Thank you, Jeremy, for describing God’s magnificent plan for revival! Yes, absolutely, we need to be on our knees praying for revival, and we also need to win the battle for our own hearts.

In your last blog you talked about how the meaning of “Christian” means “little Christ.” This made me recall the timeless writing by John Bunyan called the Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan depicts the journey of an ordinary man from the “City of Destruction” (this world) to the “Celestial City”. Those familiar with the novel recall the Pilgrim’s name is “Christian”, but do you recall what Christian’s given name was? It was “Graceless.”

I would add that bringing about God’s plan for revival would require us to extend the radical gift of grace to the world around us!

Much of our culture today sees Christians and the Church as irrelevant, hypocritical, and judgmental. “Irrelevant” would imply that the world sees Christians as out of touch. We have failed to build relationships with people and understand their struggles. We have failed to extend the marvelous truth and relevance of the gospel message. “Hypocritical” and “judgmental” would imply that we have boiled down our faith to a set of rules that we fail to follow ourselves and that we use to judge others. Oh how the world needs the gospel, and oh how we have failed to meet that need. Yes, Jeremy, we need to repent.

But HOPE ABIDES! GOD IS ON THE THRONE, AND HE DESIRES NOTHING MORE THAN TO RESTORE HIS CREATION AND BRING THE LOST INTO A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM! We the “Christians” need to be the face of grace, “little Christs.”

Extending God’s radical gift of grace is a monumental challenge for sure! It can be downright uncomfortable, scary, messy, costly, and fruitless at times. As a matter of fact, I am a miserable failure if I try to do it on my own. But… I don’t have to do it alone. God wants to partner with me. He wants me to rely on His power and grace WHILE I’m extending grace.

Yes indeed, God has a magnificent plan and purpose, and I pray that we will be a part of it in order to bring glory and honor to God.

More to come…
Laura