THE NEXT GREAT AWAKENING!

Arise, shine: For your light has come!

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,

And deep darkness will rise over the people;

But the Lord will arise over you,

And his glory will be seen upon you.

Isaiah 60:1

Awake, you who sleep,

Arise from the dead,

And Christ will give you light.

Ephesians 5:14

 The nation and the world is overdue for a great spiritual awakening.  A Great Awakening is a movement of God in response to human participation.  The first Great Awakening in America took place in the early 1700’s setting the stage spiritually for the founding of a new nation, “One nation under God,” whose moto is “In God We Trust.”  The first Great Awakening energized the colonial colleges: Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Columbia, William and Mary, Princeton, and the U of Pennsylvania.  The second Great Awakening in the 1800’s occasioned the exponential, explosive growth in churches and founding of colleges across the nation especially by the Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, and others:  Boston, Syracuse, Duke, Emory, Samford, Baylor, USC, and hundreds more.  Following World War II, the evangelical initiative of Billy Graham and others in the 1950’s and ‘60’s grabbed the nation’s interest and renewed the life of faith for millions.

Following every flow of faith, every movement of the Spirit of God, every spiritual awakening over the past four hundred years (since the founding of Harvard in 1634), there’s been predictable spiritual ebbs.  With each Great Awakening the rising tide of sincere faith and spiritual vitality dissipated.  The gradual drift of committed Christians into a spiritual desert a malaise, a fog of faith, and a tepid spiritual temperature suggest once again a shift in the culture away from a steadfast pursuit of God’s presence, providence, and provision.  As in the past, the great awakenings of the nation, with their missional waves of faith, land on the shore and with time wash back into secularism.  This is the oldest story of mankind’s disobedience, infidelity, and recidivism. The result is a national rise in people’s sin and degradation evident especially in the media, in societal divisions, in human trafficking, in corruption in high places, and in unjustified war and oppression.  Spiritually it occasions the loss of generations to the redemptive, reconciling, restorative love of God.  This is exactly where we are today, not only in the USA, but in Canada, the UK and continental Europe.  The West especially is in a spiritual funk, a sad state of disconnect from God, and therefore in a spiritual desert in need of the Water of Life.  The obvious consequences are numerous.  The burning question is “What can we do about it?”

Every great awakening in history was preceded by the holy discontent and fervent prayer of a faithful remnant.  Often this small remnant was young people who understood the spiritual desert in which humanity landed. They saw God’s the bigger picture, the need for humanity’s salvation, and healing through the Living Water of Jesus Christ.  In seeing they responded to God’s stirring of their hearts to pray for revival.  They burned in their hearts for change.  They saw God’s bigger plan.  They realigned their faith, acted on a holy discontent, re-arranged their priorities, re-calibrated their lives to God’s golden standard of holiness and mission, and then prayed.  The world, especially the USA, desperately needs a wake-up call.  We need a remnant who will fervently pray.  God is faithful.  He is steadfast in his love.  He never fails in his fidelity to his promises.  He once again can raise up a remnant of faithful who will pray in another Great Awakening and call for national and global repentance.

This is a call to the remnant, to those in whose hearts God places a holy discontent.  It is a call to active prayer to those who see the sorry state of humanity today and who’s hearts burn with a desire to see holiness and righteousness prevail.  It is a call to those who desire to act with a sanctified sanity for the salvation of a world.  This world that God love’s will see another Great Awakening if a faithful remnant will fervently and passionate pray in faith for a new day of Awakening to the redemptive, reconciling, restoring love of God.

“Prepare the way of the Lord;

Make straight in the desert

A highway for our God.”

Isa. 40:3

MAKE US HOLY: A NEW HYMN BY JULIE TENNENT

Dr. Timothy Tennent, in his recent book entitiled "The Call to Holiness," ends the book, as he does with other devotional books, with a hymn written by his wife Julie Tennent.  His book is wonderful and its message wonderfully captured in her hymn to be sung to the old tune Beecher (Charles Wesley’s Love Divine, All Love Excelling) or to Beethoven's the Ode to Joy tune (Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee).

