Tag: revival

Revival

~ Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool

Reading about revival, before all this started at Asbury, I came across a definition that a revival was where nothing else mattered but Jesus. This was a mark in the Welsh revival where bars turned into prayer halls. In America in the early 1800s when revival was spreading, there are stories of men coming to church for a prayer meeting in the evening dressed for work for the next day with their lunch packed.

One way to think about living in a revived state is “All Jesus All the Time.” He’s your all and everything. That’s how you can (and should!) live now and always. You don’t have to wait for something to happen. You can give your life to Jesus today and let go of everything that is keeping you from living in His constant loving, full-of-joy presence.

The world today talks about living in the present. That’s not the key. It’s living in His Presence. That’s the goal, knowing Jesus is with you always, just like He said! It’s keeping your eyes on Jesus, just like the Bible says. It’s setting Him always before you, just like the Bible says. It’s abiding in His love, just like the Bible says.

You were created in God’s image. You were created to love and be loved. To enter into revival you just need to receive and give His love, let it flow in and out of you. How can you do that? First, you can let go of every other love. He needs to be your one and only. The greatest commandments are to love God and love others. All of God’s laws are summed up in those commands to love. Jesus was the fulfillment of the law because He is love. We are able to be forgiven because of Jesus’ love sacrifice to take our punishment for our sins, but we continue in that blameless state before Him as we receive that law fulfillment, the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit and let Christ live that love out through us.

You can be revived by giving up all other loves so that your life is consumed with the only love that matters. Yes, there will still be work to do, but you do it with God’s love present in you and loving through you. I fellowship with Jesus when I wash the dishes. It’s a sweet time instead of a chore.

Ask the Lord to shine His light on your life and reveal where you’ve given yourself to other loves. Give them up. If you feel like you can’t or don’t want to, then ask God for help. Ask Him to change your heart so that you love Him alone. Walk in His light, as 1 John 1:7 says, and you will have love for others and He will be removing all that’s not from Him. It’s a continual state, not of perfection, but of blamelessness because you are ever giving yourself over to His purifying process, walking in the light of His love.  

Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” (Eph. 5:14 NKJV)

Worst Case Scenario

~ Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool

Here’s what I see as America’s worst-case scenario.

America misses the tribulation.

How could that be a bad thing? Tribulation is a gift from God. Paul preached, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22 ESV) Tribulations are part of our refining process, shining us up so that we are ready to be received as the spotless bride. Our adornment as the bride of Christ is our righteous acts (Rev. 19:8). That’s where our beauty comes from. Tribulation is the fire that burns away what’s not of God so that only truth and righteousness remain. Missing the tribulation would mean God was done with America. What a fearful thought.

It reminds me of this parable. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’And he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, leave it alone for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’” (Luke 13:7-9 NASB 1995)

In America there was something called the First Great Awakening, a religious revival. It was happening around 1750. The Second Great Awakening was happening around 1800. Guess when the Third Great Awakening was happening. It was around the 1850s. Do you see the pattern? There was another revival around 1900. What was happening around 1950? Another revival? You bet. Then comes 2000….crickets.

What happens after that? 2001…ring a bell? How about September 11, 2001?

We missed the revival and instead got a warning. There was hope that it would spark a revival, but it didn’t come. We went all in on terrorists instead of going all in on God. Christians whooped and cheered for the death of Osama Bin Laden instead of weeping over another lost soul.

And what if America has lost her chance? What if her window of revival has closed? What if an end-times billion-soul revival takes place and America misses it? What if Roe vs. Wade is overturned and there is a resurgence of some semblance of conservative Christian values, and it’s mistaken for revival when it’s just a distraction that keeps people from real transformation?

Of course, there are believers in America who are ready to go through tribulation for the sake of the call of Christ. Their persecution will come from the unsaved church. And in this worse-case end-times scenario, America is completely destroyed as part of Babylon the Great and the lukewarm with her, while the faithful few are celebrating at their wedding feast.