Was the Asbury Revival the Place of God's Choosing?

Take heed to yourself that you offer not your burnt offerings in every place that you see: 

• but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, 
• and there you shall do all that I command you.  Deuteronomy 12:13-14

An unusual theme, but this Old Testament ritual which refers to the people of God having too many shrines, 

• has a lesson of penetrating importance for me in the New Testament dispensation - 
• that there is a willful element in my dedication and devotion that must be exterminated.

The impulse of worship is natural in the majority of human beings 

• and I must make the distinction very clear between the impulse of worship in an unregenerate spirit 
• and the impulse of worship in a believer.  

Natural devotion chooses 

• its own altars, 
• its own setting, 
• the scene of its own martyrdom.  

It would be very entrancing 

• if a human being could go to martyrdom in such moods, 
• having arranged the spectators and the scenery to suit his own ambition; 
• but this Old Testament passage says that God chooses the place of offering.  

This aims at the very root of the whole matter.  

• I do not dedicate my gifts to God, 
• they are not mine to have; 
• I dedicate myself to God, that is, 
• I give up the right to myself to Him.

Adapted Excerpt From The Place of Help by Oswald Chambers