MAKE US HOLY

(1 Peter 1:3-2:3)

You are holy – make us holy!  Let our lives reflect Your name;

By Your Spirit’s pow’r within us, be a sanctifying flame.

Not the work of human striving, but a change from deep within:

Redirect our core affections; free us from the bonds of sin.

You are holy – so our holy lives a shining light must be,

Purged from empty selfish living, filled with love that comes from Thee.

Born again of seed eternal, through the living Word of God;

Growing up in our salvation, tasting that the Lord is good.

You are holy, and You call us to be pure in all we do;

As your character is holy, so we would be holy, too.

Purified by true obedience, loving others from the heart;

Serving in the world with power which your Spirit does impart.

You are holy – may Your church embody perfect holiness;

May the love of Christ compel us to bring forth true righteousness.

Let the strains of New Creation echo through Your church today;

Sounding forth the consummation of that glorious Holy Day!

Julie Tennent

A lovely reality behind the book and hymn is the beauty of the Tennent's marriage that works in harmony:  The theologian and scholar (Timothy) and the musician and poet (Julie).  Praise be to God!

THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN A CHRISTIAN'S LIFE

THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN A CHRISTIAN’S LIFE

                                                Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

Psalm 139:7&8

I grew up being taught that God is “omnipresent.” It meant that He was everywhere all the time. 
Throughout much of my younger years, I lived unaware that He was present and at times it seemed like he was nowhere to be found.  It's not that God was hiding.  I just did not take the teaching about his presence seriously.  I was not interested enough to be aware.  My antenna was down.  My reception was turned off.  I wasn’t tuned in to God.  Most of the time I was ignoring God.  By this default position I remained in the dark regarding who he truly was and how accessible He could be.  I was not alone.  Many Christians remain unaware of the presence of God in their life.  Unaware, they miss noticing God's grace and live life struggling from one challenge and problem to the next.  It's difficult to maintain a strong faith when we ignore God or live like He is absent.

When we don't sense God's presence prayer becomes an exercise of calling for a lifeguard while treading water hoping somehow to stay afloat until He throws a life line.  Doubt prevails that God hears, cares, and is near enough to respond.  The truth remains.  God is near.  He is not an absent landlord.  He is Lord, ever and always present in every Christian’s life.  If you are unaware of God's presence in your life, here are four ways you may grow in an awareness of God’s omni-presence:

1.     Thanks and Praise – Read Psalm 100:4.  It speaks of gates and courts referring to the Temple in Jerusalem and its many gates and courts.  The temple gates are associated with thanks to God and the temple courts with praise.  The Temple itself is a metaphor for progressive intimacy with God and holiness.  Thanks spills over into praise to God for the gift of his presence and grace. Thanks and praise are an appropriate responses to the Giver of all good gifts.  Together they occasion a profound awareness of God's steadfast faithfulness and presence in our lives.

2.     Means of Grace - John Wesley was fond of teaching and preaching about the presence of God experienced through what he called the means of grace.  In a more modern expression we might call means of grace our “habits of the heart.” They are habits of piety - love of God (ie., worship, prayer, Bible reading, fellowship) and habits of mercy - love of others (ie., feeding the hungry, healing the sick, visiting the imprisoned, helping widows and orphans).  Wesley taught that through the means of grace we mature in our understanding of God’s identity and in our awareness of his presence.

3.     Christ at the Door – We read in Revelations 3:30, “Here I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”  Once you responded to his initial knock on your heart's door.  Now you may consciously consider Christ at the door each day, inviting you out into his day, his agenda, and his plan.  As you walk each day in His presence, he engages you in fellowship.

