February 3 Day 1: Revive Us Again
Scriptures: Psalm 85:6
Prayer Prompt: Pray that you will experience the Lord’s revival in your life.

There is a hymn we love to sing, “Revive us Again.” The hymn was written by Doctor William MacKay, a Scottish doctor. Mackay had been raised by a devout Christian mother but had abandoned the faith and drifted into sin. At one point, he was so far from the Lord and so down on his luck that he pawned the Bible given to him by his mother. Later as a practicing physician. He encountered a patient who would not survive his injuries. MacKay told him so. The man had no family but requested the presence of his landlady, to whom he owed a small amount of money. He also asked her to bring “the book.” After some time, the man passed. As hospital staff were cleaning the room, they found “the book” and asked Doctor MacKay what to do with it. He asked what kind of book it was and was informed that it was “the poor man's Bible.” Upon inspection, MacKay came to a realization. “I took the Bible and--Could I trust my eyes? It was my own Bible! The Bible which my mother had given me when I Left my parents’ home and which later, short of money, I sold for a small amount. My name was still in it, written in my mother's hand."¹
MacKay goes on to write, “Be it sufficient to say that the regained possession of my Bible was the cause of my conversion.” In response to his conversion and the “Remarkable return of his Bible," McKay wrote Revive Us Again. The remarkable yet simple chorus of the song “Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah, Amen” parallels Psalm 85:6. The psalmist asks the Lord to revive him so that the people would rejoice in the Lord. So that we might say Hallelujah. As we begin our road to revival, let us remember two things. First, revival is the work of God. True revival cannot be manufactured or drummed up by man. Second, revival is for God's glory. Believers might reap the benefits of a renewed faith, but it results in the declaration of God's glory.
^{1 https://www.hymncharts.com/2024/03/10/the-story-behind-revive-us-again/}

February 4 Day 2: Revival and God’s Presence
Scriptures: Psalm 95
Prayer Prompt: Pray and ask the Lord to help you live in His presence daily.

One way to understand the idea of revival is to have “a heightened experience with God’s Presence.”  As believers, it is possible to go about our days lacking an “experience of God’s presence.”¹ This can result from general busyness, troubling circumstances, or sinfulness. We might even be like the Israelites in the wilderness, mentioned in Psalm 95, who doubted God’s power and provision. (8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness 9 where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did.) In Exodus 17, we read that the people were camped at Rephidim, and they began to complain and test the Lord because they had no water. They failed to experience God’s providing presence even though His presence was literally with them in the visible, tangible cloud pillar. Today, believers are indwelled with God’s Spirit. His presence is with us, yet we often fail to experience it because of our circumstances or our sin. The psalmist challenges us to “shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation.” We are redeemed from sin, rescued from hell, and destined for eternity with the Lord. We are to enter His “[providing] presence with thanksgiving.” He provides despite our circumstances. He is great. He is King. He holds all things in His hands. The psalmist calls us to enter into His presence. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that we can do so boldly because of the blood of Christ (Hebrews 4:16). A heightened sense of God’s presence is the essence of Revival--the treasure every desperate revivalist seeks. Today, ask the Lord to help you enter into His presence.
^{1 Robby Gallaty, Revive Us (Brentwood: Lifeway, 2023) 11.}

February 5 Day 3: Revival and Repentance
Scriptures: Acts 3:17-23
Prayer Prompt: Speak to the Lord about sin in your life and repent where necessary. Call out the names of those you know who need salvation and ask the Lord to save them.

Every good road Trip has at least one good story. Today I want to tall you about Howard Cadle. E. Howard Cadle’s mother was a committed follower of Christ. In the late 1800s, she and others raised the money to bring a revivalist to their hometown. During the revival, her husband came to faith in Christ. Their son, however, had little appetite for religion. He later described himself, “I was always full of energy… I always wanted to ride the wildest horse we had, and when I could not find one wild enough, I would ride a steer.”¹  Even before becoming a teenager, Cadle was entangled with the worldliest of sins. In 1914, He was diagnosed with an incurable disease and given six months to live.²  Soon thereafter, he found himself in a bar fight and pulled his gun ready to shoot a man. His gun misfired. The time on the clock read 8:00 pm. Cadle knew it was a miracle that his gun had failed. His mother said many times, “Always remember, son, that at eight o’clock every night, I’ll be kneeling by your bed asking God to protect my precious boy.”³  Following the bar fight, he returned home, confessed his sin, professed faith in Christ, and reconciled with his wife. Cadle’s story does not end there. He answered the call to ministry and became an evangelist, founded a church, and began a radio ministry.⁴  Some estimate his radio audience to have been around 30 million listeners by the end of the 1930’s.

We sometimes say that God can save anyone who “repent[s] and turn[s] back so that [their] sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” We should take that to heart and know that no one is too far from the Lord. Who are you praying for? Pray that those who need salvation will find it. But also, do you need to find faith in Jesus? There might be someone praying for you right now, and today might be your day of salvation.
^{1 Theo Anderson, “Back Home Again (and Again) in Indiana: E. Howard Cadle, Christian Populism, and the Resilience of American Fundamentalism,” Indiana Magazine of History, 102 (December 1, 2006), 305.
2 Theodore Slutz, "How He Came Back E. Howard Cadle and the Cadle Tabernacle," Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, 17 no. 1 (Winter 2005), 19.
3 John Goetsch and Nathan Birt, Revival Today: 365 Challenging Devotions from Revival History (Lancaster, CA: Striving Together Publishing), 99.
4 Anderson, 233.}

February 6 Day 4: Revival and Repentance II
Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 12:20-21
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to speak to you about any sin in your life that is preventing revival. Focus specifically on “socially acceptable” sins.

Let’s begin today in 2 Cor 12:20-21 (20 For I fear that perhaps when I come I will not find you to be what I want, and you may not find me to be what you want. Perhaps there will be quarreling, jealousy, angry outbursts, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder. 21 I fear that when I come my God will again humiliate me in your presence, and I will grieve for many who sinned before and have not repented of the moral impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality they practiced.) On January 6, 1907, a group of missionaries and Korean believers gathered in Pyongyang. Before the end of the meeting, 1,500 followers of Christ “prayed out loud at the same time.” Presbyterian minister William Blair observed, “The effect was indescribable—not confusion, but a vast harmony of sound and spirit, a mingling together of souls moved by an irresistible impulse of prayer.” Revival had broken out, and it spread throughout the nation. Blair goes on to describe the brokenness over past sin. He wrote, “All through the city, men were going from house to house, confessing to individuals they had injured, returning stolen property and money, not only to Christians but to heathen as well, till the whole city was stirred. A Chinese merchant was astonished to have a Christian walk in and pay him a large sum of money that had been obtained unjustly years before.” Over five years, 80,000 Koreans came to faith in Christ. Today, Korea is second only to the United States in the number of cross-cultural missionaries sent abroad each year. It all began with prayer and repentance of sin.¹
In 2 Corinthians 12:20-21, Paul admonishes the Christ-followers in Corinth to repent. Yes, they should repent of “moral impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality.” They should also repent of the more “socially acceptable” sins of “quarreling, jealousy, angry outburst, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.” For revival to break out in our lives and our churches we must start with prayer and individual repentance.
^{1 Colin Hansen and John Woodbridge, A God-Sized Vision (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 107-109.}

February 7 Day 5: Revival and Blind Spots
Scriptures: Mark 10:17-22
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to reveal any sins that might be blind spots (things you can’t or won’t see about yourself).

Sometimes when we go a road trip we get lost in thought. Today, I want to ruminate on Mark 10:17-22. One day, Jesus was approached by a man we know as the Rich Young Ruler. He begins with what might be assumed to be a flattering statement. That statement led to a conversation about eternal life. In the end, it was revealed that the young man loved his wealth more than he loved the Lord. If we want to consider this scene, we might see a man who was truly interested in spiritual things. He sought out Jesus. He literally ran up to him as Jesus was metaphorically closing the car door to leave on a trip. It appears that he genuinely thought he was doing the right things. It also appears that Jesus believed he was honest about his righteous lifestyle. But in the conversation, Jesus begins to get at the meat of the matter. He gives the man three instructions: Sell all you have, give it to the poor, and follow me. In the man’s response, we might be able to assess some things. First, he does not seem to resist the idea of following Jesus. He doesn’t even balk at helping the poor. The issue, it seems, was a reluctance to sell all he had. Jesus, it appears, has hit on a blind spot.
We all have them: things we can’t see about ourselves that are obvious to others. Things like work ethic, racist attitudes, or haughtiness. Sometimes, though, spiritual blind spots are invisible to us and those around us. But the Lord sees them, and they can prevent personal revival. The only way to deal with a blind spot is to ask the Lord, who sees all, to shine a light on it and help us deal with it. Sometimes, we have blind spots in the church as well. Maybe a person, leader, or church says they are open to all economic or racial groups, but in reality, do we exhibit a welcoming spirit? Additionally, a person, leader, or church may say they support other area churches. But a larger church might harbor feelings of pride. Likewise, a smaller church might feel resentful. We do not like to talk about these things and would never admit they are true or even a problem. That is why we call them blind spots. We should ask the Lord to shine a spotlight on our church’s blind spots and begin to root out our sin. Robby Gallaty remarks, “If you can’t pray for the church down the street in spite of your church, He will never bless your church.” Let us be a praying church that prays for other churches.^{1
1 Robby Gallaty, Revive Us Video Session 2 (Brentwood: Lifeway, 2023).}

February 10 Day 6: Revival and Nobodies Who Pray
Scriptures: I Corinthians 1:27-31
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord for revival. Ask Him to move despite our weaknesses and despite our striving.

In our Sunday night study, we talked about the Welsh Revival of 1904. One of the key figures of that revival was a man named Evan Roberts. Reports from the revival assess the results to be great and quick in coming. Contemporaries of the Roberts went to Wales to investigate the revival and reported that “within five weeks twenty thousand have joined the churches. I think more than that have been converted.”¹  Roberts was a miner turned evangelist. G. Campbell Morgan gives us a vivid description of the man. “Evan Roberts is hardly more than a boy, simple and natural, no orator; with nothing of the masterfulness that characterized such men as Wesley and Whitefield and Dwight Lyman Moody; no leader of men.” Campbell goes on to say, “God has set his hand upon the lad, beautiful in simplicity, ordained in his devotion, lacking all the qualities that we have looked for in preachers and prophets and leaders. He has put in the forefront of this movement that the world may see that he does choose the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are, the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty.”²

Another eyewitness and investigator of the revival, W. T. Stead, observed the meetings and reported on the events. Of Roberts, he writes, “he did at the beginning of his career deliver long addresses, which were simple, direct Gospel appeals.”³  By the time the revival reached its peak, these messages had shortened considerably. The Welsh meetings were filled with singing and testimony of those in attendance. Roberts would interject his “message” here and there in the meetings. Morgan attended several meetings and reported on one which began an hour and half before Roberts even arrived. “I venture to say,” Morgan reported. “That if the address Evan Roberts gave in broken garments had been reported, the whole of it could have been read in six or seven minutes.”⁴  Evan’s himself stated that he did not “control the meetings.” “Why should I teach when the Spirit is teaching,” he told Stead.⁵

One must ask, then, if Evans was not an orator or a leader and he refused to take control of the revival, how did such a thing come to pass? Some credit Roberts with the greatness of the revival and others credit the young girl in Endeavor who proclaimed her love for Jesus.⁶  Morgan argues that to give credit to either is wrong because both were a product of the revival. Nor, he says, should we credit advertising or media coverage for the growth of the revival because the media only began covering the revival after it grew.⁷   Instead, he discovered after interviewing more than fifty people that “a praying remnant have been agonizing before God about the state of the beloved land, and it is thought that answer of fire has come.”⁸  Evans Roberts himself was one of those who prayed even before he began to preach. It was reported by Stead that Roberts had been present at an address given F. B. Myer. During the event, Roberts and others pledged “that they would spend a whole day every month praying for a revival.”

In the end, we must conclude, if we believe in the Lord of whom we speak, that the Welsh revival was not a revival built on the passion of one person or the oratory skills of another. In the end, it was a revival that demonstrated the power of God. The power of God to use the weak and insignificant to accomplish His will. Thus, those of us who are weak are powerful. Those of us to try to plan and organize can relax. We are powerful in prayer, and we can relax knowing He will answer our prayers. Prayer, though, is usually the last place we turn. In his book, Why Revival Tarries, Leonard Ravenhill writes, “Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in man things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have man organizers, but few agonizers; many player and payer, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers; few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.”⁹  Let us remember what Paul said in I Corinthians chapter 1 verse 27 “Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” We can stop planning and start praying as we move down the Road to Revival.
_{1 G. Campbell Morgan, “The Revival: It’s Power and Source,” in The Welsh Revival ed. J. H. Tewksbury (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1905), 84.
 2 Ibid, 81-82.
3 W. T. Stead, “Narrative of Facts,” in The Welsh Revival ed. J. H. Tewksbury (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1905), 56.
4 Morgan, 80.
5 Stead, 57.
6 Morgan, 83.
 7 Ibid.
 8 Ibid, 83.
 9 Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarriers (Ravenhill Books, nd), 7.} 

February 11 Day 7: Revival Resulting from Prayer
Scriptures: Matthew 18:19-20
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to help you pray and ask the Lord for others to join you in prayer for revival.

Like the Welsh of 1904, the national revival that took place in the United States in 1857/58 cannot be tied to one person, one denomination, or even one nation. Nevertheless, one person is always mentioned: Jeremiah Lanphier. That one person, though, is tied to an idea that is much bigger than himself. The connecting aspect of this national revival was prayer. In the midst of the revival, a group from various denominations produced a report titled “Pentecost or the Work of God in Philadelphia.” Hansen and Woodbridge explain, “They noted that before God pours out his Spirit in revival, he grants a spirit of heartfelt petition. ‘God leads his people to pray for that which he designs to give.’”¹  This is not a new idea. Augustine of Hippo wrote something similar in his book The City of God. “Prayers are useful in obtaining these favors which he foresaw he would bestow on those who should pray for them.”²  Where, though, did this prayer revival begin? It began in New York City.
The New York City of 1853 was in turmoil and that turmoil was felt throughout the nation. Riots in July followed by a stock market crash on October 10 and a bank run on October 13 crippled the financial system. The troubles moved westward as banks in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston all failed about the same time. While the woes of the financial system did not cause the revival, they do point us to a former businessman turned missionary. Jeremiah Lanphier worked for 20 years as a businessman. During this time, he began to follow Jesus in 1842 under the ministry of Charles Finney. In July 1857,³  he was hired by the North Dutch Reformed Church on the corner of William and Fulton Street as a local missionary.⁴  Lanphier had little success as a missionary to the local community, but one day he decided to offer a time of prayer for the local businessmen. His first noontime prayer meeting was held on September 23, 1857. He placed a sign outside the church that read: “Prayer Meeting from 12 to 1o’clock—Stop 5, 10, or 20 minutes, or the whole hour, as your time admits.”⁵  On the first day, six men attended. The next week twenty attended. “In a short time the Fulton Street meeting had taken over the whole building with crowds of more than 3,000.”⁶  on October 2, 1858, the “Daily Tribune” of New York City reported, “Soon the striking of the five bells at 12 o’clock will generally be known as the Hour of Prayer.”⁷  Historians report that within six months 10,000 people were praying throughout the city.⁸
Word of the prayer meeting began to spread. Eventually, such meetings were being held across the nation.  Kathryn Long says the events of 1857/58 were “perhaps the closest thing to a truly national revival in American History”⁹  As the awakening spread to Boston the police were shocked at the “goodwill” exhibited by residents and in Philadelphia the notoriously brawl-ready firefighters “opened their halls to evangelists.”¹⁰  The revival moved further west to Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. On April 10, 1858, the Appleton Post-Crescent of Wisconsin reported, “The excitement has spread from city to city, and from village to village, and we hope it may continue to spread from place to place.”¹¹  Every place it touched thousands came to pray and testify about the Lord.  The revival had a sanctifying effect as well. One prayer meeting in New York City with an attendance of over 3,000 was interrupted by a move of the Spirit. While reading Scripture, the preacher was “interrupted by singing from an overflow prayer meeting crowd in an adjoining barroom. He then led the group in thanksgiving that such a thing could happen.”¹²  A prayer meeting started for businessmen by a mediocre missionary became a revival that spread across the country. It is estimated that one million people came to faith in Christ. It was a revival powered by prayer resulting in changed lives. Let us be a people who pray. We pray when a few show up, and we continue to pray IF millions join us.

Over the next three days, we are going to explore the ramifications that come from the Prayer Revival of 1857/58.
_{1 Hansen and Woodbridge, 84.
2  Augustine, City of God, V.10 (New York: Image Books, 1958), 10 in Todd Edmondson, “Praying for a Change” in Christian Reflection, no. 32 (2009): 46.
3  No Author, “The Time for Prayer: The Third Great Awakening,” in Christianity History VII, no. 23 (1989): https://www.christianitytoday.com/1989/07/time-for-prayer-third-great-awakening/, accessed February 8, 2025.
4 Hansen and Woodbridge, 80.
 5 “Revival Born In A Prayer Meeting,” C. S. Lewis Institute, https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/revival-born-in-a-prayer-meeting/, accessed February 7, 2025
 6 Ibid.
 7 Goetsch and Birt, 311.
 8 “The Time for Prayer.”
9 Hansen and Woodbridge, 77.
10 Ibid, 83-84.
11 Ibid, 87.
12 “The Time for Prayer.”}

February 12 Day 8: Revival Resulting in a Movement that Reached Men and College Students
Scriptures: Joel 2:12-14, 28
Prayer Prompt: If you are man, ask the Lord to help you experience God’s presence and experience the power of his Spirit
If you are a woman, ask the Lord to bring revival to the men in your life and church.
Pray for the college students in our church and those on our university campus that the Lord will revive them and set them on the right path.

