Dear Friends in Christ,

It is difficult to believe a whole year has gone by since I’ve communicated with you about what God is doing in this ministry.  The problem isn’t that I haven’t attempted, as I have written three prayer letters to send, but received no peace from God about doing so, and therefore those letters are still sitting on my shelf.  In our last letter we focused on the scripture. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”  Rom. 8:28.  Shortly thereafter, my dad passed away.  I praise God for this test, and I praise the Lord for His glorious peace that goes beyond all understanding.  Also during this time, the Lord has been teaching me more of what it means to be crucified with Christ and He has shown Himself gloriously faithful.

This past year I have not been preaching as much as I would have liked, and I have asked the Lord on numerous occasions if I am doing His will or if He would have me do something else.  But always He comes back with, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”  From a physical standpoint this seems like it’s been a very slow year, but from a spiritual standpoint it has been a year of growth and preparation, for the revival is surely coming.  Barriers have been breaking down, and July 5 we begin a work again at Stonybank Community Church in Glen Mills, Pa.  I am very optimistic about what God is going to do during this time, and recently God has been opening up many other doors of ministry.  These meetings at Stonybank could very well be the catalyst to reaching other churches with the need for revival, and then, hopefully, the unsaved in the streets.  It seems that many in the churches have been afraid of the aspect called revival.  Please pray that church leaders would not be afraid of what God wants to do in their midst.  Our blessed Lord died on the Cross not only to save us from our sins, but to deliver us from our sin.  As I travel from one church to another lately it has been to preach just one sermon.  I see such coldness and deadness in the churches, I see the worship and prayers being forced, the glorious hymns being sung with expressionless faces, and churches going through the motions of being successful by having building programs, substituting activity for anointing.  There is a barrenness in our busy-ness in the church today.  How often do we hear the statement, “I’m busy.”  Church calendars are full of meetings, banquets, special programs, how-to seminars.  I see where the glorious Church of Christ is being overrun.  In Judges 2:11-15, we see the Lord gave over His people to their enemies, which of course are His enemies.   “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals;  and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt;  and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.  They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.  And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel.  So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.  Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them.  And they were greatly distressed.”

The Church today is groping in the dark.  They hold on to what they’ve seen in the past, but that glory light has faded almost to oblivion.  Often I hear people speak of how doctrinally sound and pure their church is.  The Ephesian church, addressed in Rev. 2:1-4, was doctrinally sound and pure, they had been busy with activity, and yet the Lord rebuked them by saying, “You’ve left your first love.”  Satan has gotten the Church so busy that her eyes are off the glorious Saviour, and the Church is sinking in the quicksand of the myriads of programs, activities, and church social functions.  I’ve seen churches that are depleting in numbers, and instead of repenting and getting right with God by confessing their own failure, they blame others, pad their pews, buy new hymnals, or new $20,000 digital organs.  This is all garbage before the throne of God.  Pastors need to call their churches to a solemn assembly to confess their sins before God and each other, and to finally get serious about being serious.  During my time that God has set me aside, I found myself getting anxious about trying to make something happen.  Then a dear old saint of God said, “Jim, if God has put you on the shelf, don’t get off.  He knows right where you are.”  He has been teaching me about a deeper crucifixion with Christ.  My prayer is and perhaps always will be, “less of me, and more of You.”  I see who I am and I cry out to my Saviour, “I want to be holy.”  I know that the Lord loves His people with an undying love, and He has not cast off His Church – praise the Lord!  But He is breaking and humbling the Church – praise the Lord!  In conclusion, I want to say, “Don’t be discouraged, God is going to get the job done.”  Phil. 1:6, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  He is getting the Church ready so that clergy and laymen alike will cry out to God in deep humility, “Save us O God, cleanse us of our sins,” and in truth cry out for the fire to be rekindled in our hearts.  Ps. 139:23-24 reads, “Search me, O God, and know my heart;  try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  Each one of us must go before God and not worry about what the next person is doing, but pray this prayer in Ps. 139.  The deception of pride is the sin of thinking, “I’m not doing too bad.”

We truly appreciate each of you who have stood with us in praying and sharing during this year of silence.  None of us will really understand completely what our giving and praying has accomplished, but we walk by faith, not by sight.  God bless you richly in the love of Christ.

Your brother in Christ,

Jim Anderton