4.     Practicing God’s Presence – Brother Lawrence was a 
seventeenth century monk who practiced the loving presence of God. He spent years disciplining his heart and mind to yield to God's presence. He wrote, "As often as I could, I placed myself as a worshiper before him, fixing my mind upon his holy presence, recalling it when I found it wandering from him." Lawrence did the mundane chores of the monastery continually mindful of God’s presence so that even the lowest, most humble work was completed in a spirit of worship.

God is always present.  We aren’t always conscious of his presence and proximity.  Yet he is so close.  He desires even greater proximity.  He desires to be more than near.  He desires intimacy, the ultimate in proximity, the infilling of his Holy Spirit in us.  You can’t be closer to God than being filled to the measure of fullness of his very Self. (Ephesians 3:19). 

 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

James 4:8

Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus 
 . . . Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full of assurance of faith.

Hebrews 10:19&22

SPIRITUALLY HOMELESS YOUNG PEOPLE AT RISK OF SPIRITUAL INFANT MORTALITY?

In an earlier blog I wrote that more and more young people are falling away from the church.  They are not identifying themselves as Christians yet they're remaining followers of Christ.  While this is true for many, it is not the case for all.  Most are wondering off the path.  They are not remaining

followers.  Recent surveys by the Barna Group* paint the picture. They describe two groups of 18 to 29 year olds who have left the church:  Nomads are young people who are wandering.  They have left the church yet still consider themselves Christians: 43% think church and Christian friends are optional; 25% say faith and religion is just not important to them now; and 23% say that they used to be involved in their church but don’t fit there any more. 

Prodigals are young people who are lost.  They have a Christian background but have lost their faith.  They describe themselves as no longer Christian:  20% say they had a negative experience in church or with Christians; 21% say that Christian beliefs don’t make sense to them; 19% say their spiritual needs can not be met by Christianity.

So, what’s going on here?  Why so much spiritual infant mortality (Prodigals) and Infants-at-risk (Nomads)?  If the issue was actually physical infant mortality, experts at the Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization, and UNICEF would respond with the very basic regimens for addressing the preventable causes of premature deaths of infants from birth to age five.  Their success over the years has dramatically cut back infant mortality worldwide.  They understand the causes and the means to address the challenge and they’re doing it.

The church is the Body of Christ and as such it is not well, at least in the West.  Again, what’s going on?  Perhaps it’s several things.  Here’s what I see:

• Many faith communities emphasize making believers (an intellectual exercise) and fail to make disciples (head, heart, and life).  They're not the same.  Jesus did not say make believers. 

• The primary responsibility for making disciples is in the home.  The path starts in the home and it remains the primary locus of discipleship. It is the calling and duty of every parent.  Parents need help.  Many have never been discipled themselves. This is one area  churches can rise to the occasion, discipling parents and teaching them to disciple their children. Otherwise, many parents push the responsibility off onto private Christian schools and church youth groups. 

•    Christian Schools drift away from discipleship paradigms to the conventional patterns found in secular public schools.  They follow the same path as many Christian college and universities in the past who failed to hold to the primary mission of making disciples and capitulated to secular goals and standards. Teacher education programs in Christian universities must integrate ways and means of discipleship into the teacher preparation K-12 curricula.

• Many youth groups excel at entertainment and fun factory events (roller skating, paint ball, pizza parties, pool parties, etc.) and devote little time and attention to young people’s spiritual formation, calling, and service.  Ten minutes of devotions and a quick prayer at the end of a fun time is not discipleship.

In the vacuums created by families, schools and church youth groups, alternatives to discipleship flourish.  Vacuums will always be filled by something.  I suspect that both Nomad and Prodigal vacuums are being filled by an abundance of opportunities for entertainment via the internet, texting, video games, and more all of which carry more toxic content than wholesome.  Young people are not the problem.  They are the victims of our benign neglect to take the Great Commission seriously: MAKE DISCIPLES . . . (Matthew 28:19).  Lets figure it out.  Lets be vigilant.  Lets be holy and get to work!

* https://www.barna.org/barna-update/millennials/612-three-spiritual-journeys-of-millennials.html#nomads