Matthew 9:37-38 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
The second great awakening took place around 1790 until the 1840s. This movement saw ‘circuit riders’, traveling preachers who spread the Gospel to the edges of the frontier, affecting the growing American populace. Camp meetings in rural areas outside the traditional church with the primary focus of soul winning, were like “brushfires” of the Holy Spirit, attracting people for miles.
Charles Finney, known by many as the ‘Father of Modern Revivalism”, began writing and teaching on the ‘baptism’ of the Holy Spirit. Through a series of articles later compiled into a book, “Power from on High” Finney renewed the church’s understanding of the spirit-filled life. Biblical revelation on the spiritual equality of women and slaves began to initiate major societal reforms such as abolitionism, and equal education for women and African-Americans. This paved the way for national suffrage and the abolition of slavery that took place in the late 1860s.
The first great awakening led to a personal relationship with the living God. The second great awakening continued the message of personal relationship and also “salted” the surrounding culture of society, as personal holiness and Biblical values influenced the mores of the day.
Your own personal revival will deeply affect your own personal relationship with God. This should inevitably influence your “society”; first, your family and friends, then your neighborhood, town, or community, and if God’s calling and anointing touch you, much wider influence may flow through your life in Him. Your fragrance and influence will depend on the depth and commitment of your personal relationship. But be careful not to seek influence for your own sake or reputation. Allow the Lord to expand it through the development of beautiful character, humility, and trust. Then, if God uses you for revival, it will be His divine will and empowering… and the glory will be His.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]The church at Laodicea received a stern warning in chapter 3 of John’s Revelation. We would do well to reflect on it.
The word “Laodicea” is a compound in the Greek; “Laos” which principally means “people”, and “dike”, defined as “principle or decision”. One rendering might read, “rule of the people”, or, in modern terms, “Democracy”. In the western world, we have an affection and even a deep commitment to Democracy. Yet this form of government, “rule of the people” is fatally flawed… because we are fatally flawed by our sin nature…
As we continue to probe the lessons from the salt covenant, we now inquire into our part in the covenant.
Yeshua (Jesus) said He is the “bread of life”. It was His body that was broken on our behalf as the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Notice that He never once called us to be the “bread of life”! He is the ONLY “Bread of Life” – the true bread who came down from Heaven which anyone may eat and not die. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is His flesh, given for the life of the world.
For years, when I visited my father-in-law’s home in Jerusalem on the Sabbath, we would break bread and bless the bread with the traditional blessing – “Baruch Ata Adonai Eleheynu Melech HaOlam Ha-Motzi Lechem Min Ha’aretz” – which translated means,”Blessed are You Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has given us bread from the earth”. After the blessing, my father-in-law would take salt and sprinkle the challah bread as he broke and passed it to everyone at the table.
One day a passerby saw a homeless man on the roadside. He stopped for a moment to hand him some loose change and casually said “God bless you, my friend”.
“I thank God,” said the homeless man, “I am never unhappy.”
Here in Israel we have an interesting geographical phenomenon – there are two landlocked seas. One is alive and one is dead. The sea full of life is the Kinneret, better known as the Sea of Galilee. The dead sea is…….you guessed it, the Dead Sea. Now the Kinneret is constantly emptying as it flows through the Jordan River valley…. into the Dead Sea. But the Dead Sea does not empty its water at all. Instead, the Dead Sea is continually shrinking, because the intense heat at this lowest place on Earth actually evaporates more water than is flowing in. Do you see a parable here?
One of my passions is studying history, especially the American Civil War. Here is an amusing story about General Stonewall Jackson’s famous Valley Campaign. During the war, Jackson’s army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other.