Revivals can have ramifications that reach far beyond their starting points. Of the Welsh revival in 1904, G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “The revival Is for more widespread than the fire zone. In this sense you may understand that the fire zone is where the meetings are actually held, and where you feel the flame that burns. But even when you come out of it, and go into the railway trains, or into a shop, a bank, anywhere men everywhere are talking of God.”¹  The Prayer Revival of 1857/58 was no different. Its ramifications could be felt on the streets of every city it touched. The effects of the revival were far more far-reaching, however. They touched all groups in society and rippled out through the generations.
In Philadelphia, one of the leaders of the movement was Dudley Tyng. On March 30, 1858, 5,000 people attended his midday sermon on Exodus 10:11 aimed at men. One thousand people dedicated their lives to Christ at this meeting. During his sermon, Tyng proclaimed his determination to share the gospel. He said, “I must tell my Master’s errand, and I would rather that this right arm be amputated at the trunk than that I should come short of my duty to you in delivering God’s message.”² The following week while visiting a farm the fabric of his shirtsleeve was caught in a corn threshing machine. Suffering from a severed artery he lay dying. He exhorted the ministers who stood around him, “Let us all stand up for Jesus.” The officiant at Tyng’s funeral, George Duffield, read a poem he penned for the occasion. The poem became the motto for the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and we sing it today in churches. “Stand up, stand up for Jesus; ye soldiers of the cross/Lift high His royal banner—it must not suffer loss.”³
The YMCA played an important role in the revival. The organization was started in England by George Williams in 1844 and came to the United States in 1851. The YMCA was founded “to meet the social needs of young men in the cities. The movement grew rapidly as it provided lodging, exercise, Bible study, and social activities for such men.”⁴  During the revival, the organization took on a more evangelistic role. It organized and hosted prayer meetings in Philadelphia, like the one mentioned above featuring Tyng, that drew crowds in the hundreds and thousands. The YMCA also began to work with other organizations like the Student Christian Association to promote revival on college campuses. At one such revival at the North Western Female College in Evanston, Illinois, future temperance leader Frances Willard came to faith in Christ. “All told as many as ninety college revivals swept through American campuses between 1857 and 1859. Those schools included Amherst, The University of California, Berkeley; Dartmouth; Davidson; Oberlin; the University of Pennsylvania; the University of Wisconsin; and Wake Forest.”⁵
A revival started by businessmen who prayed on their lunch break expanded to reach men of all stripes. And then an organization created to minister to men began to minister to college students including female students. In Joel 2:13, the prophet tells us, “Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God.” And then the Lord promises in verse 28 “After this I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions.” Let us be a people who pray and men who minister and tell others about Jesus.
<sub>1 G. Campbell Morgan, “The Revival: It’s Power and Source,” in The Welsh Revival ed. J. H. Tewksbury (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1905), 86.
2 Hansen and Woodbridge, 85.
3. Ibid, 86-87. 
3 Earle Cairns, Christianity Through the Centuries, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan: 1981), 424. 
4 Hansen and Woodbridge, 89.</sub>

February 13 Day 9: Revival Resulting in a Movement that Reached Children
Scriptures: Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Mark 10:13-16
Prayer Prompt: If you have them, pray for your children.
Pray for the children in your church’s ministry and for the leaders who lead them.
Pray that your church’s children’s ministry will grow and reach more kids with the gospel.

Today, we continue to explore the ramifications of the revival of 1857/58. It did not just touch college students and invigorate organizations like the “Y.” It also affected inner cities and children. If New York was in financial ruin leading up to the revival, Chicago was in moral ruin. The city of 109,000 residents had only 70 churches. In contrast, it had hundreds of brothels.¹  A twenty-one-year-old D.L. Moody was sent to the city by the YMCA to “bring a general Christian influence to the burgeoning metropolis on Lake Michigan.”²  One of Moody’s efforts was founding Sunday schools for children. We do not know when the very first “Sunday school” was started, but Robert Raikes is considered the father of Sunday school. In 1780, he began a school that met on Sundays for poor children working in Gloucester, England. The “British model of Sunday School, using the Bible as its primer grew rapidly as a means of providing a basic education for children unable to attend regular schools.”³  This model continued in the United States until the formation of the American Sunday School Union “helped shift the attention of Sunday School to specifically religious concerns: conversion of the lost and spiritual strengthening of Christians.” When Moody began to open Sunday School in Chicago during the revival of 1857/58 he did so with conversion in mind. Moody himself was a product of Sunday school. It was his Sunday School teacher Edward Kimball who visited young Moody and led him to faith in Christ. Moody would go on to do many great things for the Kingdom but his love of Sunday School never abated. Later in the century, he would recruit B. F. Jacobs to standard lessons and training for Sunday School leaders. Men like Moody and others caused the growth of Sunday School in the 1800s and reached many boys and girls as well as adults for Christ. It is estimated that over 70,000 Sunday Schools were established in the United States during the 1800’s.
Later in Life, as an evangelist, Moody liked to tell stories to grab the attention of his audience. One story reveals Moody’s concern for the souls of children. Mark Noll summarizes the story “of a father who took a young child into a field on a Sunday afternoon. While the younger was gamboling about, the father fell asleep. When he awoke, he searched with rising panic for the child had tumbled over ‘a precipice’ to its death. Moody’s moral was characteristic: ‘I thought as I read that, what a picture of the church of God! How many fathers and mothers, how many Christian men and women, are sleeping now while their children wander over the terrible precipice right into the bottomless pit! Father, mother, where is your boy tonight?”⁵  Can we answer Moody’s question related to the souls of children? Let us be a people who listen to the words of Deuteronomy and teach our children every opportunity we get. Let us also be a people who take children to the Lord and introduce them to His saving grace.
_{1 Hansen and Woodbridge, 89.
2 Mark Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), 288.
3 Ken Hemphill and Bill Taylor, Ten Best Practices (Nashville: LifeWay, 2001), 5.
4 Noll, 290.}

February 14 Day 10: Revival Resulting in a Movement that Reached Women and the World
Scriptures: Matthew 28:5-20
Prayer Prompt: If you are a woman, ask the Lord to help you experience God’s presence and experience the power of his Spirit
If you are a man, ask the Lord to bring revival to the women in your life and church.
Pray that God will call out believers to enter the ministry as a pastor, staff person, or missionary.

Today we conclude our look at the ramifications of the revival of 1857/58. The awakening did not just influence the spiritual lives of men, college students, and children it also touched the lives of women. In 1855, John Broadus became the chaplain for the University of Virginia and its sister institution the Albemarle Female Institute. In 1857, one of the earliest partnerships between the YMCA and a university led to a revival on the campus of both schools. The women at Albemarle prayed for one specific student to join the evangelistic meetings. This woman was later described by Broadus as “the most educated (or cultured) woman in the South.”¹  This young woman was Lottie Moon. Lottie was not interested in Christianity and attended the meetings intending to scoff. However, after a sleepless night, she gave her life fully to Jesus.²  In 1873, Lottie Moon was commissioned by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and served in China until her death in 1912. While Lottie is the most famous Southern Baptist missionary, her legacy comes not from her efforts on the mission but from the letters she wrote home encouraging others to support mission causes.
In 1887, she wrote home to challenge Southern Baptist women to generously support the missionary cause. After recounting the efforts of women from other denominations, she wrote, “In like manner, until women of our Southern Baptist churches are thoroughly aroused, we shall continue to go on in our present hand-to-mouth system.” She went on to suggest “a plan that would give unity and purpose to the organization: a week of prayer and an offering at Christmas.”³   These efforts expanded with the formation of the Women’s Missionary Union in 1888. That same year Henry Tupper, Executive Leader of the Foreign Mission Board (FMB), received a letter from Lottie Moon asking him to appoint more women for the work in China. He then requested support from the WMU’s first Corresponding Secretary, Annie Armstrong. Armstrong led the WMU to set a goal of $2,000 for the Christmas offering. This amount would fund the commissioning of 2 additional missionaries. Annie Armstrong then oversaw the publication of promotional materials and offering envelopes.⁴ The FMB supported the efforts with a grant of $100 of which only $72.82 was spent.⁵  The WMU raised $3,315.26, “enough to send 3 missionaries Miss F. S. Knight of North Carolina, Miss L. G. Barton of Texas, and Miss N. J. Thornton of Alabama” to join Lottie in China.⁶  In 1918, Annie Armstrong suggested renaming the Christmas offering in honor of Lottie Moon.⁷  Today the Lottie Moon Christmas offering raises millions of dollars each year to support the work of Southern Baptist Missionaries around the globe.
Let us pray that our churches be filled with women who seek the Savior like those in Matthew 28. Let us pray that the women in our community seek and find the risen savior like Lottie Moon. Let us also pray that God sends us out to do the work of missions by praying, giving, and going.
_{1 Hansen and Woodbridge, 92.
2 Ibid.
3 Alma Hunt, History of the Women’s Missionary Union (Nashville: Convention Press, 1964), 24.
4 Ibid, 44-45.
5 H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage (Nashville: Broadman, 1987), 418.
6 Hunt, 45.
7 McBeth, 419.}

February 17 Day 11: Revival at Yale
Scripture: Matthew 24:32-35
Prayer Prompt: Pray that you will know the power of God’s Word. Pray that those around you will seek guidance and illumination from God’s Word rather than the world.

Last week, we discussed the Businessmen’s Revival or the Prayer Revival of 1857/58. There were various ripple effects from that revival. One of those ripple effects was a revival that broke out on the campus of Yale University in April of 1858. This was not the first time revival had come to the Yale campus. The first half of the 19th century saw several waves of revivals come to the college. These revivals began during the tenure of the college president Timothy Dwight.

Timothy Dwight, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, came to Yale as president in 1795. The university was just shy of 100 years old, having started in 1701. By the time Dwight arrived to lead the school, the moral decline among students was abundant. In the years following the American Revolution, an intellectual and philosophical cloud had settled on American higher education. The war had led to a heightened understanding of the ideals of the French Revolution. The upheaval in France had led to, among other things, a critique of religion. Not only was the monarchy toppled, but the church was displaced as well. The philosophies that fueled the changing French mind had infiltrated the Yale campus. Lyman Beecher, a junior when Dwight, arrived remembers the atmosphere on campus. He wrote in his autobiography, “[I] never had any propensity to infidelity. But most of the class before me were infidels and called each other Voltaire, Rousseau, D’Alembert, etc. etc.”[1] As a result, the witness for Christ on campus was very weak. In 1795, enrollment at the college was 125 students and only 12 or 13 would claim the Christian faith.

The paltry number of believers on campus and the influence of anti-Christian philosophies were no match for the power of the Holy Spirit, however. In reality, such things were on a symptom of the true problem: a denial that Scripture was reliable and authoritative. Faculty at the school were required to affirm biblical authority and it was assumed among students. However, Dwight knew many of the students did not trust God’s Word. Throughout his tenure as president and regardless of any student’s commitment to Christ, Dwight showed genuine interest and care for his students. That care became clear during his first weeks on campus and was demonstrated through a direct confrontation with the doubt and unbelief held by the students. It was common practice for the president of the university to debate seniors in a “weekly public disputation.” Dwight allowed the students to submit debate questions for his first foray into the practice. They submitted, and he chose, the question: “Are the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament the word of God?” This selection shocked the students because they assumed the topic scared the academics under whom they studied because, assuredly, no one could defend such a ridiculous statement. During the disputation, the students presented their rebuke of God’s word. Dwight, though, was prepared, having previously prepared and preached a sermon titled “The Genuineness and Authenticity of the New Testament.” He “meticulously, ruthlessly demolished their case and constructed a well-reasoned defense of the Bible’s accuracy.”[2] This was the first crack in the anti-religious façade of the campus. Dwight’s son later asserted, “From that moment, infidelity was not only without stronghold but without a lurking place.”[3] Just as the discovery of God’s Word had led Josiah to destroy the strongholds of paganism in ancient Israel, God’s Word did the same thing at Yale.

Just two years later the groundwork that Dwight began to lay his first weeks on campus started to produce fruit. In 1797, twenty-five young men founded a group called the Moral Society of Yale College. They began to meet and hold each other accountable. The year before, in 1796, there were only 10 professing Christians on campus and 8 had graduated that year. “By 1800 [the Moral Society] included ‘between one-third and one-half of all the students in its membership.’”[4] The work of God was beginning on the campus. In typical 18th-century language Dwight defines revival: “A Revival of Religion, therefore, means nothing more than that the multitudes in a kind of concert, and within a little time, feel and confess [the power of piety.]”[5] That is what began to happen. Whereas in 1895 only one-tenth of the student body professed Christ, the revival wave of 1802 brought the number to one-third. Hermon Humphrey, a freshman at the time, recorded his feelings in his seminal work on revival published in 1859. He wrote, “The whole college was shaken. It seemed for a time as if the whole mass of students would press into the kingdom. It was the Lord’s doing and marvelous in all eyes. Oh, what a blessed change!”[6] Revival would continue to break upon the university through the 1850’s. It all began with a defense that “16 All Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Ti 3:16–17)

For revival to come into a person’s life, the life of a congregation, or a school an acceptance of and reliance upon the Word of God must come first.

But there was something else at work, particularly in the Yale revival of 1802. A group of students had heard about a revival of a different sort among a different sort of people meeting in an obscure region out west in Kentucky. We will look at that tomorrow.

^{1] Lyman Beecher, The Autobiography of Lyman Beecher Vol 1 (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1961), 23.
[2] Colin Hansen and John Woodbridge, A God-Sized Vision (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 65.
[3] Timothy Dwight, Theology Explained and Defended in a Series of Sermons Vol 1 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1846), 23.
[4] “Revival Transforms the Frontier,” Knowing and Doing, C.S. Lewis Institute, 2, accessed February 11, 2025, at https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/revival-transforms-the-frontier/.
[5] Colin Hansen and John Woodbridge, A God-Sized Vision (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 67.
[6] Heman Humphrey, Revival Sketches and Manual (New York: American Tract Society, 1859), 198.}

February 18 Day 12: Revival in the Woods
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-17
Prayer Prompt: Pray that you will be present physically and spiritually when the Word is preached. Pray that those who hear the Word will respond when the Lord speaks.

Even before the days of the First Great Awakening during the first half of the 1700s, there had been a debate about emotionalism present in the meetings. Some felt it was unacceptable. Others, like Jonathan Edwards, tolerated it but did not endorse it in his writings. The complete opposite of the stoic Presbyterian service of the early 1700s was manifested at the Cane Ridge Revival in 1801. Cane Ridge Church, in Bourbon County Kentucky, hosted what would become known as a “camp meeting.” These meetings were an evolution of what early Presbyterians in New England called Communion Seasons where people would gather for a few days to prepare and take communion.[1] These types of events had often led to revivals or spiritual awakenings. The events at Cane Ridge would far outstrip such previous events. One historian says, “What took place… is a veritable vector in American history, social and demographic as well as religious.”[2] Yet another writer states, “Cane Ridge was the scene of what many people regard as the most spectacular of the revival meetings of the 1800 revival.”[3] So what happened at Cane Ridge?

To understand what happened at the revival we must first understand a little bit about the historical and cultural context. At that time, the newly minted state of Kentucky was the wild west. A Methodist preacher of the time described the inhabitants “as terrible people: murderers, gamblers, horse thieves, drunkards, whoremongers, fornicators, cheats, highway robbers, and counterfeiters.”[4] The area around Cane Ridge was known as “Rouge’s Harbor” because of the number of fugitives from the law who hid out in the area.[5] The lax moral character of the inhabitants of the land, though, could not stand against the power of God. In 1801, after having visited and participated in several Communion Seasons in the region, the pastor at Cane Ridge Church, Barton Stone, began to organize a meeting for his church. While he prepared for large crowds as he had witnessed at other such events, the turnout was more than anyone expected. Eyewitness accounts range between 10,000 to 30,000 participants in the Cane Ridge revival. Present at the event were “Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and deists. Descendants of Scotch-Irish, English, and African immigrations. People high and low on the social scale. Slaves and free people. Women and men.”[6] The meeting was of course held mainly outdoors. The participants slept in various homes and barns. Many camped in the area. The event began on Friday, August 6th and “continued, slowly dribbling to a stop on Thursday.”[7] The event was truly a mix of theologies and denominations. “[Eighteen] to 20 ministers (mostly Presbyterian, a few fiery Methodists, and one African American Baptist) preached for six days and nights to a multitude of people camped along ten acres.”[8] Their preaching was met with repentance, salvation, and prayer. James B. Finny reported on the events and said, “The nearest approximation to it…was the revival on the day of Pentecost.”[9] There were also manifestations that some might refer to as emotionalism and others might refer to as movements of the Spirit. We should not concern ourselves too deeply about those who demonstrated sensational as some have “even though they were restricted to a relative few.”[10]

Instead of focusing on the curious occurrences at the revival, we should note the results of the revival. First, a dark place was illuminated by the Light when between 1,000 and 3,000 people came to faith in Jesus.[11]Moreover, historians report a “rapid establishment of churches that followed the camp meetings.[12] Second, we can acknowledge the distantly American or democratic nature of the changing face of Christianity in America. The leaders of the revival espoused, “Human beings possess the capacity to decide to receive Christ's salvation. How else would a God of love create men and women? So, under the impact of powerful preaching, people would believe through vital experience—and believing would make it so.” The historian Samuel Hill continues, “In plain talk: it's up to each person to take advantage of the ways and means God affords us. We can and we must.”[13]

Second Timothy chapter 3 tells us that there will be evil in the world, and we should avoid it. It goes on to admonish us to stand firm on the Truth of Scripture. It is able “to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:15) The style and elements present at Cane Ridge and the camp meeting phenomena that developed out of it affect us today. Churches that practice “revival meetings” today owe this practice to events like Cane Ridge. Meeting together over a period of time, communing together under the teaching of the Word, and making a personal decision to follow the Lord mark many modern revival meetings. However, one thing is certain, to experience the effects of the meeting one must be present; one must hear the Word; and one must respond to the Word. Let us commit to being present at our revival meetings to come.

^{[1] Mark Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), 69.
[2] Samuel Hill, “Cane Ridge Had a Context: Let’s See What They Are,” in Cane Ridge in Context, ed. Anthony L. Dunnavant (Nashville: Disciples of Christ Historical Society, 1992), 117-118.
[3] “Revival Transforms the Frontier,” 4.
[4] Amy Lifson, “Like at Cane Ridge,” Humanities 46, no. 4 (2024), https://www.neh.gov/article/cane-ridge.
[5] “Revival Transforms the Frontier,” 3.
[6] Hill, 118.
[7] Mark Galli, “Revival at Cane Ridge” Christian History 45, (1994) https://www.christianitytoday.com/1995/01/revival-at-cane-ridge.
[8] Like at Cane Ridge.
[9] Revival at Cane Ridge.
[10] Like at Cane Ridge.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Noll, 167.
[13] Hill, 125.}

February 19 Day 13: Revival in Manchuria
Scripture: Nehemiah 8:1-12
Prayer Prompt: Pray that you will be present physically and spiritually when the Word is preached. Pray that those who hear the Word will respond when the Lord speaks.

Yesterday, we discussed the events that took place at Cane Ridge in 1801. The revival in the Kentucky hinterland was part of the initial events of what some call the Second Great Awakening that took place chiefly between 1824 and 1840.[1] Mark Noll argues that the second half of the 1700s experienced a decline in American religiosity.[2] Others like Thomas Kidd view this era as a “reorganization.”[3] Regardless of how you define this period, we can still see what Noll calls a “rekindling of interest in Christianity” at the turn of the 19th century.[4] The Second Great Awakening was more widespread than the first, taking place in the urbanizing city centers of the new country as well as the rural hinterlands. Moreover, the revivals of the 1800s were not as controlled or maintained by the established clergy or the organized churches. One key figure in the revivals of the 1800s was a man named Charles Finney.

After coming to faith in Christ in 1821, Finney immediately began preaching. Having no theological training did not hold him back from advancing the gospel to all strata of society. “From 1825 to 1830 he stormed from obscurity into national prominence as the most talked-about and sought-after preacher since Whitefield.”[5] His style was nothing like the formal exhortations heard in established churches. Instead, “he told ministers to throw out their notes, look their audience square in the face, and preach in a way that was colloquial, repetitious, conversational, and lively—‘language of common life.’”[6] Not only did Finney make a point of preaching in a specific style, but he also developed methods that encouraged conversion. Finney’s innovations would change the face of American Christianity.

