Awaken Ministries

Happy Easter! He is risen! He is risen indeed!

We serve a living God! Have you ever really thought about how great that is? Our Lord was crucified and buried, but then was raised on the third day! Our God is alive and working out His plans every day. He invites us to be a part of His work. How exciting is it that a great and all-powerful God invites us to be a part of His master plan?

I pray that you had the opportunity to spend time with your risen Lord in prayer and worship yesterday. I also pray that you had the opportunity to spend time with your families. I have so many wonderful Easter memories and yesterday was another one that I will always remember. Yesterday was so special because of all of the travel that so many people did to be a part of the Easter holiday. We had people congregate at my younger brother’s house this year and my wonderful step-mother provided the food–and it was a serious feast!! This year was amazing in that we had family in from Mahomet, Arizona, Texas, Iowa, and since Laura and I were on vacation this last week, we drove in from Florida. Think about all the travel that people did to spend time with one another.

Why would people travel so far to be together–other than the wonderful food and the fun of being with family?Because Jesus lives! He is alive today and that is what separates Christianity from all other religions. Our God is alive and working today! That is why we celebrate Easter. That is why it is such a joyous holiday.

What will you remember about Easter 2013? I pray that your Easter was a joyous memory-filled day!

More to come…
Jeremy

Hopefully, you have been thinking about who shared the faith with you over the last week. Palm Sunday was yesterday which means we are entering into Holy Week. Someone shared with us at some time or we probably wouldn’t be reading this blog, now we owe it to others around us to share the Gospel with them.

As I mentioned last time, I have been blessed with many people in my life at critical times. Going off to college–when so many people forget about the faith of their youth–I had people come along side me to continue to push me to grow. My freshman year it was my brother Matt, who pushed me to still attend church despite not having Mom to “make me” go. Then, when I transferred to Bradley the next year, I got in a Bible study with Tim Burdette, Mark Krupa, and Dick Belsley. It was the first time I really was in a true Bible study.

When I started my first teaching job at Tremont, I was a pretty young and impressionable guy. I found myself being drawn to a couple of teachers down the hall from me that liked to talk about Jesus named Bill Allison and Jason Leahy. They actually invited me to a breakfast group that read and discussed books like, “The Leadership Genius of Jesus”. So, here I was a 24-year-old married young man who was studying about Jesus with a group of guys before work!

What if everyone when they were ages 18-24 received the type of spiritual mentors that I did? This is such an important age for so many as they wade through the college years and enter the workplace-what if all of these people had a messenger of Christ with them to help them along the way. Isn’t that what Jesus did for the two men on their way to Emmaus? What would this do to the Church in this country? All the people I talked about in this blog made a decision that they would live for Jesus and take others along with them. Who are we taking the journey with? Pray that God would show you who you could journey with this week as we prepare for Easter Sunday.

More to come…
Jeremy

Last week, we talked about sharing what you have been given. Well, this week I was asked to talk about who shared the message of Jesus with me! Since it is the Easter season, what a great time for all of us to reflect on who shared with us and who we can be sharing with.

For whatever reason, God has put many strong people of faith in my life. One of those was my Grandma Durbin showed me what it looked like to live out my faith in every aspect of life. I haven’t known a more faithful and prayerful person. I will never forget one day telling her that I got to speak at church and I showed her my “speech”. I ended my talk quoting Joshua 24:15 “But as for me and my house, I will serve the Lord”. Always wanting her approval, I waited with bated breath to see what she would say. She looked me right in the eyes and said, “This is nice and these are mighty big words, but if you are going to say this, then you better live it out.” WOW! It was if God was speaking straight to me from my Grandma. Then, several years later in the hospital in what turned out to be my last conversation with her, she looked at me with tired eyes and asked me if I thought she would hear God tell her the words, “Well done my good and faithful servant” when she died. Now it was my turn to be the voice of God to her when I said–with tear-filled eyes–“Yes, you will hear God say that to you!” It turned out to be that night.

Who shared with you? Who told you lovingly what God needed you to hear instead of what you wanted to hear? How have those experiences shaped you into the person you are today? Who have you invested in? Who do you pray daily for? Take time this week to talk to God about these questions.

More to come…
Jeremy

I want to thank Laura for last week’s blog about radical grace! I probably speak for others when I felt kind of defensive when she said that many people look at Christians as “irrevelant, hypocritical, and judgemental”. That stings!! But the Barna Group’s research has found this to be true. Just check out their findings in the book “Unchristian: What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity…and Why It Matters” by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. We are known for what we are against much more than being known for what we are for. Which is a shame because, “Christianity is a way of seeing all of life and reality through God’s eyes. This is what Christianity is: a worldview, a system, and a way of life. I believe that when you truly see the gospel in its fullness, it’s so much more. It is the most exciting, radical, revolutionary story ever told.” (Chuck Colson) Now that is something to get excited about and can change lives!

So, how can we as Christians help show our friends, neighbors, and community what it means to be a true follower of Christ? We do after all have the answers the world is looking for. God has chosen to give us revelation and He didn’t do that just for our sakes alone, but to share with others what God has done, is doing, and will do for eternity.

