As the school year is winding down, I am busier than ever trying to keep up with exams, papers, work, and spending quality time with my friends at school. Blogging is not top priority, but one thing I learned during the semester is that writing down my thoughts and concerns helps me to sort through the craziness of my day and remember the things that are most important. In one of my classes, we were asked to keep a "commonplace book," or a book of quotes, passages, and sources, that was ultimately going to help with our research, but served more as a way to keep up with the readings and themes throughout the course. traditionally, commonplace books were used by people (especially authors and scholars) as a way to keep up with research and ideas. Rather than using it for research, I think having a place to collect quotes, passages, other blogs, videos, and sources is a useful idea. I plan to carry over the commonplace book idea and incorporate it into this blog.
What remains is the title of the blog, which is ultimately a reference to love (1Cor13:13) and the Word of God (Matt24:35), which are one in the same in the form of Jesus (John1:1, 1John4). Like I said in the initial post, there are common themes and trends throughout history that I have noticed in the small amount of studying that I have done. These themes tie together the movement of God in generations, and can be seen in so many forms.
In saying that, I am in a North Carolina history class this semester, and we talked a lot about the Great Revival of 1800. Here is a quote I came across when studying Francis Asbury, a Methodist pastor:
In a letter to his family, Asbury writes:
“I wonder sometimes how anyone will sit to hear me, but the Lord covers my weakness with his power….I trust you will be easy and more quiet. As for me, I know what I am called to. It is to give up all, and to have my hands and heart in the work, yea, the nearest and dearest friends….Let others condemn me as being without natural affection, disobedient to parents, or say what they please….I love my parents and friends, but I love my God better and his service….And tho’ I have given up all, I do not repent, for I have found all"Asbury confesses that he would give up everything that's important to him in order to better serve his God, thus leading America into a period of great revival. Christianity is still prominent in America, though some say God is absent. Personally, I think the trials we are facing in our society prove that God has not forgotten about us. Satan would not be attacking a nation so persistently if he had nothing to fear. The enemy is out to get us, out to win us back. In the end, he won't win. Satan loses and Jesus triumphs.
I believe that our generation will experience the "Third Great Awakening."
New technology is making it easier for Christian communities to connect and unite together in a way that we have never experienced. In fact, while the the first two Great Awakenings were a tremendous blessing in terms of promoting Christianity in the US, they also were instrumental in segmenting the Christian community into denominations that would eventually despise the other factions.
Now, however, there are countless churches popping up that are non-denominational, drawing from the more skeptical, "I'm not traditional enough for a First Baptist Church" people.
Technology is not only making it possible to reach a new generation of people, but it is also allowing Christians in California to communicated and fellowship with Christians in New York City and Sydney, Australia. Christians are able to indirectly participate in missionary efforts, like the fight to end human trafficking, by following key leaders on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
I feel God's presence in our nation, and I believe that we are on our way to another great revival.