Two of his “new measures” were the “anxious bench” or the “anxious seat” and the protracted meeting. The anxious seat, a technique borrowed from the Methodists of his day, was a special area near the front of the meeting. During the evangelistic meetings or revival services, he invited those who were concerned for their soul to come and pray. Modern churches still practice an adapted form of this “new measure.” From this practice, we have developed the alter call, during which those seeking counsel or While these tactics might seem manipulative to some, Finney presents a reasonable logic behind his methods. In his book Lectures on Revival of Religion, he posits, “Suppose a man were to go and preach… among farmers, about their sowing grain. Let him tell them that God is a sovereign, and will give them a crop only when it pleases him, and that for them to plow and plant and labor as if they expected to raise a crop is very wrong, and taking the work out of the hands of God, that it interferes with his sovereignty, and is going on in their own strength: and that there is no connection between the means and the result on which they can depend. And now, suppose the farmers should believe such doctrine. Why, they would starve the world to death.” He goes on to assert, that to say “that there is no natural connection between the means and the end…[results in] generation after generation has gone down to hell.”[11] To put it plainly, if we expect God to act while we do nothing to promote the work of salvation we should really not expect God to act. We plant and water and He brings the increase. While the practical outcomes of Finney’s practices can be seen in the Evangelical church today, the philosophical and theological ramifications were felt acutely in the revival experienced in China in the early 20th century.

Finney’s evangelistic philosophy revolutionized the ministry of a missionary in Manchuria, China in the early 1900s. In 1905, Jonathan Goforth received a copy of Finney’s work. Goforth says, “it was finally something that set me afire.”[12] Goforth, a Canadian, had come to the mission field in 1887. Missionary efforts in the world’s most populous nation were struggling to win converts. In 1889, there were just 37,000 church members in the country. The outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 further thwarted their efforts as many missionaries had to leave the country. Goforth himself was attacked and nearly killed. He and his family spent a year in Canada recovering. When they returned, it seemed that something had changed in China. While the work was still difficult there was forward motion in the effort to win the Chinese for Jesus. Goforth set out to participate in the work of God in Manchuria. He recounts his efforts and God’s work in his book, By My Spirit. The revival was marked by healed relationships between the victims and perpetrators of the Boxer Rebellion. The Christians saw deliverance from sin and demonic possession. Healing was not uncommon. Most importantly according to Goforth’s contemporary, Baptist missionary C. L. Culpepper, was not the healing or outward manifestations of faith. He writes, “healing was not stressed. The emphasis was on repentance and confession of sin. The proof of the reality of the revival was seen in transformed lives, as persons were being saved continually through the spontaneous testimony of those who received salvation from Christ's atoning death on the cross.”[13]

A shining example of Culpepper’s assertion is the revival that took place in Shinminfu. During the Boxer Rebellion, 54 Chinese Christians were martyred there. The surviving Christians had prepared a list of 250 perpetrators on whom they planned to seek vengeance. On the fourth day of the meetings led by Goforth one of the leaders of the local church approached the platform to pray. During a confessional conversation with Goforth that was heard by those in the room, the man confessed that he could never forgive the man who murdered his father. Goforth reminded the man of the truths concerning the importance of forgiveness in Matthew chapter 6. After their conversation in which it was clear this man would not follow the prompting of the Spirit to forgive the perpetrators, a young boy stood and announced his intention to forgive the men who killed his father. With this pronouncement, a total of 9 boys stood and vowed likewise. The man left with no intention of following their example. The next day he returned and called the boys forward and addressed them.
“When I went home after the service I thought of how the devil would be sure to take advantage of my example and put you boys to ridicule. People would say that you were too young to know your own minds. Then they would point to me as an intelligent man who surely ought to know his own mind, and say ' he doesn't believe in that foolish talk about forgiving one's enemies.' So, lest the devil should mislead you, I have bought these nine hymn books and I am going to present one to each of you, in the hope that every time you open it to praise God from its pages you will recall how that I, an evangelist, received from Him grace to forgive the murderer of my father." Just then the list containing the names of those upon whom the Christians had planned to take revenge was brought up to the front and torn into bits and the fragments trampled under foot.”[14]

In the concluding chapter of his book, Goforth presents three essentials to revival: prayer, Bible study, and the Lordship of Christ. Of scripture and revival, he wrote, “We wish to affirm, too, that we can entertain no hope of a mighty, globe-encircling Holy Spirit revival without there being first a back-to-the-Bible movement.”[15] While he might have been enflamed by the words and efforts of Finney, the Word of God was paramount in his missionary efforts. The same should be said for us today. While we might hold prolonged meetings and invite people to walk an aisle, while we might put up a sign inviting others to join us, while we might have a “light dinner” to encourage people to attend, if we do not pray, rely on the Bible, and proclaim Jesus as Lord, revival will not and cannot come. Goforth says, “We wish to state most emphatically as our conviction that God's revival may be had when we will and where we will.”[16] If we wish to see God move, we must be ready to move with Him.
^{[1] Caleb Mathis, “5 Revival Movements to Get us Ready for the Next One” assessed February 11, https://www.crossroads.net/media/articles/revival-movements.
[2] Noll, 166.
[3] Thomas Kidd, The Great Awakening (New Haven: Yale Press, 2007), 320.
[4] Noll, 166.
[5] Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity, (New Haven: Yale, 1989), 196.
[6] Ibid, 197.
[7] Noll, 176.
[8] Hatch, 196.
[9] Noll, 176.
[10] Hatch, 159.
[11] Charles Finney, Lectures on Revival (New York: Fleming, 1968) 11.
[12] Jonathan Goforth, By My Spirit (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, n.d.), 24.
[13] C.L. Culpepper, The Shantung Revival, accessed https://www.gospeltruth.net/shantung.htm.
[14] Goforth, 56-59.
[15] Goforth, 185.
[16] Ibid, 180.}

February 20 Day 14: Revival in the Spirit by the Word
Scripture: Romans 15:1-13
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to fill you with the presence of His Spirit. Ask the Lord to fill you with the knowledge of His word. Ask the Spirit to empower you to share His Word.

While Goforth and Finney understood the role of the preacher, the revival itself, and the individual, the Word of God was their paramount tool for power and the gospel message. While Goforth was preaching in China, many others were trying to bring Christ to the world’s most populous nation. Marie Monsen was a Norwegian missionary who arrived in southern China in 1901. Most of her ministry took place in this region but she was instrumental in the revival that took place in the north. Monsen was known for asking anyone she met “Have you been born again.” She would ask not only those in evangelistic meetings but also missionaries and pastors alike. This offended some, but for Monsen it was a simple question that anyone should be able to answer. The Chinese church in the early 1900s struggled with the plague of nominal Christianity. Reporting to a group of ministers one church leader reported that he “felt more than 1,000 church members had been converted to Christianity, not to Christ.” Monsen had reached a similar conclusion.  “She became convinced that most church members had never experienced the second birth.”[1] Therefore, it was right and proper to ask anyone she met “Have you been born again.”

Monsen responded to the situation in northern China by pursuing the power of the Spirit in her ministry. She also encouraged others to pursue the promise of Galatians 3:14, “The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.” C. L. Culpepper, a Southern Baptist missionary, knew that his report of Monsen’s focus on the Spirit and the subsequent work of the Spirit would concern some of his Baptist brothers. In his book on the Shantung revival he writes, “Many things in this book will be hard for some to understand.” He goes on the define how he, and presumably Monsen, defined the filling of the Spirit. “The terminology is not used in a technical or theological way… [instead] these expressions…designate the experience of total surrender to the Spirit, resulting in a dramatic experience of Christian joy.” However, lest anyone think that these missionaries were become too “charismatic” in their ministry Culpepper reminds his readers Mary Crawford’s appraisal of Monsen, “Miss Monsen herself is one of the quietest speakers I ever heard. There was very poor singing, no invitation for public decisions, only the quiet question, 'Have you been born again?” [2] For Monsen, the work of the Spirit was done in partnership with the Word. Another saying often uttered by Monsen was “The Spirit uses the Word.”[3] This work of the Spirit coupled with the power of the Word was evident during a horrifying event at sea.

During a 1929 voyage to north China, her ship was hijacked by pirates. Upon hearing the gunfire on deck, she began praying a personalized version of Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, Marie, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, Marie, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, Marie, with the right hand of my righteousness. Fear not, Marie.'"[4] The following weeks were truly “a trial of [her] faith.” Once a man entered her room threatening to shoot her. She responded, "Oh no, you cannot shoot me. You cannot shoot me whenever you like. My God says that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. You cannot use your pistol whenever you like and shoot me. You must have special permission from the Living God to do that.” Another time a man who was like the “devil himself” entered her room. She asked the Lord for protection and then proceeded to share the gospel with the man for an hour. He left her room with tears in his eyes. Throughout the ordeal, Monsen never ate in the dining hall. The Lord had provisioned her before the trip by guiding her to purchase a crate of apples “for no apparent reason” and conserving some chocolate that was sent from abroad. While not eating in the dining hall, she did visit it during mealtimes, she did visit it during mealtimes. She would pass out gospel tracts to the pirates. One would read aloud while the others listened, often with tears in their eyes. At the conclusion of the ordeal, some pirates wanted to take her along as a hostage. The leader refused having decided she had been on a hunger strike for 23 days. When they were finally freed, the other passengers gathered around Monsen asking for gospel tracts. They said, "We have seen that your God is the true God, and we want to believe in Him too."[5]
This is just one example of Monsen’s pairing of the Spirit and the Word. Her bold proclamation of the Word was a manifestation of the Spirit’s power in her life. After the voyage, she continued her ministry in northern China and saw a great revival. Mary Crawford, a Southern Baptist missionary, wrote about the movement of the Spirit: “Numbers of Christians and churches are being revived; restitution of money is being made, tithes of the Lord held back are being brought forward; sins confessed to God and to those who have been wronged; sick are being healed; devils cast out; men and women, boys and girls are preaching with a power hitherto not known; hundred are crying for mercy and are being saved.”[6] When the Word is proclaimed and the Spirit moves, lives are changed. I am not sure what would surprise Mary Crawford’s Baptist readers more: that “men and women, boys and girls are preaching with a power” or that “tithes of the Lord held back are being brought forward.” The movement of the Spirit is dramatic but here we see that the dramatic movement is simple confession and right living.

As we commit to following God’s Word and open ourselves up to the Spirit, we will be ready to experience the power of revival. At that time the reality of Paul’s prayer in Romans 15 will be a reality. “13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (15:13)
^{[1] C.L. Culpepper, The Shantung Revival, accessed https://www.gospeltruth.net/shantung.htm.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Hansen and Woodbridge, 148.
[4] Ibid, 149 and “Marie Monson,” Asia Harvest accessed on February 12, 2025 https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/shandong/marie-monsenIbid, 149 and Asia Harvest.
[5] Asia Harvest.
[6] Hansen and Woodbridge, 149-150.}

February 21 Day 15: Spiritual Awakening and Spiritual Anger
Scripture: Isaiah 55
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to open doors for you to share the gospel or invite someone to revival. Ask the Lord to turn any spiritual anger into spiritual awakening.

Yesterday we read about Marie Monson and her question “Have you been born again.” This question agitated many professing Christians, but Monsen used it to delve into the souls of those who would listen to the Spirit. The gospel has always elicited strong feelings and feedback. Today we are going to look at two occasions where the gospel and a Christian witness produced an angry response. The first took place in northern China and the second in Los Angeles, California.

C. L. Culpepper was a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was appointed as a missionary by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. He and his wife served in northern China in the years leading up to the Communist takeover of the country. He tells the story of a revival that broke out in a Christian boy’s school. After returning from a break for the Chinese New Year, many students began to feel the conviction of the Spirit. Culpepper was called to lead a series of meetings for the boy’s and girl’s schools (these boys and girls would today probably be classified as teenagers). Upon closing the services one evening, he was called from the platform because a boy was asking for him from beneath a bench. Culpepper recounts the events in his book, The Shantung Revival:

“I got down beside him and heard him say, "Mr. Culpepper, you don't know me. I'm a Communist. We have a secret Communist cell here in the school. I've threatened to kill you and all the missionaries, and I've sworn to wipe out Christianity and burn your churches. When I heard about this revival, I thought the missionaries were just hypnotizing the students and that the concept of God was foolishness. I decided to come tonight to expose you. But when I heard you preach and ask those students to go forward and accept Christ, and when I saw them go forward and get down on their knees to pray, I said in my heart there is no God, that you were just hypnotizing them, but that you couldn't hypnotize me. I started to stand up and challenge you, but something struck me and knocked me under this bench. I know it was God. I know that you Christians are right, but I can't believe. I have gone too far. I can't believe!"
We dismissed the students, but several of the teachers stayed and prayed for the boy and pleaded with him to give his heart to God. He kept insisting he had gone too far. The next morning he left school, and one week later we heard he was dead.
The next night Pastor Wang preached and a large number of students were converted. When we stood for the benediction, I felt something brush my back. I looked around. A boy lay on the seat where I had been sitting. I knelt beside him and asked what was the matter. He gritted his teeth and flexed his fists. He said, "Take me home! I am going to die."
I answered, "No! Let's pray."
By that time the crowd had been dismissed, and the teachers gathered around the boy for prayer. He kept saying, "Take me home! I'm going to die."
But we kept praying. After several minutes he suddenly screamed out, "Oh God! If you won't crush me to death, I will confess my sins."
He began to confess. It was the most touching confession I have ever heard. He
said, "God, You know that when school let out for the winter holidays, we were all at the bus station waiting for the bus; and I saw some Christian students buying bread. I didn't have any money to buy anything, so I thought to myself that I would like to kill all the Christians, take their money and give it to the poor. I also said I would like to kill all the missionaries and burn the churches and just wipe out Christianity."
Then he screamed even louder, "Oh God! You know I have said that when I have destroyed all the Christians, I would like to climb up to heaven and kill You!"
The confession stunned me. The Communists said they did not believe in God, yet they confessed they hated Him and wanted to destroy Him. After that experience I could better understand the mob that took Jesus, crying, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" The Communist students in our school had been so poisoned by hatred and unbelief they were nearly insane.[1]

Culpepper and the other leaders soon learned that the Communist cell at the school consisted of 8-10 young men, including the two mentioned above. Half of them were converted during the revival the others left the school. In these events, we can see that the work of God will be opposed by those whose cultural worldview stands opposed to the gospel. Like Culpepper, we should love them and pray for them. The Word of God is no match for the philosophies of this world.
Another example of the Word producing anger is not as outwardly dramatic, but it might resonate more with a Western culture.
In the weeks leading up to Billy Graham’s L.A. crusade in 1949, he was invited by Henrietta Mears, the director of religious education at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, to meet with a group of actors. At this meeting, he met a man named Stuart Hamblen. Hamblen was a radio talk show host heard up and down the West Coast. He half-jokingly said he would have Billy on the broadcast and that “he could fill the tent if he gave the endorsement.”[2] Nothing else was said of the invitation and the crusade began. During the early days attendance ranged from 3,000 to 4,000 nightly. However, Billy Graham realized that he was preaching to mostly Christians. Ruth Graham wrote home to her parents and remarked, “It isn’t easy getting unconverted to a tent.”[3] That is when Hamblen called to invite Graham on his broadcast. Initially, the conservative evangelist hesitated because some of those supporting the crusade might not approve of the program and its sponsors. Nevertheless, in an attempt to reach the lost, Graham decided to accept the invitation. On the show, he was surprised to hear Hamblen say “go on down to Billy Graham’s tent and hear the preaching.” He surprised Graham more when we said, “I’ll be there too!”[4]

Hamblen did come to the crusade. Graham tells the story:
“The first night Stuart attended, we would find out later, he became deeply convicted of his own sins and the need for Christ to save him. Not understanding what was going on in his soul, he became angry and stalked out. For two or three nights he stayed away. Then he came back. Each time he showed up, he had the same reaction, getting so mad once that he actually shook his fist at me as he walked out of the tent.”[5]

Hamblen’s anger might have been directed at the preacher, but ultimately he was expressing anger to the Lord for the conviction of sin. The crusade continued and the Lord moved among people. As the date for concluding the crusade neared, the leadership began to wonder if they should extend the crusade because the Lord was obviously moving. The young ministers did not know what to do. They decided to follow the lead of Gideon and put out a fleece and ask God for a sign.

“It came at four-thirty the next morning. I was awakened by in my room at the Langham Hotel by the jangling of the telephone. In a voice broken by tears, a man begged to see me right away. It was Stuart Hamblen…By the time I was up and dressed, Stuart and his praying, godly wife, Suzy, were at my door. We talked together and prayed, and the rugged cowboy gave his life to Christ in a childlike act of faith. He came forward in the next service. The first thing he did after he received Christ was to call his father, who was an old-fashioned Methodist preacher in west Texas. I could her his father shout with joy over the phone.”[6]
They decided this was a sign to continue the revival.

When we participate in Christian ministry and service and when we share the Word of God, there will be opposition. Sometimes we face opposition like Culpepper who was confronted with a godless worldview and the threat of death. Sometimes we face opposition like Graham from friends who simply do not want to face their sin. Regardless of the situation sometimes spiritual awakening is preceded by spiritual anger. Let us remember the words of the prophet Isaiah, “So my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.” (Is 55:11)
^{[1] C.L. Culpepper, The Shantung Revival, accessed https://www.gospeltruth.net/shantung.htp
[2] Graham, 170.
[3] Ibid, 171.
[4] Ibid, 172.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid, 173.}

February 24 Day 16: Revival Every Morning and Evening
Scripture: Psalm 150
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to make you a person who praises Him daily in word and deed. Ask Him to help you praise Him as the church gathers corporately.
This week in our Road to Revival we will take a break from the scenery and the historical sites along the way, turn on the radio, and see what we can learn about personal and corporate revival from the music of church history.

Thomas Ken was born in Berkhampsted, England in 1637. He was orphaned during his childhood and raised by his elder sister Ann and her husband. Ken served as Bishop in the Anglican church during his adulthood. As part of this ministry, he served as chaplain to Princess Mary in the Hague and later to King Charles II and then King James II. While serving faithfully in these roles, he nevertheless ran into trouble with the court for his “faithful remonstrance against… of immorality at the Court” and his refusal to deny this theological conviction.[1]  However, Thomas Ken is not known today for his ecclesiastical success or his service to the crown. Instead, he is known for composing 25 words. By way of comparison, the first two sentences of this paragraph are 25 words long. Those 25 words will not change anyone’s life and be remembered in history. How then is it possible that Ken’s 25 words have immortalized him in Christian history?
While a fellow at Winchester College, he prepared A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College. In a later edition of the Manual, he added three hymns to the appendix of the book. Two of those he sang daily: The Morning and Evening Hymns. The Morning hymn begins, “Awake My Soul and with the sun.” The Evening Hymn begins, “Glory to thee my God this night.” These are two worthy ways of beginning and ending the day. It is said that Thomas Ken sang these songs every day until his death in 1711. After he passed and was buried in the churchyard of the parish church of Fromm, Edwin Long reports that the children of the village would gather at his grave and sing the songs.[2]  But again no one remembers Ken for these two hymns. Instead, he is remembered for the doxology that accompanies both hymns.
Praise God, from all blessings flow
Praise Him, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye, heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
These words would have concluded the morning hymn that started the day and the evening hymn that ended the day. Regardless of what faces us in the day ahead or what we dealt with throughout the day, we can praise God.

