9. Quotes from Leonard Ravenhill's Personal Letters
Quotes from Leonard Ravenhill's Personal Letters, number 9
Here are two letters from 1990. We had been in Germany for four years. Ravenhill continued to send us books overseas. He, in conjunction with David Wilkerson, had printed two journals containing valuable articles from a variety of writers and he sent those to us. Leonard was acquainted with the God of fire, as were so many of the preachers of by-gone days. How often de we hear about this today? We have put people deeply to sleep by presenting them a God of love… the main problem is that we have another breed of love in mind, when we speak of it. It is human love, which people can “relate to”, but it doesn’t transform the heart. Ravenhill felt that such preachers were traitorous to the Christ of the Bible and that Christians in general were more in love with the world, than with God.
June 18, 1990: Precious friends, Today I am entering my 84th year. Goodness and mercy have followed me. Praise Him. Herewith another helpful book. Next month we will mail you Volume I or II volume books. They weigh 1 ½ pounds each. Two will come by sea mailed June 26-28 plus 30. I am supposed to speak at KC Civic Center seating 10,000 people, preachers from every state and 20 other countries will be there. My health is not too good – voice breaks and so He must endue. The prophetic burns in me. Moses saw bush aflame, Jeremiah word as fire, Isaiah burning lips, etc. ‘Visions’ are fashionable in USA right now. Angels, heaven, eternal bliss – none of eternal hell, ‘Where their worm dieth not.’ We have more parrots than prophets in our pulpits. Alas, Christ can now say, ‘I was wounded in the house of my friends.’ We pray, ‘O that thou wouldst rend the heavens.’ God says, ‘Rend your hearts… seat of affections.’ Love of sport, love of entertainment, love of leisure, love of food, love of fellowship. I am convinced this world system is guided by men with depraved intellect, who would annihilate humanity to gain power…
I told Len that I was taking a trip to the far eastern part of Germany to see Herrnhut, where modern missions were launched in the 1700’s. He asked for photos, especially of the site where a 24-hour prayer chain was carried on for one hundred years. Of course, I sent them.
Don’t just read his letter, please! Read it slowly, prayerfully. Do you think he speaks the truth or have you been swept along with the pragmatism (please read the article in this blogspot, “Ten Shekels and a Shirt”) and glowing reports of apparent success? Leonard was not impressed with the conquests of super-organizations, but was moved by the testimony of one young lady, moved by faith. If he is speaking the truth, then… Are we still alive enough to feel the desperate spiritual state of God’s people today?
Oct.11, 1990: Here I come limping through many dangers, toils and snares! The net gets drawn tighter around the true church. Evil men wax worse and worse. The political world is in a tailspin. The holy anointing oil flowed from Aaron’s head to his beard and clothes, but never touched his flesh. O, the proud, self-sufficient, self-satisfied flesh. The once proud, more-than-conqueror Samson lost all, but when bound, blind and beaten by his enemies, he did not pray for liberty or sight or destruction, but “strengthen me this once, even if I die”. ‘Except it die…’ O, how men and organizations fight to live. So now Campus Crusade has a film, Jesus, and more than 30 million have seen it in Russia, and 300,000 been saved Campus Crusade has not done much in the US even with its multi-million $ budget. In the past decade 10,000 foreign students have come to USA. They adopted our lifestyle, crowded our ball parks, movies, etc., but ignored our Christianity. Did you read “Chasing the Dragon”? - The story of Jackie Pullinger of Hong Kong. The most disturbing book I have read for years. The blessed and only potentate walked and talked with 2 men on the Emmaus Road and they didn’t know He was there! Is He in our midst and we ‘see’ Him not or are we worshiping an absent God? Jesus warned of this day, ‘as in days of Noah’ (Gen 6:11). Then 2 Timothy III shows the religious folk. Surely we must stand in the gap. Thanks for the Herrnhut pictures….
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