WEIGHING IN ON THE ASBURY REVIVAL

 

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19

Hello Friends:

     Welcome to the Soulwinnersr.us website. Remember again what Jesus said in Matthew 4:19, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
     Most of you have probably already heard of the Asbury Revival going on right now at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, and many other campuses around America. Many people see what's happening to our young people as a good, and even great thing. Others are sounding the alarm that Satan is behind what's happening. I thought I would weigh in on it, although most of you have likely already made up your mind about how you feel about it.
     Many packed their vehicles and headed to Asbury University, including my pastor—and to other universities to experience the revival event. I’m not sure of the motivation of everyone going to these places, but it’s not my job to question motivation. In the same way, it was not anyone’s job to question the motivation of people flocking to see and hear Jesus in the hills of Galilee. Jesus was able to perceive the motivation of people then—and I’m sure He can perceive the motivation of people going to these universities to experience the revival firsthand.
     For the last couple of years I have been praying—or trying to pray daily for young people in America and around the world to have an awakening. The future of our church depends on our young people. I think it’s OK for me, and a myriad of Christian people praying for revival in our young people to take just a tiny bit of credit for what’s happening at Asbury and these other universities. James in James 5:16 wrote, “The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.” I think God is telling all of us who prayed and are praying for revival among young people. “Good job. Keep up the good work.”
     But before we take too much credit for the revival, I think I heard God telling me the real bottom-line reason for His movement in the hearts of people at Asbury University and other college campuses. It’s found in 2 Peter 3:9. Here it is: ”The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.”
     The bottom line is God has such a great love for us and unwillingness for anyone to die and go to hell, that He intervenes in the lives of people—as I think He is currently in the Asbury Revival—so that many will accept Him and eventually go to be with Him in heaven.
     Just like in the book of Acts, there will be unscrupulous people that try to take advantage of the situation. But, God was able to take care of it then—and I'm sure He can take care of it now.

Until I see you next time keep sharing the wonderful love of Jesus with others,
Arlen

MAKING ORDER OUT OF CHAOS

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19

Hello Friends:

     Welcome to the Soulwinnersr.us website. Remember again what Jesus said in Matthew 4:19, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
     I’m struggling lately with thinking of content related to evangelism for my website videos. And for that matter, sharing the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ with others.
     Our family has been hit with many unforeseen blows in less than two months. It started with the frigid snow and wind storm before Christmas resulting in a power and internet outage. After that several other things went wrong:

1. Our garage door sensors stopped working requiring me to get new ones. The door opened, but we had to shut it manually until I installed the new sensors.
2. We got a new internet service provider after our old one failed three times in the last year for up to two days. This change required many changes with emails and all the websites that used our old email. What a long chore that was!
3. Our basement started leaking some water again after last summer thinking I had it fixed. It's not bad, but any water in a basement is not good.
4. I had to take my wife’s laptop to a computer repair shop to replace her hard drive with a solid-state drive. Thankfully, my cloning of the drive was successful! I was sweating it for a while. Some computer companies sure don’t make laptops very accessible to change things.
5. An unexpected problem out of the blue with Social Security.
6. Heat pump failure. Does anyone realize the cost of replacing an old R22 coolant system with a new R410 system? It isn’t cheap.

     I don’t deal well with circumstances causing chaos in my life. Anyone that knows me understands that I like things to be orderly. When things get out of order and chaotic my feeble brain almost can’t take it.
     I don’t think I have a full-blown Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or OCD, but I do think I have some OCD tendencies like perfectionism or a preoccupation with details. It makes it difficult at times for me to move forward with a task if something else is looming in the background. I’m very prone to try to resolve first the nagging background problems, or chaos if you will.
     My OCD tendencies have followed me all my life, even into employment. My former bosses acknowledged it in me, but I think they sometimes saw the benefits of it, as long as I was able to reign in the time-consuming aspects of it. 

     I had one boss tell me when I was thinking about going back to college to get a higher degree, “Arlen, just do what you have to do to pass. No employer will ever look at the grades you got.” That boss didn’t know me very well, thinking I might be able to do something just half-hearted.
     At my last job, I ran an employment program. I took time to assure the procedures of the program were as repeatable and standard as possible. The benefit of the extra time I took was that I and the workers under me didn’t have to strive so hard to follow the standard procedures. My bosses knew that I would to the best of my ability follow the directives of the State of Ohio oversight board to whom our program was accountable.       Also, the national accreditation board every three years was always very impressed with my attention to detail. One accreditation official from New York City even gave me his card and encouraged me to consider becoming a fellow accreditation official, traveling the country to make sure that other employment programs did things correctly. I was honored, but with a family to consider, I declined to pursue it.
     Now that I’m retired I still have that drive to get things right—to make order out of chaos. It has helped me to write grants for Mission to Amish People. It has also helped me when doing remodeling projects at home and for others. I am persistent to try to do things right.
     But how does this OCD tendency to make order out of chaos affect my drive to share with others the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ? It hasn’t been easy, as evidenced by the fact that I haven’t posted anything in about a month. And worse yet, I’ve only personally shared the gospel with two heat pump guys.
     My conclusion is that my only option is to trust Jesus and His Holy Spirit to help me make order out of chaos. Probably my favorite verse lately that I’m calling on to help me is found in Jeremiah 33:3. I have used it in several posts in the last number of weeks. Here it is:

“ Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know."

     Who is better to help us make order out of chaos than God?

Until I see you next time keep sharing the wonderful love of Jesus with others,
Arlen