Thomas Ken’s “Doxology” is still sung today He remarked in his life, "And should the well-meant song I leave behind, With Jesus' lovers some acceptance find, Twill heighten even the joys of heaven to know that, in my verse, saints sing God's praise below."[3]  There is, however, another famous doxology that comes not from man but from the divine Word of God. Psalm 150 closes out the greatest songbook of all time, and its words are fitting if we seek to practice revival every morning and every evening.

Verses one and two of Psalm 150 give the “sphere of praise.”[4]  One might ask when and where should I praise God. The psalmist gives a dual answer to that question. First, we praise Him in the sanctuary. For most people, that brings to mind Sunday morning worship, and that is a justifiable thought. Arthur Harris wrote in 1925, “His sanctuary is the spot where men meet him face to face. For some, it will be the House set apart, but for others it must be the bed of the invalid—somewhere (and each must decide where) there must be an inner shrine from him where the world is crowded out and it can become a sanctuary for praise.”[5]  Verse 1 goes on to expand the sphere to include the “mighty expanses.” Derek Kidner writes, “His glory fills the universe, His praise must do not less.”[6]  As the church of Christ scattered and to whom it is promised that “where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20), the dual sphere of God’s praise is made manifest. “Church buildings are never essential. We can praise God anywhere and anytime. Praise can happen in a simple building like a small church, a magnificent European cathedral, under a tree with South Americans along the Amazon, in prison like Paul and Silas, in a hiding place like the catacombs as our first brothers and sisters in Christ experienced, or in a house church in China and Afghanistan. Anyplace and anytime are where and when it is right to praise the Lord.”[7]

Verse two gives us the “subject of praise.”[8]  First, we praise God for what he has done. For those initially singing this doxology to the Lord, those “powerful acts” might be the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, or the establishment of the monarchy. Later Israelites might praise the Lord for the restoration and revival that came after the nation’s punishment. Those on this side of the cross might praise the Lord for Christ’s saving work on the cross and His restoration. We might praise the Lord for the birth and explosive growth of the early church. We might praise Him for His guiding and sustaining of His church through the millennia. We also should thank Him for the might work in our personal lives. He has saved us, is saving us, and will save us because of His great mercy and grace. The psalmist says, though that we do not praise God just because of what He has done. We praise Him for who He is. Commentators remind us, “To praise God we must know God. He is not the god of deism, pantheism, polytheism, or finite theism. He is not the god we create in our minds that we are comfortable with, that we wish him to be… We must know, acknowledge, and praise the God who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. His holiness, love, mercy, grace, righteousness, justice, and faithfulness must continually be before our mind’s eye.”[9]

How though do we worship the Lord? Verses three through five give us a clue. The psalmist lists a myriad of instruments with which to praise the Lord. His list is representative and not a complete list of possible instruments. He is making a point: let us praise the Lord in whatever way possible. If you have an organ, use it. If you have a harp, use it. If you have an electric guitar, use it to praise the Lord. God invented music and music is a means by which we connect with Him. However, the representative list of instruments that point us to the full scope of possible instruments reminds us that there are many ways to worship the Lord. Evans reminds us that we should employ all instruments and “rescue them from the service of sin.” He continues, “Even the feet should be controlled for his glory and not for paths that lead away from him.”[10]  Every instrument can be used to worship God and every part of our body and mind should be used likewise. We weekly worship the Lord through corporate song and we daily worship the Lord through private devotion to Christlike living.

The psalmist concludes with a call for a “summit of praise.”[11]  He calls for all things and people to praise the Lord. We know that one day this will take place. John’s vision, as recorded in Revelation 5:13, tells us that he “heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” The great day of the Lord is coming. Until then let us praise him.
The psalmist concludes with the exclamation, “Hallelujah” or “Praise Yahweh.”[12]  Let us be like Thomas Ken and rise daily to “praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Let he us as the psalmist instructs us 13 times in Psalm 150 to be a praising people. Praise Him in His sanctuary and praise Him in the streets.

^{[1] George Crawford, “Ken, Thomas” in John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Vol 1 A to O (New York: Dover Publications, 1907), 616.
[2] Edwin M. Long, Illustrated History of Hymns and their Authors (Philadelphia: Jaggers, 1875), 251.
[3] Ibid, 255.
[4] Arthur Emerson Harris, The Psalms Outlined (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1949), 165.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Daniel Akin, Johnny Hunt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Psalms 101-150 (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2021), 374.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Harris, 165.
[9] Akin, Hunt, and Merida, 375
[10] Harris, 165.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Akin, Hunt, and Merida, 374.}

February 25 Day 17: Revival of Awe
Scriptures: Psalm 8
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to give you eyes to see His majesty in the world. Ask Him to give words to share that truth with others.  
We continue our journey to the Road to Revival and today we tune the radio to a song that was playing in 1954.

During his 1954 London crusade, Billy Graham was given a short pamphlet that contained a “new hymn.” This was a very important moment in the ministry of Billy Graham because that new hymn became a staple of his crusade ministry for many years. This new hymn was not so new though. It was originally written in Swedish and titled “O Store Gud” or “O Great God.” The hymn was composed as a poem by Carl Boberg a Swedish evangelist and editor of the periodical “Witness of the Truth.” Boberg explains that in 1885, he and some friends were walking home from an evangelistic meeting when “a thunderstorm began to appear on the horizon. We hurried to shelter. There were loud claps of thunder, and the lightning flashed across the sky. Strong winds swept over the meadows and billowing fields of grain. However, the storm was soon over and the clear sky appeared with a beautiful rainbow.”[1]  Upon returning home, Boberg opened his window toward the sea as the church bells began to ring. These events inspired him to write the poem “O Great God.” Several years later the author was surprised to hear his poem sung as a congregational hymn set to a Swedish folk melody.[2]

The song began to spread and was translated into German by Manfred von Glehn and then into Russian by Ivan S. Prokhanoff. It was subsequently printed in a collection of songs by the Baptist Press in Poland. Stuart K. Hine, an English missionary, heard the song and composed an English version of the hymn. The completed song was published “in 1949 in a Russian gospel magazine… Reprints were requested by missionaries all over the world.”[3]  It was one of these reprints of the hymn “How Great Thou Art” that was handed to Graham in 1954. The song was first used by Billy Graham and his team during the 1955 Toronto crusade. In 1957 the choir for the crusade in New York City sang the song ninety-nine times. Ninety-nine times they proclaimed the greatness of God.

The first two stanzas of “How Great Thou Art” marvel at the greatness of God displayed in this creation. As the apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:20, the greatness of God is revealed in His creation. However, as he goes on to say in verses 21-22 knowing God’s greatness through this general revelation is not enough. The third stanza of this great hymn moves beyond the grace revealed in nature to the grace revealed in Christ. As Graham writes:

Yes, God talks to us through His creation—the heavens and the earth declare His glory. But the greatness of God is shown even more completely in the salvation He has planned and provided for us. What wisdom it reveals! What love it discloses! As the third stanza confesses, this greatness is more than I can understand; “I scarce can take it in.”[4]

The greatness of God in the world and the unfathomable grace of God in Christ are enough to praise the Lord. However, as strangers in this land (I Peter 1) life can still be difficult. Stuart Hine composed the first three stanzas while in the Carpathian Mountains before World War II forced he and his wife home to England. During the years of the war, they used the three stanzas to minister and share the gospel.[5]  The fourth stanza was written after the war, as refugees from war-ravaged Europe sought refuge in England. “Although they had found greater safety and freedom in their adopted land, their incessant question was, ‘When are we going home.”[6]  While we find safety and refuge in Christ we still long for the day “When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home.”

King David reminds us of something similar in Psalm 8. We do not know the occasion for the writing, but we might imagine the shepherd boy looking up at the stars and moon while watching over his sheep by night. He begins and ends the Psalm with the same declaration: “Lord (Jehovah/Yahweh), our Lord (Adonai), how magnificent is your name throughout the earth.” Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the one true God of the universe. He is Adonai or Master of all things throughout the earth. Many people have many thoughts about God. Josh Smith and Danny Akin explain the various ‘isms of the world:

Atheism—those who say there is no god often turn and worship themselves.
Pantheism—those who worship creation and all that is.
Deism—those who tip their hats toward God, convinced he is out there but doesn’t care.
Finite theism—those whose impotent god is hardly worthy of worship.
Panentheism—those who think they sense a divine force running throughout the universe like an electric charge we need to tap into.
Polytheism—those who perceive a smorgasbord of gods for the picking and choosing, and the more the better.[7]

In verse 2, the shepherd king David says God shuts down all those who oppose Him. Moreover, He does so with the weakest things. The weak are made powerful by their righteous proclamation. He then goes on to praise God for the wonders He has made. The creation of stars and moons is the work of His fingers. “Creating billions of stars in billions of galaxies is child’s play for God. He snaps or points his finger, and it is done. This is simple for Yahweh, our Adonai.”[8]

Upon reflecting upon God and upon His creation, the shepherd king considers himself. In light of the greatness of God and the majesty of His creation, why does God even consider man? The wonder that God “made [man] a little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor” is unimaginable. That man is made a little less than the celestial and not a little more than animals causes man to look up to God for guidance and not down to animals for ways of being. James Boice says that “the result is that they become increasingly like God rather than increasingly beast-like in their behavior.”[9]  Not only has God created man in His image, He has “crowned man with glory and honor” and “made him ruler over the works of [His] hand.” This points us to God’s plan for man as His viceregents on earth. It also points us to the way man messed up God’s plan. Man is still God’s representative on earth, but man and the earth he rules are both marred by sin. As Smith and Akin point out, “Right now, we do not live in a Psalm 8 world. Tragically, we live in a Genesis 3 world. Verses 6-8 direct us back to the idyllic scene of the garden of Eden, but they also force us to look to the future and ask if paradise can be regained.”[10]  The writer of Hebrews chapter 2 quotes from Psalm 8 and he reminds us that all that paradise is not forever lost. Christ Himself became a little lower than the angels so that mankind could again find its place in God’s order. Because of that, we can say:
“Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee, how great they art. How great Thou art.”

^{[1] “Story Behind the Song: ‘How Great Though Art,’” (www.staugustinr.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2016/02/05/story-behind-song-how-great-thou-art/1630485507 Accessed February 19, 2025.
[2] Michael Hawn, “History of Hymns: ‘How Great Thou Art’” www.umcdisciplship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-how-great-thou-art Accessed February 19, 2025.
[3] Billy Graham, Hymns for the Soul (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 2024), 20.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Hawn, “History of Hymns: ‘How Great Thou Art’”
[6] Graham, 20.
[7] Josh Smith and Daniel Akin, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Psalms 1-50 (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2022), 58-59.
[8] Ibid, 61.
[9] James Montgomery Boice, Psalms Vol 1 (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2005), 71 In Smith and Akin, 63.
[10] Smith and Akin, 64.}

February 26 Day 18: Revival Away from Sin
Scriptures: Psalm 51
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to reveal areas of your life where you need forgiveness. Ask Him to help you come to Him for a changed heart.  

In the mid-1830s, Charlotte Elliott was sickly and mostly confined to the home. In her early years her life had been lively and she her money as a portrait artist and “a writer humorous verses.” However, a chronic illness set in by the time she was thirty years old. Her life was then filled with pain and hardship. In 1822 a Swiss evangelist, Caesar Malan, visited her family home. Counseling and encouraging Charlotte with the Word and the gospel he told her, “You must come just as you are, a sinner, to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” Until she died at age 82 Charlotte Elliott considered that day to be her “spiritual birthday.”[1]  That brings us to a day in the mid-1830s.

Charlotte’s family had gone to a local bizarre to raise funds to build a school for children of poor clergymen. She was too sick to go and help raise the funds. While they were away, she suffered a restless night and no sleep. While considering her state, she began to write a song to express her faith[2].  That night she wrote the hymn “Just As I Am.” Her words express the hope of salvation for any person regardless of their station or regardless of their sin. The song is often used during invitations to follow Christ. The song paints a great picture of the person seeking salvation or spiritual revival.
Verse 1
Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee
The singer declares they have no case to plead but that Christ’s “blood was shed for me, and that they bidd’st me come.”
Verse 2
Just as I am, and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot, To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot
The one who comes for salvation waits no longer to apply that blood to their life.
Verse 3
Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, Fighting within and fears without
In verse 3, the singer admits that the storms of their mind and life are present, yet he comes.
Verse 4
Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; Sight, riches, healing of the mind, Yea all I need in Thee to find.
Verse 4 recounts the miserable things we trade for the riches in Christ.
Verse 5
Thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve. Because Thy promise I believe
Verse 5 asserts a sure belief that God will accept and cleanse any who come to Him.
Verse 6
Thy Love unknown Hath broken every barrier down; now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone
Verse 6 concludes with the truth that God will break every barrier that stands between the truly repentant and Himself.

While many Christians can recite at least the first stanza of this song from memory during the weekly invitation, it is powerful in pricking the soul of those called by the Lord. Billy Graham writes:
“We use this hymn today in almost every one of our Crusades. There are several reasons why we choose the hymn ‘Just As I Am’ for use at this most important moment in a Crusade service. For one thing, it rings with a strong, positive note. Other songs give Christ’s invitation just as clearly, but this one keeps repeating the affirmative response, “O Lamb of God, I come.” The choir sings it while people are walking down the long aisle or across the turf of an outdoor stadium, and the hymn verbalizes just what each of them was doing.” [3]
Those seeking salvation respond to the call to come just as they are. Those who need to experience revival can respond to God’s call to come just as they are as well. That is what King David did in Psalm 51.

Psalm 51 was written by king David. As the heading tells us it was written in response to the king’s adultery and murder. Nathan had confronted David with his sin in II Samuel 12, and this psalm is David’s poetic meditation on God’s grace. In the Psalm, we see the grace needed for sin, the grace needed for change, and the praise that results from God’s grace.

The Grace Needed for Sin (1-5)
In verse 1 David appeals to God’s grace and His steadfast love. This love characterizes the covenant love of a God who loves even when people sin. David goes on to admit his sin and define its true mark. While David sinned against Bathsheba, Uriah, and the nation, David makes it clear in verse 4 that his sin was ultimately against God. All sin is an affront to God, and it is God to whom we are accountable. Grace though is needed even for those who do not act as heinously as David. The king makes it clear in verse 5 that all people need grace and forgiveness because everyone is tainted with sin. The first step in salvation or revival is coming to God Just as we are—sinful people.

The Grace Needed for Change (6-13)
David continues in verses 6-13 and asks for God’s grace to change. This is the heart of repentance. It is not enough to admit guilt, as David did in verses 1-5. Those coming to faith for the first time and those seeking revival must turn from sin. David makes it clear that the ability to turn from sin and live a righteous life cannot be done by human power. Only God can cleanse us (v. 6-7). Only God can heal our hearts and minds (vv. 8-11). Only God can give us a “willing spirit” (vv. 12-13). We are forgiven by the power of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We are given a clean heart and filled with His Spirit. That Spirit then gives us a willing spirit to please God.

The Praise Resulting from Grace (14-19)
David continues his plead for God’s forgiveness and acknowledges the praise that results from God’s forgiveness. He says that the service of sacrifice is not God’s desire in this situation. Instead, God desires the songs of the broken. He desires the praise of the redeemed. We cannot do enough to win God’s forgiveness. No sacrifice is enough. No amount of money given is enough. No amount of effort exerted is enough. Only brokenness and humility can heal the relationship broken by sin. However, David goes on to say in verses 18-19 that once God heals him, he will again offer sacrifice as outward, public praise to the Lord. Those who experience God’s gracious salvation and those who receive God’s gracious revival will respond with outward, public praise of Him.

As we seek the Lord for salvation or revival we first admit where we have failed Him, ask Him to cleanse us and change us, live righteously with a willing spirit, and praise Him publicly. But first I must come just as I am.

^{[1] Steven Sherrill ”Hymns and Their Stories” www.revstevensherrill.wordpress.com/2021/01/15/hymns-and-their-stories-lesson-one/ Accessed on February 19, 2025
[2] “Hymn Histories: Just as I Am” Lifeway Women https://women.lifeway.com/2022/11/02/hymn-histories-just-as-i-am/ Accessed on February 20, 2025.
[3] Billy Graham, Hymns for the Soul (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 2024), 23.}

February 27 Day 19: Revival and Assurance in God
Scriptures: Psalm 62
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to give you eyes to see his majesty in the world. Ask Him to give words to share that truth with others.  

Fanny J. Crosby was born in 1820 and suffered an illness during the first 6 weeks of her life. She was left blind for the remainder of her life. At age 15 she attended New York Institute for the Blind. Upon graduating she was retained as a teacher at the institution. During her life, she met and became friends with presidents. She was the first woman to publicly speak before Congress[1] when she addressed the issue of education for the blind.[2]  Nevertheless, Fanny Crosby is known for prolific hymn writing. She is said to have written upwards of 8,000 hymns and gospel songs. It is hard to know how many she wrote because as a hymn writer for Biglow and Main Publishers she often published under a pseudonym. The company had employed her to write three hymns per week for which they would pay her $2.00 per song. Instead, she was writing six to seven hymns a day. The company asked her to use pseudonyms “to avoid the appearance that Biglow and Main only published Crosby’s hymns.”[3]

We can assume that Crosby’s prolific publication of hymns is the result of her faith in Christ and the position given to her through blindness. She once stated, “If perfect sight were offered me tomorrow, I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.”[4]  As an eight-year-old, she composed a short verse that became her motto throughout her life. “O what a happy soul am I! / Although I cannot see, / I am resolved that in this world / Contented I will be: / How many blessings I enjoy / That other people don’t! / To weep and sigh because I'm blind, / I cannot, and I won't.”[5]  This biblical understanding of suffering is only possible through a daily walk with Christ. It is said that she could “compose at any time and does not need to wait for any special inspiration, and her best hymns have come on the spur of the moment.”[6]  A life lived in the Spirit is a life that produces praise. Unlike many of us, Franny Crosby simply had the God-given talent to turn her private praise into gospel songs.

Once while visiting a friend Phoebe Palmer Knapp, daughter of an evangelist and wife to a wealthy businessman, Crosby wrote some of her most famous words. It is said that Phoebe Knapp and her husband lived in the Hotel Savoy on Fifth Avenue in New York City. According to A. J. Showalter their home featured “what is said to be the largest organ in the world in a private home.”[7]  On the day of Crosby’s visit in 1873, the pipe organ was still being installed so Palmer-Knapp played a tune on her piano.[8]  She asked Crosby “What does that melody say to you?” Immediately Crosby said, “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine! O What a foretaste of glory divine.” She then proceeded the write the now-famous hymn in its entirety.[9]  Within the first year, it was published in three songbooks. Popularity for the song skyrocketed when it was sung by Ira Sanky at meetings led by D. L. Moody.

