1970
A Revival Account 
(One morning in 1970, without warning, all heaven broke loose during Asbury College’s 10 a.m. chapel service.) 

Where is the God of Elijah?
Right where He's always been.  Let us seek His face and His favor that times of refreshing will come again!