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February 15, 2023

Today, there is no shortage of things to write and comment about. The killing of 3 MSU students Monday night is evil and heart-breaking. It weighs on us knowing that all 3 who were killed were from the Detroit area. The death toll of the Turkey/Syria earthquakes is approaching 42,000. How do you begin to imagine that? We are fast approaching the 1-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Each of those can take up a lot of space in our thoughts, but I would like to focus on something else.

Asbury University is a private Christian university in Wilmore, KY. While the school is officially non-denominational it has historically been linked with the Wesleyan/Holiness movement. For almost a week now, there appears to be a revival on campus and I pray and hope that it is real. The history of revivals makes us aware that not everything that called itself a revival was of God. But there have clearly been genuine movements of God and again, I pray and hope that this is one.

What is a revival? A revival is the work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of believers that is marked by the gospel, repentance and confession of sin, prayer, renewed consecration to holiness, deeper love for God, reconciliation, a growing burden for the lost, generosity in giving, increased love and commitment to brothers and sisters and greater zeal for missions and church planting. How do we know that repentance, confession, consecration and renewed commitment is the real deal? Over time, the long-term fruit will reveal its authenticity. There are so many things that claim to be of God, that are not, that it is easy to dismiss anything unusual as being fakery. We must guard against our tendency to allow our need for discernment to instinctively dismiss the possibility that God can move in ways he chooses.

The movement of the Spirit in Jerusalem in the early days of the church was real. But there were some, like Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) who were frauds. Their hypocrisy was hurtful, but did not make the movement fraudulent. The same could be said of Simon the Magician in Acts 8. So, again, I pray and hope that this is a genuine work of God and I pray and hope that God would do this among us. The Word of God and the Spirit of God is not bound.

What can we do when mass shootings are way too common? What can we do when disasters overwhelm regions of our world? What can we do when we fear a regional war could become a global disaster? We can and must be the church. We can and must be a people whose hearts are in tune with God in all things. Our world is terribly broken. When a church catches fire, people will come watch it burn. O Lord, bring revival to our church and may it begin with me.

Grace and peace,

Bob

Sunday’s Text: 2 Samuel 4

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