The song really is a declaration of assurance in God regardless of our circumstances. In verse one the singer declares the foundation of assurance found in salvation. Verse 2 declares the sure feeling of assurance expressed in spiritual eyes. Verse 3 declares the assured future as he watches and waits. We find this same assurance in the words of King David in Psalm 62.

Psalm 62 might have been written in response to the political rebellion of David’s son Absalom. The Psalm expresses a confident trust in the Lord.[10]  In verses 1 and 2, David says that he is at rest in the Lord. In the midst of life’s turmoil, he finds stability in God as his rock. In the midst of life’s messes, arguments, and failed relationships, God is our stronghold. Verses 3 and 4 rehearse the troubles faced by David. People attack him thinking that he is a “tottering fence” that is easily collapsed. While we might not face political enemies like David, we each face a world that attacks us and seeks to topple us. In response to these attacks and faithfulness of God, David prays for strength in verses 5-8. He prays that he will continue to “rest in God.” He prays that he will “trust in Him at all times.” Sometimes in life, all we can see is the challenges. We know the truth of God’s power, but we see only those things coming against us. In those situations, we pray for the blessed assurance that God is our “strong rock.” With this assurance comes a glimpse of reality. David paints a picture of that reality in verses 9-10. He says common people and important people weigh less than a vapor. They are nothing compared to the Lord. Those who place their trust in deceitful means to gain wealth have a false hope. Those who have assurance in wealth have set their heart on the wrong thing. David says this with assurance because “strength belongs to God, and faithful love belongs” to the Lord.

Let us proclaim our blessed assurance in the Lord and His salvation. If we are experiencing dry times or have left the presence of God, we can be assured that He will revive us if we “rest in him. “Let us sing forth “This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long.”

^{[1] J. H. Hall, Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers, (New York: Revel, 1914), 38.
[2] Michael Hawn, “History of Hymns: ‘Blessed Assurance,’” www.umcdisciplship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-blessed-assurance Accessed February 21, 2025.
[3] Crystal Caviness, “Heavenly Harmonizing: The Story of ‘Blessed Assurance,’” www.umc.org/en/content/heavenly-harmonizing-the-story-of-blessed-assurance Accessed February 21, 2025.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Hall, 41.
[6] Ibid, 40.
[7] Hymnology Archive, www.hymnologyarchive.com/phoeby-palner-knapp accessed February 22, 2025
[8] Edith Blumhofer, Her Heart Can See (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 229-230.
[9] Caviness.
[10] Harris, 67.}

February 28 Day 20: Revival and You
Scriptures: Hebrews 9
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord the remind you daily of His work in saving you. Ask for a daily renewal of your commitment to share that love with others.  

Robert Lowry was a pastor and professor in the late 1800s. He was an ordained Baptist pastor who led several churches to pursue God’s Kingdom. He taught rhetoric at what is now called Bucknell University. His oratory skills stood out. “Dr. Lowry was a man of rare administrative ability, a most excellent preacher, a thorough Bible student, and whether in the pulpit or upon the platform, always a brilliant and interesting speaker… He could thrill an audience with his vivid descriptions, inspiring others with the same thoughts that inspired him.”[1]  Lowry felt that preaching the Word was the most important part of his ministry. He said, "I would rather preach a gospel sermon to an appreciative, receptive congregation than write a hymn.”[2]  Hymn writing was a hobby or side project for the preacher. He would tinker on this home piano and compose on Sunday nights. Yet it is his melodies that are remembered in Christian history.

In the summer of 1876, Lowry had planned to visit and preach at the Ocean Grove camp meeting in New Jersey. Ocean Grove was founded in 1869 when “a group of Methodist ministers was looking for a spot to escape the summer heat and study the word.”[3]  They found the location and loved it. Within a year, a small village had been constructed, and to this day Ocean Grove still offers a place of worship and respite. By 1877, thousands were visiting the camp each year. In that year alone 710,000 train tickets were sold for the station that serviced Ocean Grove. That was one year after Lowry made plans to visit and preach. It appears that after Lowry’s visit revival broke out at the camp meeting.[4]

Prior to his trip, Lowry penned a hymn that he thought “would be a nice add on to the main event of preaching.” That summer his new hymn “Nothing But the Blood” rang out from every corner of the camp meeting. Ira Sankey, D. L. Moody’s music leader, said the hymn “immediately took possession of the people.”[5]    Lowry, a committed preacher, had penned a song that lived long past his sermons. In this hymn, he was able to do what his sermons were meant to do—"thrill an audience with his vivid descriptions, inspiring others with the same thoughts that inspired him.”[6]  The song asks and answers the questions that every preacher wants the hearer to ask.

The question: “What can wash away my sins?”
The answer: “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus.”
The question: “What can make me whole again?”
The answer: “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus.”

Verse 2 continues and ascribes our pardon and our cleaning to nothing but the blood of Jesus. Verse 3 points us to the blood of Jesus because nothing we can do, not even the good, can atone for our sin. Verse 4 sums up the result of Christ’s salvation for us: hope, peace, and righteousness all provided by the Blood of Jesus. Twelve times in this short hymn the singer repeats the heart of our salvation—“nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

When Lowry first published the song in Gospel Music he placed Hebrews 9:22 above the music.[7]  This verse includes the vital gospel truth, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Prior to this verse, the writer of Hebrews reminds us of the Old Testament sacrificial system. In that system, the High Priest of Israel would offer an animal as a sacrifice for the sins of the nation. There are two limiting factors to the work of the High Priest. First, he was a sinful man like all men. Therefore, he had to offer a sacrifice first for his sins. Second, the sacrifice he offered only covered over sin for a time. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is a better High Priest. First, he was the sinless Son of God who needed no sacrifice to account for his sin. Moreover, as the sinless Son of God, He did deserve death because He had no sin. Second, He gave His life, not the life of a bull or goat. As a result of His sacrifice, sin can be washed away and not just covered over. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can bring salvation.

As we pray for the Lord’s revival, let us spend time reminding ourselves of this gospel truth. You can do nothing to earn salvation. You can do nothing to earn the power and presence of the Sprit in your life. Only the blood of Jesus, who forgives your sins, can make that possible. Pray and ask the Lord to send revival, and never forget that Jesus makes it possible.

^{[1] J. H. Hall, Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers, (New York: Revel, 1914), 72.
[2] Ibid, 75.
[3] Taylor Brantley, “The Story Behind: Nothing But the Blood,” www.hymcharts.com/2022/02/10/nothing-but-the-blood accessed February 21, 2025.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Hall, 72.
[7] Michael Hawn, “History of Hymns ‘Nothing but the Blood’” www.umcdisciplship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-nothing-but-the-blood accessed February 21, 2025.}

March 3 Day 21: Revival: What Does it Look Like? (Part 1)
Scriptures: John 14:23-26; John 16:1-11
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Spirit to lead you to repentance where needed. Ask the Spirit to assure you of your eternal salvation. Ask the Spirit to grow you in Christlikeness.  

“Real revival is the intensification of the ordinary operation of the Holy Spirit.”[1]  This is how pastor and author Tim Keller described revival. Keller’s definition is not that much different from his theological forbearer Jonathan Edwards who said that revival is “the acceleration and intensification of the normal work of the Holy Spirit in the world today.”[2]  Keller goes on to outline the “ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit.” He says they are “conviction, conversion, assurance, and sanctification.[3]  Today we will review those actions and tomorrow we will see how they are present in revival.
Conviction: In a TV show world like Law and Order, conviction is something that comes at the conclusion of a court trial and entails consequences. When we speak of conviction regarding the Holy Spirit, we mean something different. Put simply, conviction is the realization of personal sin. Paired with the idea of calling. Conviction and calling is the realization of personal sin, a realization of the just consequences of sin, and a call to deal with those two realities through the atoning work of Christ. E. Y. Mullins says, “the consciousness of sin is one of the most real and powerful of all human experiences."[4]  Elsewhere he writes, “[Calling and conviction happen] prior to God’s saving act in the soul.”[5] Again, to put it plainly: conviction and calling is the work of the Spirit in the life of a person who needs salvation. What does conviction and calling look like in the life of an unbeliever? Every situation is unique because every person is unique. To generalize, though, conviction of sin comes as the result of realizing the reality of holy God and sinful man revealed through the presentation of God’s Word illuminated by the Spirit. The presentation of God’s Word can come by way of preaching, interpersonal presentation, or individual reading of the Bible. Upon hearing and understanding the reality and predicament of man, a person then falls under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The individual can do one of three things at this point. He can simply ignore the conviction as Herod did in Acts 26:28. She can respond to that reality and seek salvation immediately as the Ethiopian official did in Acts 8:36. Or, he can seek more information in an effort to move towards conversion like the Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10) and Nicodemus (John 3). To summarize conviction is the realization of sin prior to salvation that requires a response.

Conversion: The role of the Holy Spirit in conversion is mysterious in an amazing way. “Conversion is man’s turning to God. It consists of a negative and positive element: repentance, that is, abandonment of sin; and faith, that is, acceptance of the promises and work of Christ.”[6]  While the sin a person considers while under conviction might be a single egregious act, a list of sins across a lifetime, or a general understanding of sinfulness, that sin is only part of the confession made at conversion. “The [overarching] sin to which conviction refers is summed up as unbelief.”[7]  How so? Unbelief is the focal sin because while under conviction and calling the sinner now realizes that his problem is not simply sin and its consequences. The true dilemma at this point is between turning to Christ for forgiveness or seeking another (though unhelpful) means of dealing with sin and the consequences. The man must make a decision—does he have faith to believe? If he does, then the grace of God kicks in and the Holy Spirit does the amazing work and “effects regeneration.”[8]  Now it should be said that even the act of having faith and confessing belief is a gracious work of the Spirit. He does not force faith upon a person, nor does He force conversion upon a person but by the mystery of God’s grace He brings it forth in a person.

To review: A person faces conviction of sin and righteousness upon hearing and understanding the word. Conversion comes when that person turns to Jesus in belief and the Holy Spirit heals the sin wound and reconciles him to God. The work of the Spirit does not stop there. He also brings about assurance of salvation.

Assurance: Upon salvation, a person usually has no trouble with assurance. The assurance of salvation is tested in the time following salvation. The lack of assurance can originate from various sources.[9]
•One source is a faulty understanding that the work of salvation was done by God not man. If a person feels or thinks that his good actions or righteous rituals, including a whispered prayer, made salvation possible, doubt may appear. Christ did the work that made salvation possible by dying on the cross, the Father did the work of forgiving, and the Holy Spirit did the work of convicting and converting. To think that man’s actions did anything to effect salvation will lead to doubt.
•A second source of doubt is a faulty understanding of what is “supposed” to happen when a person is saved. Some Christian groups will assert that certain “manifestations of the Spirit” must accompany salvation for it to be real. Such assumed manifestations might include “speaking in tongues.” Also damaging to the assurance of salvation is the assertions of well-meaning believers who will claim that true salvation must be accompanied by an immediate outward abundance of joyousness or the immediate cessation of certain emotions or habits. What happens at the moment of salvation is a spiritual act between God and the soul of the individual. The works of the Spirit and the change in outward character come through the sanctifying work of the Spirit (more on that below).
•A third source of doubt comes from a faulty understanding of God’s faithfulness. This might come about through painful life experiences of the believer or the result of sinful actions of the believer. Christ himself dealt with this when He assured the disciples that He would be with them (Matthew 28:20). He was with them during the turmoils of life, and we see in the life of Paul that He was present even during the trials of temptation and sin (Roman 7:21-8:2). The assurance of God’s faithfulness is tied to the point above that God did the work of salvation, not man.
•The fourth source of doubt is poor discipleship. The Lord birthed the church for many reasons, but one of those reasons is the discipleship of His people. A person who experiences salvation but never learns from God’s Word what the Christian life is will experience doubt. To put it simply if a person does not commit to learning from God what a disciple is, that person will face doubt when his unbiblical understanding of salvation is tested.
•The fifth source of doubt is personal sinfulness. While a believer is forgiven of sin and no longer faces the eternal consequences of sinfulness, ongoing personal sin will cause a person to doubt his salvation. In other words, if we do not act like we are saved, then we will question our salvation. Sometimes, this is a legitimate line of questioning. That is why the work of the Spirit is important. Romans 8:12-17 tell us the Spirit testifies with our spirit about salvation. Sinfulness in the life of a professing believer might actually lead to true conversion or repentance and thereby further assurance.

The Bible give us assurance of our salvation and history gives us a picture of assurance. Ephesians 1:13-14 says “In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.” Furthermore, Romans 8:38-39 answers the question, “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? (8:35). The Bible tells us, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (8:38-39) We are sealed for salvation. A picture from history might help us understand this. Ancient Ephesus was a seaport that dealt heavily in the trade of lumber. When a merchant went to the docks to purchase timber, he did not produce an invoice and load it on a forklift. Instead, he would pick out what he wanted to purchase and “stamp it with his own signet—an acknowledged sign of ownership. In due time the merchant would send a trusted agent with the signet; he would locate all the timbers that bore the corresponding impress and claim them. Matthew Henry sums it up: ‘By him [the Holy Spirit] believers are sealed; that is separated and set apart for God, and distinguished and marked as belonging to him.’ You and I are God’s property forever!”[10]

So, we have been saved at conversion. We will be saved when Christ returns, but we are also being saved. “Being saved” is the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

Sanctification: Sanctification is the ongoing work of the spirit in the life of a believer. The New Hampshire Baptist Confession, written in 1833, provides a detailed and illuminating definition of sanctification. “We believe that Sanctification is the process by which, according to the will of God, we are made partakers of his holiness; that it is a progressive work; that it is begun in regeneration; and that it is carried on in the hearts of believers by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the Sealer and Comforter, in the continual use of the appointed means—especially the Word of God, self-examination, self-denial, watchfulness, and prayer” (Article X).”[11]  One Baptist theologian of the twentieth century describes the sanctifying work of the Spirit a little less formally. “[The Spirit] brings vitality into the experience of the Christian and of the church. He vivifies us. He makes Christian living dynamic as well as decent. The word Spirit is the opposite of the word ‘dead.’ The Spirit is wind, breath, a living reality and he makes us alive.”[12]  Paul tells the Corinthians, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at, the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 3:17-18) To say the Spirit sanctifies the believer is to say the Spirit “cultivates Christian character”[13]  so that the believer reflects Christ to world.

The work of the Holy Spirit is a grace given by the Lord. Christ said, “It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7) He convicts us of sin, brings about conversion, seals us in salvation, and prepares us for heaven. Tomorrow we will see how He works in revival.

^{[1]Timothy Keller, “Lord Do it Again: Tim Keller on Revival,” www.the gospelcoalition.org/article/tim-keller-revival Accessed on February 26, 2025.
[2] Robby Gallaty, Revive Us Video Session 1 (Brentwood: Lifeway, 2023).
[3] Keller.
[4] E. Y. Mullins, The Christian Religion, (Philadelphia: Judson, 1932), 299.
[5] Ibid, 365.
[6] Millard Erickson, Christian Theology Vol 3, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986), 872.
[7] Ibid, 367.
[8] Douglas Blount and Joseph Woodell Eds, Baptist Faith and Message 200: Critical Issues in America’s Largest Protestant Denomination, (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), appendix np.
[9] See Daniel Akin, “God’s Purpose in Grace” in Douglas Blount and Joseph Woodell Eds, Baptist Faith and Message 200: Critical Issues in America’s Largest Protestant Denomination, (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), 51.
[10] Billy Graham, The Holy Spirit, (Minneapolis: Grason, 1978), 76.
[11] Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Sanctification,” in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1898.
[12] Fisher Humphreys, Thinking about God, (New Orleans: Insight, 1974, 127.
[13] Blount and Woodell.}

March 4 Day 22: Revival: What Does it Look Like? (Part 2)
Scriptures: Revelation 3:14-22
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to awaken the sleeping Christian. Ask the Lord to save the person who is Christian in name only. Ask the Lord to save the lost in the community.    

Yesterday we reviewed the work of Spirit. With that in mind, let’s return to Tim Keller’s definition of revival: “the intensification of the ordinary operation of the Holy Spirit.” What does that intensification of the Spirit’s work look like in revival? Keller says that in revival three things happen: “sleepy Christians wake up,” “nominal Christians are converted,” and “conscious non-Christians come to faith.”[1]  I would add one more result of revival: committed followers of Christ are empowered. Today, we will explore Keller’s three categories and over the next three days look at some results that come from revival.

In revival, “sleepy Christians” are woken up. I want you to picture a sleepy teenager. When they roll out of bed in the morning, they stumble about. They drag their feet, they trip over shoes, and they move slowly. And parents beware of the stink eye and cold stares when they encourage a little more "gitty up in the step” or a tired teenager. Not only are they lethargic they are uncaring of their appearance. They have bedhead and don’t care. They have morning breath and dare you say something so early in the day. They are without make-up and don’t you dare make a joke. Now, picture a teenager on Friday night before the homecoming dance. After the game, they have gathered at a friend’s house to get ready. They are rowdy and pumped (we will assume their team won the game). The voices are loud, and it seems like they literally bouncing off the walls. Not only are they the opposite of lethargic they care about their appearance. The hair has to be just right, even for the guys. The outfit must be perfect for the guys and the dress just amazing for the girls. There is no room for bedhead, bad breath, baggy shirts, or botched make-up. Appearance matter. They are awake and ready for the event.

Do I need to paint the picture of the sleepy Christian? They are lethargic in living the Christian life. They drag their feet when responding to calls to service and evangelism. They trip over obstacles and challenges when developing godly relationships and pursing the lost. They move slowly when God or church leaders urge them to move forward in ministry. Let me put it plainly, the sleepy Christian is lax in his worship, lacking in his service, and largely uncaring for the lost. They are lax in their ministry and instead of a little more “gitty up” they must be prodded like “cows of Bashan.” Not only are they lethargic in living the Christian life, but they are also uncaring of their appearance as sons and daughters of the King. They have spiritual bed-head—they are unprepared for the challenges of sin and temptation that are going to meet them that day. They have morning breath—they are not equipped to share the good news of the gospel. They are lacking make-up—they do not wear a face lit by the glow of the Spirit. Let me put it plainly: the sleepy Christian easily falls into sin like gossip, racism, pride, and anger. They are not equipped emotionally or mentally to share the gospel; they display a loathing instead of love for the unsaved. They do not live godly lives of empathy, care, and service for others.

Jesus speaks of those who are sleepy, and he is not as polite. In Revelation 3, He says to the church at Laodicea, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.” (3:15-16) Keller says they are not “sad enough” over their sin or “happy enough” over their salvation. Vance Havner summarizes, “they were a little too cold to be hot and a little to hot to be cold, a little too bad to be good and a little good to be bad.”[2]  They say they are rich (3:17). They were financially well-to-do and that was enough. They were saved and destined for heaven and that was enough. They were the frozen chosen and the well-dressed but underperforming. “They had everything they wanted and they were independent, they didn’t need a thing. A church like that always needs revival”[3]  The first church at Laodicea could not see the truth about themselves, and Jesus wanted to open their eyes.

Are you a sleepy Christian? Are you lukewarm? Are you nauseating to the Lord who hung on a cross for you?

Keller says revival will wake the sleeping Christian. Paul called the sleeping Christians at Ephesus to “Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Eph 5:14) Malachi 4:2 says that those who fear the Lord will experience the rising of His righteous sun and “and playfully jump like calves from the stall.” Vance Havner continues in his look at Revelation 3. He says, “One of the saddest features of this whole business is that the people who need to arise themselves most on this point are the ones who are least conscious of their danger.”[4]  The Lord graciously pointed out the lukewarm nature of the church at Laodicea before he vomited them out. Ask the Lord to speak to you today and warn you of any lukewarmness.

Keller goes on to say that not only are sleepy Christians roused from slumber, the nominal Christians are converted in revival. Nominal Christians “are Christians in name only.”[5]  If I were to go to a rodeo, I could put on my boots. I could buy a big belt buckle. I could even go buy a cowboy hat. But if anyone who knows me saw me at the rodeo they would laugh and say, “he is all hat and no cattle.” This phrase can mean a person has the appearance of being a big-time cattle farmer but has no cattle to back that up. If someone said this to me at the rodeo, they would be implying that I was a pretender. There are pretenders in church. They dress the part and look the part on Sundays but they are not followers of Christ. They are professors who have never professed their sin. They are possessors of the truth who have never been possessed by the Truth-Giver. They have the appearance of a Christian. They have been “warmed by the influence of the gospel but never truly saved.”[6]

These nominal Christians, like the sleepy Christians, may not realize their guilt before the Lord. In the mid-twentieth century, it was common to join the local church and even profession of faith in Christ. However, the reason for joining the church was not because of a love of Christ but because of the goodwill of the community and the boost of respectability it would bring. That might not be so true today, but “churches are filled with people who think they’re Christians—they’re baptized, they’re members, maybe they’re even officers.”[7]  They might have been “brought up” in church. They might have always attended with grandma. They might have “married into” the church. But they were never been raised from death to life. They have never attended to their sin. And they are not part of the bride of Christ. In revival, lost church members find Christ.

Lastly, Keller says the conscious non-Christian comes to faith in Christ. Revival, by definition, is for those who are already Christians. However, the results spill over. Those nominal church members find true faith in Christ. Those outside the family of faith will also become believers. That is why we invite the lost to revival. It is an opportunity for them to hear the gospel, feel the conviction of the Spirit, and come to a place of conversion. However, it is not just those who come to revival who are saved. True revival of the church and the Christians in the church will result in salvations after the revival meetings end.

Speaking of what we have called sleepy and nominal Christians Havner writes, “The cause of Christ has been hurt more by Sunday-morning bench-warmers who pretend to love Christ, who call Him Lord but do not [keep] His commands, than by all the publican’s and sinners.”[8]  They hold back and harm the witness of Christ. But Keller asserts that when they find Christ in revival, “many in the community come to faith in Christ, partly because when sleep Christians wake up and nominal Christians get converted, it beautifies the church. The church becomes an attractive place. It becomes a powerful place.”[9]

What does revival look like? It is an intensification of the ordinary working of the Spirit. In revival the Spirit will awaken the sleep and save the sinner. Let us pray for revival to come in that way. Lastly, revival will empower the dedicated followers of Christ. Over the next three days we will investigate that truth.
^{[1] Timothy Keller, “Lord Do it Again: Tim Keller on Revival,” www.the gospelcoalition.org/article/tim-keller-revival Accessed on February 26, 2025
[2] Vance Havner, Repent or Else, (Westwood, New Jersey: Revell, 1958), 81.
[3] Ibid, 82.
[4] Ibid, 87-88.
[5] Keller.
[6] Havner 87.
[7] Keller.
[8] Havner, 86.
[9] Keller.}

March 5 Day 23: Revival Empowers Evangelism
Scriptures: Acts 1:8
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to give you a spirit of evangelism and a love for the lost.  

When personal or corporate revival takes place evangelism is empowered. There are two ways in which evangelism is empowered and both relate to the intensification of the ordinary working of the Spirit. We can see both in action in Acts 1:8. Just prior to His ascension to be with the Father, Jesus had one last word for the disciples. He said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Let’s quickly break this down. First Jesus says, “you will receive” and “you will be.” Both of those “wills” are in the imperative tense meaning you must.

The first “will” relates to the power of the Spirit. For the disciples, the reception of the power was an assured future event because the Spirit had yet to come. For the believer, the power of the Spirit is assured at conversion. However, like any powerful tool it must be put to use. A sheathed sword is powerless in battle. The intensification of the work in our lives will enable us to utilize the power of the Spirit. Related to evangelism the Spirit will empower our witness. This does not mean He will give us elegant words (though that may happen). It does not mean He will give us clever ways of presenting the gospel (though clever thoughts may come). It does not even mean He will give more time, energy, and stamina (though energy and stamina may come). What it does mean is that the sharing of the gospel will be empower in the soul and spirit of the one hearing the gospel. I Peter 1:12 reminds the believers in Asia Minor that the gospel was preached to them by the Holy Spirit. This does not mean the Holy Spirit came to the unbeliever in a dream. Instead, it means that the gospel preached by missionaries, evangelists, and friends was done so in the power and direction of the Spirit.

The second “will” relates to the actions of the disciples. “You will (must) be my witnesses.” This is a command, but like the assured power of the Spirit, it can be thwarted by the will (or unwillingness) of man. However, when a person or congregation experiences revival there will be a desire to follow the commands of God. This will play out in the moral lives of the believers, but it will also play out in the ministry lives of believers. A revived congregation will not need to be prodded to serve, give, pray, or go. They will obey the Lord because they want to obey the Lord. Related to evangelism the Spirit will lead and they will go. Evangelism will take place not because God is forcing us, saying you must! Instead, evangelism will take place because the believer is saying I must.

Enthusiasm for evangelism was evident in the revival that took place in Northern China. Baptist missionary C. L. Culpepper tells about the evangelistic events that continued two years after revival reached one region. He writes, “During the following two years the Chinese Christians were inwardly compelled to reach the unconverted with the message of eternal life.”[1]
•Children began praying for their unconverted parents. How often do we wag our heads at lost family members instead of sharing the gospel? Revival will change that.
•In the Baptist hospital revival and salvation were evident among patients. He writes, “The sick were saved daily.” How often do we resist taking our faith into workplace? Revival will change that.
•People began to go the extra mile to share the gospel. He writes, “One weekend, with some classmates, [two young women] walked 30 Li (10 miles) to their home village.” After they shared the gospel, revival began to sweep through the town. How often do we resist the effort that will go into sharing the gospel (giving up a night of the week, serving in children’s ministry, driving to a “bad” part of town). Revival will change that.
•Those who thought they were unworthy accepted the gospel and began witnessing. The missionaries in one town led meetings for those who served in the compound. After coming to faith in Christ one said, “We never thought the fullness of the Spirit was for us! We thought it was only for teachers and preachers.” How often do we ignore those who we see daily? How often do some think they are below or not good enough for God’s love? Revival will change that.
•The power of the Spirit enabled people to go out in “bands” to reach the lost. It was a concerted effort on the part of those involved. “During the year the girls organized an evangelistic band, and on Sunday afternoons they went out witnessing in the nearby villages. One spring, after the hot weather began, a group walked five miles. The road was dusty and the day uncomfortably hot, but this little group of schoolgirls sang praises as they walked and spent their rest time praying by the roadside for those to whom they had witnessed. When they returned at twilight with shining eyes and voices still joyous with praise, it was learned that during the whole, long, hot afternoon the girls had not taken a single drink of water.” How often do we fail to simply do the work of evangelism? Revival will change that as the Spirit moves us, empowers us, and sustains us.
•Evangelism became the focus of those revived by the Spirit. Of the local school Culpepper reports, "No longer a school, but a powerhouse preparing bands of soul winners. No longer hiring teachers, but men and women watching prayerfully the spiritual growth of each student. No longer simply a mission school, but everything is for God's glory!" What if revival broke out in the company or organization you lead? You might report, “No longer a timber company but a powerhouse of preparing loggers to be soul winners.” “No longer an office but a powerhouse of preparing accountants/clerks/receptionists to be soul winners.” “No longer a lawn company but a powerhouse for training lawn mower operators to be soul sinners.” Revival can make that happen.

What, though you may ask, is evangelism? Do I have to learn a specific method for sharing the gospel? While methods like F.A.I.T.H., the Three Circles, or the Roman Road can help they are not essential for sharing the gospel. Evangelism is telling your story and inviting someone to receive Christ. This was evident in China:

The revival continued in and around Pingtu. The hearts of the people were full of praise and thanksgiving. One of the outstanding features of the revival is personal testimony. People went everywhere witnessing and telling everyone they met the wonderful things the Lord had done for them. Christians realized their relatives and friends were lost, and they sought to win them to Christ.
Mr. Li, after having been revived and healed, became a living epistle of what God can do in a pagan's life. He went to every home in his town with the story of his conversion, praying continually for Chinese families.
In some communities a few Christians met daily for prayer and Bible study. They prayed for their unsaved friends, pleading that the Holy Spirit would convict them of their sin. Then they divided into teams and went out with the message that Jesus came to save sinners.
These humble Chinese Christians, whose lips were touched with the message of Christ, went about their work seeking to be good examples of what the Spirit of God had done in their lives. They never missed an opportunity to speak to a lost person about his eternal soul. Little children, old men and women, people of all ages whose lives had been changed, thus witnessed.

Evangelism is simply telling your story. Many think evangelism is the job of the pastors or a special elite force of Christians. That is not so. Culpepper, a missionary who left his home and most of his family concludes, “One day a great realization came to me. Our Lord did not limit His work to the pastor or the Sunday School teacher or the professional church worker. All the church, every born again believer, was to be a witness. When the Chinese Christians actually experienced the Holy Spirit, they witnessed with great vigor! I saw these simple, uneducated Christians do things for the Lord that many missionaries were unable to do.”

Let us be “simple” and simply tell our story. If you feel like you can’t or you feel like you have no desire, pray for revival. Revival can make it happen.
^{[1] C.L. Culpepper, The Shantung Revival, chapter 4 accessed https://www.gospeltruth.net/shantung.htm.}

March 6 Day 24: Revival Releases Reconciliation
Scriptures: Revelation 7:9-17, Peter 1:3-9
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to give you a humble Spirit. Ask the Lord to reveal any prejudices you may have. Ask the Lord to empower you with the strength and love necessary to address any prejudices you may have.  

There is very little in life harder to overcome than prejudice. In the modern world, we associate prejudice with skin color, cultural practices, and economic station. Anthropologists and sociologists might study cultural roots to discover the cause of prejudice. Psychologists might look at the mind and individual personal histories to discover the initial triggers that lead to prejudice. The one who tends to the soul of man, though, understands that prejudice is rooted in the sinful heart of man. We dislike things that are different, and this triggers our prejudice of cultural differences. We are prideful, and this triggers our prejudice against those who are not successful in the ways we are. We crave power and this triggers prejudice against any group that we perceive as a threat. Now we would never admit those feelings. However, if we refuse to discover and admit to our individual roots of prejudice, we will never be able to address the issue.

We will probably never be able to gather the world together and sing campfire songs. The world is broken by sin, and part of that brokenness is prejudice. That, though, is not the Lord’s plan. We know this because in Revelation 7 He gives us a glimpse of the world after He has fixed it. John saw standing before the throne a great multitude of people “from every nation, tribe, people, and language” (7:9) praising the Lord.
•We can read that theologically (the study of God) and glean information about God—He desires the whole earth to worship Him.
•We can read that soteriological (the study of salvation) and glean information about God’s worldwide plan for salvation.
•We can read that eschatologically (the study of the end) and glean information about God’s eternal plan.
But let us take a moment and read that passage through the lens of our sinful emotions, sinful culture, and sinful desires. It is not possible but let’s imagine you/I/we were teleported to that time yet maintain our current redeemed-yet-sinful self. How would you/I/we respond to such a scene? Would we marvel at the diversity? Would we weep for joy over nationalities that once waged war now at peace? Would we stand slack-jawed and amazed that two men who feuded over minute things their entire lives now raise their hands in praise to the King? Or, would wonder which group gets to stand in the front—or the back? Would we discover ourselves standing next to a person of a different skin color and look for someone else to stand by. Would we laugh and mentally disparage the person dancing in circles of praise, the person wearing a distinctive hat or grass skirt, or the person whose language sounds odd to our ears?

Like I said that can’t happen. It would be impossible for us to maintain our sinful prejudices in that situation because by then God will have dealt with our sin problem. But I hope you see my point. That scene of multiethnic, multicultural worship would be rare in our world, and it is rare because of your/my/our response to other people. That picture of harmonious praise is yet to come. But if righteous harmony among the peoples is God’s desire for sinless humanity and we currently espouse to be forgiven members of God’s Kingdom, should we not long for that today? Should we not strive to catch a glimpse of that here? Should we not exert our energies to make that possible in our lives and our communities and or churches?

When we experience revival, the Lord will address our sin problem. In the Korean revival that took place at the turn of the 20th century, it is said that people stood and confessed their sins publicly. The same happened at the revival on the Wheaton College campus in 1997. Students from Howard Payne University came to Wheaton to share about the revival taking place on their campus in Brownwood Texas. After they concluded their testimony of God’s work, “Wheaton students were largely silent.” The opportunity for confession was given and “Students began to share testimonies, confessing pride, sexual sin, and animosity toward their neighbors.” [1]  That is what we expect when we say God will address our sin problem. However, there are times when God will go deeper. Revival will reveal that our hearts are terribly wicked indeed. (Jeremiah 17:9). That is what happened in Africa during the twentieth century.

During the revival that came to Rwanda and Uganda in the 1920s and 1930s, there was a mixture of leaders. Some were European missionaries some, and more effectively, were Africans who cared for the souls of Africans. In 1942 William Nagenda wrote, “We can’t go on like this; the world is perishing, and I hear His voice calling me to take responsibility not only for Uganda, but for Africa, and the whole world.”[2]  Nagenda was writing to the missionary Joe Church with whom he would later travel the world as an evangelist for Jesus and a representative of African faith.[3]  In 1929, Church was visiting Kampala, Uganda and met an acquaintance named Simeon Nsibambi. Nsibambi was Uganda’s chief health official and had committed himself to the Lord from a young age. However, he desired to be more like Christ and do more for Christ. He, Church, and others who sought personal revival began to meet and study the Scriptures. Before long Nsibambi was on mission for God.[4]  During this time he made a vow, “I have committed myself to God the Father. As from today I desire to be genuinely holy and never unintentionally do anything unguided by Jesus.[5]  His personal revival changed his life. He resigned his government job and traded his suits for “a flowing white robe and bare feet and began preaching to anyone who would listen. Later Joe Church met a fellow missionary who asked him, “What did you do to Nsibambi” Church responded, “Why, what’s the matter.” The woman told him, “Oh he’s gone mad and is going round everywhere asking people if they are saved. He’s just left my gardener.” [6]  By 1943 strain had confined Nsibambi’s ministry to his home where still welcomed guests and those desiring to deepen their faith.[7]  Leaders like Nsibambi and Church led a revival that spread to countries outside of Uganda. It was leaders like Nagenda, who wrote to church in 1942, that continued the work in the years following World War II when renewed prejudice began to cause problems for the church and much of Africa.

Prejudice had always been an issue in colonial Africa, and really how could it not be. The European nations had exploited the land and its people for centuries. Along with their armies and governors, they had sent their missionaries. These missionaries did the work of Christ through evangelism and medical care. Regardless of their Kingdom work, they were always tied to the colonial powers in the minds of many. Joe Church and others addressed this issue during the revival of the 1920s and 1930s. He felt that “unity between white missionaries and Africans was the revival’s greatest outcome.”  In 1933 he wrote, “We found when once we had repented and in some cases asked forgiveness for our prejudice and white superiority, a new realm of relationships was entered into which altered the character of all our work.”[8]  It is difficult to build the Kingdom of God when people inside the Kingdom harbor negative feelings toward others in the Kingdom. The reconciliation between the two groups enhanced the revival in central Africa. The end of the war, though, renewed old prejudices and brought a new kind of prejudice.

This renewed and new prejudice was seen most keenly in Kenya. After the war, African soldiers returned home and their resentment against the colonial powers boiled over. By 1952, a group called the Mau Mau began to fight for independence. This fight against the colonial powers included a fight against what they perceived to be the colonial religion. There was however a deeper, spiritual dimension to their hatred of Christians. Historian of revivals Edwin Orr was present when 2,000 Kenyans defied the Mau Mau and gathered in Kenya’s capital to celebrate the work of God. One of the speakers was a clergyman from the Kikuyu (the tribe that had begun the Mau Mau movement). The clergyman had been disfigured by soldiers when he refused to deny Christ. In his book Evangelical Awakenings in Africa Orr writes, “His was a message of freedom, freedom from hatred of other tribes and races, freedom from fear.” Orr goes on to assert that one of the reasons the Mau Mau despised the church was that “revival reconciled whites and blacks and restored trust between tribes.” Eventually, Kenyans won their independence from Britain, but not before the English killed 10,000 Kenyans. Everyone expected a bloodbath to follow the takeover by the Mau Mau government. However, Kenya’s new leader Jomo Kenyatta shocked the nation in his inaugural address. He announced, “You forgive us, and we will forgive you.” Historians tell us that the only reason African Christianity withstood the turmoil of the mid-twentieth century was the ongoing revival that began in the 1920s and 1930s. Neville Langford-Smith, future Anglican bishop, “noted how the atonement doctrine of reconciliation between man and God, emphasized during the revival showed races and tribes how to reconcile.” [9]

First Peter 1:3-9 tells us that the trials of this world will lead to praise and glory at the return of Christ. That praise and glory will turn into the worship of the Lamb by the nations. While this sin-soaked world produces prejudice and hatred like was seen in Africa in the twentieth century and the prejudice seen in our snide remarks at the gas station and church parking lot, let us exert the effort to listen to the Lord as He speaks to us in revival. Let us remember the atoning work on the cross for all nations, tribes, tongues, and people. If the oppressed followers of Jesus in central Africa can overcome centuries of racism and decades of tribal warfare, can we not begin the process of asking forgiveness, giving forgiveness, and practicing justice in our homes, churches, and communities?
^{[1] Anna Mares, “Could Revival Come to Wheaton? It’s Happened Before,” The Wheaton Record, March 16, 2023, https://thewheatonrecord.com/2023/03/16/could-revival-come-to-wheaton/ accessed March 1, 2025.
[2] Colin Hansen and John Woodbridge, A God-Sized Vision (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 126.
[3] H. H. Osborn, “Nagenda, Williams (A)” in Dictionary of African Christian Biography, www. dacb.org/stories/uganda/nagenda-william accessed March 1, 2025.
[4] Hansen and Woodbridge, 121-124.
[5] Eddie Sempala, “Nsibambi, Simeoni,” in Dictionary of African Chrsitian Biography, www. dacb.org/stories/uganda/nsimambi3-simeon accessed March 1, 2025.
[6] Hansen and Woodbridge, 123.
[7] Sempala.
[8] Hansen and Woodbridge, 127.
[9] Hansen and Woodbridge, 129.}

March 7 Day 25: Revival for a Mission
Scriptures: Colossians 1:24-29
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to start a revival in you. Ask the Lord to set you on mission to bring the gospel to those who need to hear it.  

Sometimes when we want to engage with a child we will ask them, “What do you want to be when you grow up.” We might get answers like firefighter, nurse, or president. From a early age we encourage kids to think about their future goals. As they get older, we encourage them to consider professions that will support their family. If we see they have a free spirit and might aspire to be a professional skier, we might remind them that you can’t support a family as a ski bum. Counselors of high school juniors and seniors might encourage students to find a passion or a purpose in life. As twenty- and thirty-somethings young professionals might desire to leave their profession as they face a quarter-life crisis because their jobs are unfulfilling. Maybe, they think, I should have become a firefighter.

Purpose and meaning are what we seek in life. We do not always find that in the job that pays the bills. The older folks might say jobs are not supposed to be fun. That is why they call it a job. In some ways, they are correct. Jobs are how we pay the bills. If then I do not find purpose in meaning in my job, where will I find purpose and meaning? How do I find the mission for my life? Luckily for the believer, the answer is not hard to find. Christ gives us our marching orders in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8. We are be His witnesses. Paul, of whom it would good to imitate, explains his mission in Colossians 1:24-29. He says that he has become a “servant” to God and His “commission” to “make the word fully known” by proclaiming Christ “striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.” We might work for the “man,” but we are servants of God. We might labor for a paycheck, but we strive “to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all.” (Jude 3) It is in Christ’s mission that we find our true, eternal, purpose.

One night in East London, William Booth recognized God’s mission for his life. Booth was born to a nonreligious, working-class family. He was invited by a couple to visit their church soon after his father died. The following year, at age 15, he received the salvation of Christ. As an adolescent, Booth worked to evangelize the poor of Nottingham. He quickly became frustrated by the clergy who, in his mind, did not advocate enough for revival. His pastor encouraged him that instead of being discouraged, he should enter the clergy himself. He did and worked as a pastor for a few years. “By 1861 he found that ‘settled ministry’ did not suit him, and he resigned [his church].”[1]  In 1865, he found himself outside the “Blind Beggar” pub in London’s East End.[2]  “East London was, in the words of one writer, ‘a squalid labyrinth, with half a million people, 290 to the acre. Every fifth house was a gin shop, and most had special steps to help even the tiniest [children] reach the counter.’”[3]  That night, Booth preached in the open air to those who would listen and returned home to tell his wife and partner in ministry that God had given him his mission. He told her, “Oh, Kate, I have found my destiny. These are the people for whose salvation I have been longing all these years. As I passed the doors of the flaming sin-palaces tonight I seemed to hear a voice sounding in my ears, ‘Where can you go to find such heathen as these, and where is there so great a need for your labours?’ And there and then in my soul I offered up myself and you and the children to this great work. These people shall be our people, and they shall have our God for their God.”[4]

William and Catherine Booth formed the Salvation Army. In his own words, his army was to be “a force of converted men and women, joined together after the fashion of an army, who intend to make all men yield, or, at least, listen to the claims which God has to their love and service.”[5]  William Booth’s purpose was to unite followers of Christ into an army that would share the love of Christ with those who had no interest in the formal church and of whom the formal church did little to reach. He had a heart for the lost and needed partners to help him. He recruited many workers, and in 1877 he decided to recruit the family of Rodney Smith. Rodney Smith was a member of the nomadic gypsy people of England. He was saved as a teenager. He felt called to preach so he taught himself to read and would practice “preaching to the turnips.” Known as “Gypsy Smith,” he was to be a “captain” in the Salvation Army Christian Mission in London. He served with Booth for only six years, but during that time, he preached at a church in Chatham where the congregation grew from 10 to 250. At a church in Hull, he would preach to over a thousand people each week. After his ministry with the Salvation Army, Gypsy Smith began traveling the world as an evangelist. It is reported that he crossed the Atlantic Ocean 45 times. He preached in the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa, and the United States. It is said that he preached to more people than anyone before him.[6]   At the end of one of his evangelistic meetings, an older gypsy man placed his hand on Gypsy Smith’s head. The evangelist asked what he was doing. “The old gypsy told him, “I’m feeling for the secret to your success.” Gypsy Smith replied, “Well, my brother, you are too high. The secret of my success lies in my heart.”[7]

William Booth and Gypsy Smith both discovered their mission in life. Neither man came from much, but in finding Christ they found all they needed. In Christ, they were given a mission. Like Paul, they chose to serve the Lord and His commission. In doing so, they were part of Christ’s work around the globe.

We seek revival. Revival will produce evangelism. But first, we must commit to the work of Christ and seek revival. Gypsy Smith had some advice for those seeking revival. He said, “Find a piece of chalk, and find an empty room. Go into that room and shut the door. Draw a circle on the floor with that chalk, kneel down in that circle, and ask God to start revival right there.”
^{[1] Norman H. Murdoch, “The General,” 26 Christian History, (1990) www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/general-william-booth accessed on March 1, 2025.
[2] “William Booth Finds His Destiny, 26 Christian History, (1990) www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/william-booth-finds-his-destiny accessed on March 1, 2025.
[3] Murdoch.
[4] John Goetsch and Nathan Brit, Revival Today: 365 Challenging Devotions from Revival History, (Lancaster, CA: Striving Together Publishing, 2018), 205.
[5] “William Booth’s Life,” 26 Christian History, (1990) www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/william-booths-life accessed on March 1, 2025.
[6] John Funnell, “Rodney ‘Gypsy’ Smith,” Evangelical Magazine January/February (2021) www.evangelicalmagazine.com/article/the-greatest-evangelist-in-the-world/ accessed on March 1, 2025.
[7] John Goetsch and Nathan Brit, 207.}

March 10 Day 26: Post-Revival: Read Daily
Scriptures: Psalm 119:97-104
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to give you a taste for His Word, a mind that will absorb it, and a heart that will follow it.

All good things come to an end. That is what moms tell their kids at the end of the birthday party. That is what kids learn at the end of summer break. Likewise, the end of a road trip reminds us that real life is right around the corner. As we move toward the end of the Road to Revival, we should be looking forward to what comes after revival. From the beginning of this trip, we have said that revival was not our destination. Instead, our destination was the presence of God and the power of the Spirit in our lives. What takes place after the revival happens? In the histories of revivals, there is a point where scholars outline the waning days of powerful movements. The movements end. The emotional meetings end. The prayer meetings peter out. But what about those who experienced personal revival? what are they to do after the events come to a close?

Personal revival does not require a movement or even a series of revival meetings. Sometimes we experience personal revival when the Lord moves in our lives through a worship service or a series of discipleship conversations. Sometimes the Lord moves when young people go to camp. Sometimes the Lord moves when we commit to doing the work of the spiritual disciplines. After the Lord moves and we experience revival, we must determine our future path. Will we continue to live our lives in the midst of the Lord’s presence and empowered by the Spirit? This week we will look at a few practices that will demonstrate the reality of personal revival and help maintain the effects of the revival. We will challenge ourselves to:
1)Read God’s Word Daily
2)Pray Fervently
3)Evangelize Boldly
4)Minister Faithfully
5)Serve Empathically

READ GOD’S WORD DAILY
We saw in earlier weeks that the authority of God’s Word is instrumental in bringing about revival. Submission to and love of God’s Word is also essential for maintaining a revived lifestyle. Many things can cause revival power to drain from our lives. After revival meetings end or a movement dies down, the revived believer returns to the everyday drudgery of work without the pick-me-up of congregational meetings. Similarly, life can sometimes hit hard through financial strain, healthy scares, and relational schisms. While these things just seem like life, sometimes they can be spiritual in nature. Personal and corporate revival does not go unnoticed by the enemy. Jesus says that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The troubles of life can steal our joy, kill our enthusiasm for the Lord, and destroy our revived faithfulness. Sometimes the enemy will orchestrate those life events that threaten us. In Psalm 119:97-104, the psalmist meditates on the role God’s Word plays in dealing with the troubles of life and his enemies. We can read the Psalm and, like the psalmist, we can express our commitment to the Word[1]  as a guide in the revived life.

This stanza of Psalm 119 begins with an exclamation, “How I love your instructions!” In revival meetings and personal revival of the heart we will experience and express our love for the Lord, but for revival to continue that love of the Lord must be expressed in a love of His instructions/law/Word. We love the Lord’s instructions because they are the instructions of the Lord, and He is the Lord of the Word. In Psalm 119, 176 verses extoll “the beauty and wonder of the Bible,” but this passage expressly “addresses [the writer’s] love for the word of God.”[2]  The Word of God should be loved by God’s people simply because it is the words of God, but there is also a practical reason the Spirit-filled and Spirit-led follower of Jesus should love the Word. Akin explains that this passage reveals that the Word 1) gives wisdom (vv. 97-100), 2) keeps the believer from evil (vv. 101-102), and 3) provides joy and protection (vv. 103-104).

In verses 97-100, the psalmist expresses the manner in which God’s Word provides wisdom. First, Word-inspired wisdom will surpass the wisdom of one’s enemies. The psalmist spoke often of enemies in Psalm 119. Let us consider those enemies as they relate to the spiritual life and the revived spirit of believers. Akin helps with some descriptors of the evil ones in Psalm 119.[3]
•Enemies can be arrogant (v. 21): How can the arrogant threaten our revived faith?—The arrogant will “know” what is right or what we should do. They might have more knowledge than I do, but the Word makes me wiser than they or myself.
•Enemies can insult us and hold us in contempt (v. 22): How can insults and the contempt of our peers threaten our revived faith?—The worldly will “look down on” our revived faith and spiritually invigorated lives. The Word reminds us that those who follow the Lord are involved in something much bigger than this world, beyond this world, and better than this world.
•Enemies can be plot against us and taunt us (vv. 23, 42): How can the plots of the unbeliever harm our revived spirit?—The unbeliever or spiritual wanderers in our life will sometimes plot to get us off track and taunt us with the tantalizing treasures of this world. The Word provides wisdom and eyes to see the true reality of God’s great gifts and our future inheritance with Him.
•Enemies can lie about us and to us (vv. 69, 78, 86): How can lies threaten our spiritual renewal?—The lies of the enemy from the lips of our friends or the whispers in our minds threaten our revived understanding of ourselves. We are children of God, redeemed by God. We have been brought from darkness into light. We are no longer what we once were. The enemy wants us to forget that.

The human enemies of our spiritual revival will not always realize they are actually pawns in a spiritual war. These enemies persecute us (v. 84), set traps for us (v. 85), and even threaten our (spiritual) lives (v. 85, 94), yet God’s Word gives us wisdom. The Psalmist says that it gives him wisdom because it is always with him (v. 98). In our modern world, it is easier than ever to literally have the Word of God with you. But we need to do more than have it in our backpack, our pocket, or our phone. We need to have it in us. We need the actual words of the Word in our heads and the percepts of the Word in our hearts if we are going to withstand our enemies.

God’s Word not only gives us wisdom over our enemies but also provides wisdom greater than our teachers and elders. Now this sounds counterintuitive for the believer who is taught to seek guidance from teachers and wisdom from the wise. However, there are those who want to teach us but do not know the Teacher. The Word in us will help us see the flaws in the human logic and worldly advice. Those who are older than us might have some “life lessons” to bestow on us. However, the lessons of life are not always the lessons of heaven. The Word in us will enable us to discern that which is from above from that which is from below. The psalmist says that he has more insights than his teachers because he meditates on the Word. What we think about determines how we think. Thinking about God’s Word has the physical, real-world ability to reshape the way our brain works. God created our brains to rewire and change their physical structure when we think on things.[4]  Therefore, we should think on the things of God. The psalmist goes on the state that he has more understanding than his elders because he obeys God’s precepts. While godly wisdom from godly elders is good, sometimes we can gain the same insights without paying the “stupid tax” that comes from lessons learned from stupid mistakes. The psalmist says that he does not need to learn from their mistakes or his own because he keeps God’s law. The accounts in God’s will put wisdom in our vault without us having to reap the results of sin.

Psalm 119:101-102 tells us that the wisdom of the Word, applied to our everyday life, will keep us from evil. The psalmist explains that he follows God’s Word (v. 101). There are a lot of people, books, TV shows, movies, religions, philosophers, politicians, and policies that seek to guide us. They want to put us on a path. They tell us that the path is enlightened. They tell us the path is scientifically proven. They tell us the path will lead to a better society, a better you, or a better future. However, the Word of God tells us in Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.” Eugene Peters paraphrases that for us and says, “There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell” (Message translation).[5]  How can the revived follower of Christ stay on the right path? He follows the right map. Next, the psalmist says that God has instructed him. The instructions of God have enabled him to refrain from turning off the path. The Holy Spirit wants to instruct us and keep us on the path. Through reading and meditating on God’s Word we are reading and meditating on the teaching of God Himself. We might think that we have to read the right books, listen to the right podcasts, or seek out the best preacher to stay on the right path. Those help, but the Word of God is the instruction of the best writer, the best communicator, and the best preacher. He will teach you how to stay on the path.

The psalmist concludes this stanza in Psalm 119 by reminding us that the Word provides joy and protection. In Psalm 103 he says the Word is “sweet.” In Psalm 104, he teaches him to hate the “false ways.” There is nothing like grandma’s good home cooking, and there is nothing worse than the false home cooking you get from the trademarked “Grandma’s Home Cookin’ Buffet.” The Word of God is the real thing and it is sweet. The Word of  God is the real thing, and it teaches us to hate the false ways of this world. Throughout this passage. the psalmist has shown us why the Word is sweet. It gives us wisdom beyond our years and beyond our personal experience. The Word keeps us on the right path so we do not have to learn from our mistakes. The key to maintaining the revived life is to meditate on the Word.

Let’s conclude with some words from John Piper’s devotional “How to Delight in God’s Word:”
"Never reduce Christianity to a matter of demands and resolutions and willpower. It is a matter of what we love, what we delight in, what tastes good to us… So someone may ask: How can I come to delight in the Word of God? My answer is twofold: (1) pray for new taste buds on the tongue of your heart; (2) meditate on the staggering promises of God to his people."[6]

Revival can continue if we eat the right food. Enjoy the home-cooked Word of God that provides wisdom, guidance, and joy.

^{[1]Geoffrey W. Grogan, The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary: Psalms, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 198.
[2] Daniel Akin, Christ-Center Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Psalm 119 (Nashville, Holman Reference, 2021), 84.
[3] c.f. Ibid, 85-86.
[4] See Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley, The Mind and Brain (New York: Harper, 2002) for the science of neuroplasticity.
[5] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Pr 14:12.
[6] Akin, Psalm 119, 84.}

March 11 Day 27: Post-Revival: Pray Fervently
Scriptures: Philippians 1:3-11
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to give you a heart for prayer and a heart to pray for His continued work in the life of His church.

We have seen in our study that revival is the product of prayer. Likewise, the revived life is perpetuated by prayer. In his book Fresh Wind Fresh Fire, Jim Cymbala tells the story of the church he pastored for most of his life. When he first came to the church, it was struggling to survive. His book explains that it was the power of God called down through the prayer of the saints that enabled this local church to do great things for the Lord. During the early years, the church was struggling. Their attendance was approving, but the 40 or 45 who were coming were struggling themselves. The young pastor wanted to see God do something, but he was discouraged. He writes, “I was tired of the escapist mentality I had witnessed since childhood—always glorifying what God did way back in some revival, or else passionately predicting the ‘coming great move of God’ just ahead.” It is at this point that he realized what his church needed was “fresh wind and fresh fire.”[1]

During this season of slow and shallow growth, the Lord reminded the pastor of the importance of prayer. Pastor Cymbala spoke to his small, struggling, not-yet-famous church and told them that he had an announcement:
It’s not fancy or profound or spectacular. But I want to say to you today with all seriousness I can muster: From this day on, the prayer meeting will be the barometer of our church. What happens on Tuesday night will be the gauge by which we will judge success or failure because that will be the measure by which God blesses us… This is the engine that will drive the church. Yes, I want you to keep coming on Sundays—but Tuesday night is what it’s really about.

In the same retelling of these events, Jim Cymbal says that there was a visiting minister in the midst of their small congregation that day. At some point during the service, he was invited to say a few words. He said, “I heard what your pastor said. Here’s something to think about: “You can tell how popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning. You can tell how popular a pastor or evangelist is by who comes on Sunday night. But you can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting.” After that, he simply sat down.[2]  The rest of the book is simply a recounting of the work of God in a praying church—the church in Brooklyn before Brooklyn became a hipster paradise and the church before it became the Brooklyn Tabernacle.

This church prayed for the power of God. They desired what fellow New York City pastor Tim Keller called the “intensification of the ordinary operation of the Holy Spirit.”[3]  That is revival, but as the church in Brooklyn saw that same prayer empowered them to maintain the spirit of revival for years to come. When we experience personal and corporate revival, it will only be maintained through prayer. The church in Philippi had experienced an outpouring of the Spirit of God through the initial salvation of Lydia and a jailer. This church continued on in its ministry, and several years later Paul wrote to them a letter of joy. The book of Philippians begins with a prayer for the people. We can model our prayers for the continuation of the revived life on Paul’s prayer for this church.

He begins by telling the church that he prays for them consistently and continuously (vv. 3-4). He prays for them because he knows what God did in them “from the first day” and what God has done through them “until now” (v 5). They have been his partners in the gospel assuredly in their hometown but also with him in “imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel” (vv. 7-8). Yet he prays for this church that saw God move and continued to serve after that. He prays for them because he knows the embers of salvation joy and the fires of revival excitement must be stoked. God wants far more than to start things. He wants to bring them to fruition. Paul assures them “that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (v. 6). God does not awaken us to salvation or revive us in the Spirit in order to leave us there. These events are starting points on the race, not the finish line. The goal is not salvation or revival the goal is Christlikeness and life lived in the Spirit. In verses 8-11, he tells them how he prays.

In verse 9, he prays they will love more. They are a loving church, but he prays their love abounds. No, not just abounds but that it abounds more. If abounding is good, then to abound more is better. He says, I pray your love abounds more and more—that’s best. What kind of love is this? It is the self-sacrificial love based on the self-sacrificial love of Christ on the cross. It is the love of 1 Corinthians 13. A love like this that flows over in the church, in the community, and in families will help maintain the fires of revival. This love, though, is to grow in “knowledge and every kind of discernment” (v. 9) In other words, the self-sacrificial love of believers is built on and hemmed in by the knowledge of the Lord. That is, it is guided by the illumination of God’s Word by the Spirit of God. Paul continues to pray that they (and we) will experience the results of such love. The resulting effect of such love is a desire for “the things that are superior.” When we love God rightly and then love others rightly, we will desire the superior life God has for us. In chapter four, he encourages these believers. He writes in 4:8, “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.” If we do that we will grow in our faith and “be pure and blameless” on the day of Christ’s return (v. 10). Moreover, we will be “filled with the fruit of righteousness” (v. 11).

The church at Philippi had experienced the work of the Spirit. They had joined in the work of God’s Kingdom. A revived person and a revived church will do likewise. Nevertheless, the church at Philippi needed prayers to sustain them. Likewise, the revived church and the revived person need prayer to sustain them. We should pray fervently for ourselves and for others who experience the power of the Spirit. As the church in Brooklyn saw, it is the power of the Spirit called down by the praying saints that will make it possible for believers and the church to see God continue His work.

^{[1]Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind Fresh Fire (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 22.
[2] Ibid, 27-28.
[3] Timothy Keller, “Lord Do it Again: Tim Keller on Revival,” www.the gospelcoalition.org/article/tim-keller-revival Accessed on February 26, 2025}

March 12 Day 28: Post-Revival: Evangelize Boldly
Scriptures: Acts 8
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to give you a passion for the lost and a desire to see them come to faith in Christ.

In the book of Acts, the writer Luke details the work of the Spirit in the lives of early believers and the expansion of God’s church throughout the Mediterranean world. Following the great outpouring of the Spirit in Acts chapter 2 we see a great boldness in the evangelism of the early Christians.  One interesting dynamic of the bold evangelism exhibited in the Book of Acts is the manner in which it spread. First, we see that the bold evangelism spread in those who shared the message. Chapter 2 provides the account of Peter standing with the eleven before the crowds (2:14). At the conclusion of his sermon, the people respond and ask “Peter and rest of the apostles” what to do (2:32). In chapters 3 and 4, we see John become part of the focus in Luke’s telling of the evangelistic efforts. Following Peter and John’s arrested and subsequently released the believers gathered to pray. Acts 4:1-31 records their prayer and verses 29 and 30 reveal the desires of the young church. “29 And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After their requests for boldness and for the Lord to work, we see a focus on the larger evangelistic team. In chapter 5, all of the apostles are arrested for their bold evangelism. The growth in evangelism led to a growth in the church. This in turn led to the need for ministry development. The needs of the widows required the addition of deacons to serve them. However, some of those deacons became prominent evangelists themselves. One of these was Stephen. He preached with boldness and that boldness led to further persecution and eventually his death.

The martyrdom of Stephen led us to the second form of evangelistic expansion. We learn in chapter 8 that the persecution caused all but the Apostles to leave Jerusalem (8:1). Luke goes on to tell us that “4 So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word.” (8:4). The narrative of the book of Acts tells us that God used the evil of others to fulfill His plan for evangelism and missions. In the recounting of Luke, the Acts 1:8 mandate to take the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth was about to take its first step out of Jerusalem. The book focuses specifically on Philip who went to Samaria and saw a great awakening among this culturally different group. It was so great that the leadership in Jerusalem sent Peter and John to investigate. The two apostles were so encouraged by what they saw they joined for a time and prayed for the Samaritan believers. Things could have continued for a while in Samaria, but the Holy Spirit led Philip to a different ministry setting: the desert road leading from Jerusalem to Gaza. There he met the Ethiopian official and ran boldly to his chariot and boldly interrupted his reading to share the gospel. The official believed and was baptized. With this conversion, the gospel then spread to Africa. There were surely more people sharing the gospel and more amazing stories of the Lord’s work, but the examples provided by Luke show the empowerment of God to produce bold evangelism.

Earlier in our study, we mentioned the revival of the early and mid-1700s which historians call the Great Awakening. We saw that in the time following this Great Awakening, there was what some call a lull in interest of Christianity and others call a reorganization of the church in America. Regardless of one’s interpretation of events the fervor of the revival did subside. However, the work of God did not. The ripple effects of the revival had spread across the Atlantic. In the late 1700s, England was dealing with the same philosophical and intellectual debates faced by the students of Yale that we examined previously. The debates were sparked by the intellectuals in France during the country’s revolution. According to Edwin Orr, “The infidelity of the French Revolution represented the greatest challenge to Christianity since the time preceding Emperor Constantine.”[1]  Not only were their attacks against the church by unbelievers there were also theological and ecclesial disputes among believers. However, the ripple effects of the Great Awakening made it possible for the work of God to precede with boldness. Orr argues that the beginning of the Second Great Awakening came in the “industrial cities of Yorkshire in late 1791”[2]  Prior to this outpouring of the Spirit believers had been praying. Despite philosophical attacks from the outside and theological disputes on the inside believers prayed for God to move.

Jonathan Edwards’ account of the events during the First Great Awakening was published in England in 1784. The publication included a plea for prayer that God act again. Three men decided to take up that call. They were Andrew Fuller, John Sutciffe, and a layman named William Carey. The Lord would move six years later and revivals subsequently broke out in England and America. We looked at the events at Cane Ridge in 1801 and the student revival at Yale in 1802 and following. In Great Britain, the awakening led to an evangelical awakening in the dominant Anglican church. Wales received a great movement of the Spirit as did Scotland. In Ireland, there were local revivals in churches amidst the Rebellion of 1798. The revival on these islands just off the coast of Europe led to the formation of several organizations of societies. We will talk about some of those in the following days, but first let’s examine the Baptist Missionary Society. This influential organization owes its start to a praying layman William Carey.

William Carey was born into a nominally Anglican family in 1761.[3]  That means he was about 23 when he joined Fuller and Sutcliffe to pray for revival in 1784. He had been converted by a Baptist preacher and baptized later. After his baptism, he began to preach. He was not a very good preacher. In fact, he carried out the act of preaching with such inability that the church at Olney initially refused to recommend him to the pastorate. Eventually, he was recommended and became the pastor of the church at Moulton. To supplement his income, he continued his work as a shoemaker. But there was more to Carey than preaching and shoemaking. At a young age, he was fascinated by the wider world. His nickname as a child had been Columbus because of his fascination with the early explorer. He read Captain Cook’s Voyages, and later declared, that it “was the first thing that engaged my mind to think of missions.”[4]  His fascination broadened into a love of maps on which he would note facts about the nations like population size and religion.[5]  It is said that he would use shoe leather to create globes of the world on which the continents were different colors of tanned leather. Carey also had a love of and knack for languages. At his cobbler’s bench, he would prop up books from which he learned Greek, Hebrew, Dutch, French, and Latin along with several other languages. Carey’s love of Jesus and his passion for the world became a passion to reach the lost. It became the center of “his conversation, his preaching, and his writing.”[6]

Carey’s passion was evident in 1787 at the Minsters Fraternal of the Northampton Association. At one meeting Carey proposed a topic for discussion: “Where the command given to the apostles to teach the nations not binding on all succeeding ministers to the end of the world.” While this might elicit an affirmative response from some today, the theological debates in England at the time caused some to question the preaching of the gospel to sinners at all. Such thoughts were evident in the response Carey received: “Sit down young man. You are an enthusiast! When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without consulting you or me.” [7]  While Carey submitted to the authority of the older men in the room that day, he would not be stopped. In 1792, he published the book An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use the means for the Conversion of the Heathen. That same year he preached a sermon at the Nottingham association meeting. In the sermon, he had two now-famous points: Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. While our hearts might be stirred by such thoughts, it appeared that the meeting at Nottingham was going to end with no further movement on the issue concerning the conversion of the heathen. Carey’s friend and former prayer partner was drawing the meeting to a close and Carey tugged on his coat and asked a fateful question. “Oh, sir, is nothing to be done? Is nothing to be done again?” McBeth asserts that Carey’s sermon was a “turning point in Baptist history.”[8]  That day the association resolved to begin the process of the formation of a society to meet the need presented by Carey. In October of that year, a group meeting in the home of widow Martha Wallace formed the “Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen.” It was more commonly called the Baptist Missionary Society. By some, it was known as the “Heathen Society.”[9]

The Society’s first missionary was a doctor wanting to return to India. They decide to send Carey along with him. The date for the voyage was set and Carey’s wife, Dorothy, did not approve of the venture. Only after a last-minute plea when his ship was delayed would she agree to go. He arrived in Calcutta on November 11, 1793.[10]  The first years on the mission field were not easy. The family suffered poverty, constant relocation, disease, and death. A bout with dysentery led to a mental breakdown for Dorothy.[11]  In later years, she was carried for by Hannah Marshman the wife of another missionary.[12]  Despite the hardships and no conversions, Carey continued to work and by 1797 he was ready to publish a Bengali New Testament.[13]

In 1799, Carey was joined by two other missionaries and their families. The two men were John Ward and Joshua Marshman. The team, today known as the Serampore Trio, relocated to the city of that name near Calcutta. Finally in 1800, after 7 years on the mission field, Carey baptized his first convert, Krishna Pal. John Ward proved a great asset to the team. He was the printer and set up the printing press that would publish Carey’s Bengali New Testament in 1801. Ward also functioned as a surrogate father to the Carey children.[14]  And won Feliz, Carey’s oldest son, to the Lord.[15]  Marshman was the intellectual among the group and a bold preacher. He often suffered wounds from bricks thrown by angry Indians.[16]  While their long years of ministry only resulted in 700 Indian believers, their translation and printing work was prodigious. They translated “the entire Bible into Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese, and Sanskrit, and parts of it into 29 other languages and dialects.”[17]  Ward preceded Carey in death. Carey joined him in June 1834 after 40 years on the mission field.

There was much contention over the years between Carey and the Baptist Mission Board. There was much hardship on the field. Carey might not have produced many converts for the Lord. Nevertheless, he expected great things from God and attempted many as well. Leon McBeth argues that Carey’s greatest achievement was the introduction of the concept of the career missionary.[18]  These missionaries must be bold in the proclamation of the gospel and consistent in their pursuit of the gospel. We should mimic them in our bold evangelism today. Carey was the product of the First and Second Great Awakenings. These movements of God spurred him to expand the vision of others and boldly take the gospel to new places. If we experience revival in our lives, our evangelism, too, will be emboldened.

^{[1] Edwin Orr, The Re-Study of Revival and Revivalism, (Pasadena, Ca: School of World Missions, 1981), 10.
[2] Ibid, 11.
[3] H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage, (Nashville: Broadman, 1987), 184-185.
[4] Mark Galli, “The Man Who Wouldn’t Give Up,” 36 Christian History, (1992) accessed on March 5, 2025 www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/articles/man-who-would-not-give-up
[5] Ibid.
[6] McBeth, 185.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid,
[9] Ibid, 295.
[10] Galli.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Vinita Hampton Wright, “The Rest of the Serampore Trio” 36 Christian History, (1992) accessed on March 5, 2025 www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/articles/rest-of-the-serampore-trio
[13] Galli.
[14] Galli.
[15] Wright.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Galli.
[18] McBeth, 299.}

March 13 Day 29: Post-Revival: Minister Faithfully
Scriptures: Ephesians 4:17-32
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to open your eyes to the ministry he has for you.

Earlier in our study we looked at the revival that broke out on the campus of Yale University during the days of Timothy Dwight. We saw that through a full-throated defense of God’s Word the new president began to push back the tide of French philosophy and anti-Christian beliefs. It took a few years, but eventually the Spirit moved mightily on the campus, and many came to faith in Christ. In 1795, there were scarcely any followers of Christ on the campus. Following the revival in 1802 half of the senior class entered the ministry. Over the next four years, 69 graduates enter local church ministry.[1]  

Lyman Beecher was an undergraduate at the college when Timothy Dwight came to campus in 1795. While every student received the positive effects of the revival, Beecher was not one of those who had fallen into the depths of the French philosophies. Later in life, he recalled that he “never had any propensity to infidelity.”[2]  Upon graduating from Yale, Beecher served several churches as pastor. During his early years as a pastor, he argued for biblical orthodoxy against the Unitarian movement. He also became passionate about missionary efforts in the American West. He joined with other ministers to further missionary endeavors in the West. This included the formation of the Tract House which printed Bibles and tracts for free distribution in the frontier.[3]  After moving to Cincinnati Ohio to pastor a church and serve as president of the newly formed Lane Seminary, his passion for the West grew. He published his “Plea for the West” which stimulated “home mission work in all denominations.” Beecher was an important voice in the Second Great Awakening. He was inspired by the “new measures” Finney used to move people toward salvation. He also began to moderate on his reformed views of salvation and began to view the will of man as important in the process of conversion. Beecher’s service was not only important for his churches, the seminary, the revival, the West, and even his generation. The personal ministry of Lyman Beecher influenced the next generation and those who followed as well. All seven of his sons became preachers. One of those sons was Henry Ward Beecher. The number of Beecher preachers led him to quip in a letter to his sister "When we all get to preaching—some confusion may be made—"Which wast?" He goes on to list the names of the sons and concluded, "the Locusts of Egypt are come upon us in the form of the Beecher family.”[4]

Historians remind us that it was not just the Beecher sons who influenced America, the daughters were important too. Catherine founded the Hartford Female Seminary where sister Harriet attended and then taught. Isabella founded the National Women’s Suffrage Association. Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher, though, are most remembered. They were both instrumental in the abolitionist movement in the antebellum era. Henry Ward Beecher most forcefully preached on the subject from his pulpit. He would bring enslaved people to his pulpit and denounce the horrors of slavery. Other times he would bring shackles before the congregation and call for an end to the evil practice. It is not surprising that he has been called the “War Preacher.”[5]  His sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, practiced her abolitionist ministry through her pen. It seems that she hoped the problem of slavery could be alleviated through the work of Christian living. She wrote to Fredrick Douglas her hopes that “The light will spread in the churches, and the tone of feelings will rise; Christians, North and South, will give up all connection and take up their testimony against slavery, and thus the work will be done.”[6]   Nevertheless, there was no Christian revival to address the problem of slavery. As the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she had her biggest influence. Upon meeting her, President Abraham Lincoln purportedly said, “So, you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

I mention all of this to remind us that the young college student, Lyman Beecher, influenced by the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, Timothy Dwight, ministered faithfully before the Lord during the Second Great Awakening. In the process, he reared a second generation of ministers who influenced a nation toward the ideals of Christian living. In Ephesians chapter 4 we are reminded that there are many kinds of ministries. In this chapter, Paul mentions apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. While these might be official ministry positions, there are many ways to minister in the church. One way to stoke the embers of revival fire is to find your means of ministry, just as the Beecher children each found their own. The ministers of the church are meant to equip the faithful for their ministry. The equipping and ministering will make it possible for the believer to grow in the Lord and avoid the tossing of mis-formed teachings. They will also grow in love and, through the work of Christ, be “fitted and knit together.”

We are to each find our area of ministry. For someone to come out of revival and not then pursue the ministries of the church would be counterintuitive. How the work of the Spirit in someone’s heart could not then become the work of the Spirit in the hands and feet is unfathomable.
^{[1] Colin Hansen and John Woodbridge, A God-Sized Vision (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 69.
[2] Lyman Beecher, The Autobiography of Lyman Beecher Vol 1 (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1961), 23.
[3] “Life Story: Lyman Beecher” Accessed on March 6, 2025 https://www.nyhistory.org/acts-of-faith/homelands-and-new-lands/settling-the-louisiana-purchase#life-story-lyman-beecher
[4] John Hedrick, “Peaceable Fruits: The Ministry of Harriet Beecher Stowe” American Quarterly Vol 40 no. 3 (1988), 307.
[5] Marion Jackson Pride, “Henry Ward Beecher: The War Preacher” Negro History Bulletin Vol 6 no. 9 (1943), 197 and 208.
[6] William A. Guerry, “Harriet Beecher Stowe” The Sewanee Review Vol 6 no 3 (1898), 341.}

 March 14 Day 30: Post-Revival: Serve Empathically
Scriptures: Acts 4:32-37; 6:1-7
Prayer Prompt: Ask the Lord to open your eyes to the needs around you and to give you the resources to meet those needs.

Earlier this week we explored the missionary efforts that came from the British awakening that flowed out of the First Great Awakening and then became the Second Great Awakening. We saw that The Baptist Missionary Society was formed and sent William Carey to India. Edwin Orr writes, “This period of revival in the United Kingdom brought forth the British Foreign Bible Society, the London Missionary Society, the Church Missionary Society, and a host of auxiliary agencies for evangelism.”[1]  These societies functioned to empathetic services for those in need of the gospel and Christian charity. This can be seen in the founding of the British Foreign Bible Society in 1804. The foundation for the society can be traced to the desire of a young Welsh girl of 15. Her name was Mary Jones. Mary had saved for six years to buy a Bible of her own. At age 15 she had saved enough and walked from her home in Llanfihangel-y-Pennant (a Welsh village) to Bela. In Bela, the Reverend Thomas Charles arranged lodging for the girl and subsequently sold her three Bibles for the price of one.[2]  Thomas Charles had another encounter in his ministry that pricked his heart for the needs of those around him. On one occasion he met a young woman of whom he often asked “to give him the text from which he had preached the previous Sunday.” The girl proceeded to break down crying. She explained the weather that week “had been so bad, that I could not get to read the Bible.” Upon further questioning, Charles discovered that there was no Bible in her home or her neighborhood. Each week she would walk 7 miles to read the text from which the preacher had read the previous Sunday. The scarcity of Bibles in Wales and the obvious desire to read the Word caused Thomas Charles to seek help. He approached the recently organized Religious Tract Society in London for help. He made his appeal, and a plan was established to begin providing Bibles in Wales. Joseph Hughes was in the meeting and, upon hearing the story and the decision, exclaimed, “If Wales, why not the world.” With that, the British Foreign Bible Society was formed.[3]

In its first year, parts of the Bible were translated into 67 languages. Since then, they have translated the Bible into 2,000 languages.[4]  While we might read this account and view it as another event in the history of missions, I think we can view it through another lens. Let’s consider it through the lens of Acts 2:44-45 (44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need.) and Acts 4:32-36. Often, we read these passage through the lens of generosity. I think it would behoove us to read them through the lens of empathy. The work of the Spirit in our lives will lead us to see the needs of others and feel those needs. Then He will lead us to try and fill that need. That is what the ministers in Wales and London did. Their desire to provide Bibles was not simply an evangelistic and missionary effort. It was because they saw the desire and the need and they wanted to fill it.

As we experience the work of the Spirit in our lives, we will receive His service to us. He will fill a hole in our spiritual lives. As part of our response to His work, we should seek to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of those around us. James 1:27 says, “27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” While orphans and widows are examples given, everyone in need and those in rough situations can be included. We not only take the gospel to people, we help meet their needs. A person with an empty stomach will have a hard time hearing the gospel. A family living in their car will have a hard time learning about heaven. If we are going to continue to live in the revived life, we will need to serve others and serve them with empathy.

^{[1] Edwin Orr, The Re-Study of Revival and Revivalism, (Pasadena, Ca: School of World Missions, 1981), 11.
[2] www.biblesociety.org.uk/about-us/our-history accessed March 7, 2025.
[3] Edwin Paxton Hood, The Day, The Book, and The Teacher (London: The Sunday School Union, nd), 62-63
[4] www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/bible-society-library accessed March 7, 2025}