Maybe you will have the opportunity this Easter season to share God’s love with others. We don’t have to look far for hurting people. I had the opportunity to talk with a non-believer about “The Bible” mini-series on the History Channel just this past week. What opportunity will come your way this week? Will you seize that opportunity? God is with you and is cheering you on!!

More to come…
Jeremy

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

Did you start praying for revival this past week? Remember, every revival was preceded with prayer and repentance. The season of Lent is an excellent time to focus on how we have fallen short of God’s call and need His forgiveness.

Last week I set a vision for what revival may look like in our lifetime. This week I want to take a step back and focus on holiness. We need to be a holy people so that when revival comes we will be ready to be used by God. “We are to become holy as Christ is holy; we are to become true Christians, the root meaning of which is ‘litte Christs'” (Colson, “The Faith” p. 160). Make no mistake, a life of holiness is not for the faint of heart! We are so busy today in our culture and so much is clamoring for our time, energy, and attention. Satan wants nothing more than to make us so busy that we don’t think we have time to do our devotions! In fact, that is one of his most effective tools. David Jeremiah said there are 11 things Satan does to make us lose our holiness by redirecting our focus away from Jesus:
Satan…
1. Keeps us busy with non-essentials
2. Tempts us to over spend and go into debt
3. Makes us work long hours to maintain empty lifestyles
4. Discourages us from spending time with family
5. Overstimulates our minds with television and technology so we can’t hear God speaking to us
6. Fills our coffee tables with newspapers and magazines so we have no time to read the Bible
7. Keeps us chasing material things
8. Fills our minds with images of models so we become disinterested in our mate
9. Makes sure couples are too tired for physical intimacy
10. Involves us in good causes so we don’t have time for eternal ones
11. Makes us self-sufficient, keeps us busy working in our own strength so we will never know the power of God working through us

With an enemy as diligent as Satan working against us, we need to be intentional about our spiritual disciplines so that we will be ready when God calls us to help His people. We must repent of our sins and be in prayer so that we can live Romans 12:2 transformed lives!! When we are doing this, we will be about the work of revival which is disciple-making. Are you preparing yourselves?

More to come…
Jeremy

What would a revival look like in the United States today?

First, the believers of this land would be moved to a sense of deep repentance. We would see how far we as believers have fallen short of His call for our lives and would ask God to forgive us and truly change our hearts.

Then, believers would set about earnestly praying for revival. Every major revival in this country was preceded by a call for repentance and then prayer. We think national tragedies will lead us to revival but tragedies only lead to a superficial and short “revival”. (Think 9/11–churches were full for a week or two but the ground work of repentance and prayer wasn’t there yet and people soon left and went about their lives again.) Deep, intentional, calling out to God prayer is what we need to lay the foundations for revival–and we are ripe in our culture!

After this then we would see the Spirit work in our land. What would this look like? Well, I will not pretend to know how the Spirit would move–thankfully, His ways are infinitely higher than my ways! But, here are some ways that it may look if revival would come to America.

People would be discipled and would begin to grow into maturity in the faith. In turn, they would transform other lives by their testimony. People would take seriously that we should be “conformed to the likeness of his Son.” (Romans 8:29)

Bible studies would be popping up all over the land. People would be digging into the Scriptures with others over their lunch breaks, before and after work–even on days other than Sunday!!

Churches wouldn’t be big enough to handle the new people that are coming! So they would start meeting in other places–coffee shops, businesses, peoples homes, empty stores. It would be as is if the church doesn’t have to be a building.

The poor and needy would be fed and cared for–more by the people of God and less by the government. Prisoners would be visited and not forgotten. When they get out of prison they would have a hope for a new life because society would be eager to help them get back on track. The mentally ill would not be swept away, but would be loved and understood.

Relationships would be restored and old grudges and prejudices covered by the blood of Jesus. People would live in community with each other and crime and drugs would no longer ravage so many of our youth.

Children, the elderly, and the disabled would be seen as made in the image of God. They wouldn’t be “burdens to society” or “choices” but would have worth and value because they are eternal souls.

Do you want to see what God would do if we would turn completely to Him? I invite you to start praying for His vision to come to us. Oh yes, Lord, show us the coming glory!

More to come…
Jeremy

There was a good mix in responses last week. Working on a consistent walk with God and being faithful in our work were the two biggest responses. I want to encourage you to keep going! All four of the areas are not necessarily one-time decisions, they are daily decisions we have to deal with. Another way of getting this point across would be that they are one-time decisions for you, but those decisions need to be managed daily.

Let’s look into Daniel further to see how he managed his decision of not allowing himself to be defiled in this new culture. You probably know the story–the provincial rulers of the kingdom got King Darius to sign a decree that anyone who prays to someone other than King Darius will be cast into the den of lions. Daniel, of course, still did his daily prayers to the Lord God and the provincial rulers told King Darius and although it distressed Darius he still had to cast Daniel into the den of lions to save face. God sends an angel to save Daniel from the lions. Darius is glad that Daniel was saved and makes a decree praising the God of Daniel!

Daniel’s faithfulness saved him from the lions. His faithfulness also changed the heart of King Darius–making that the second king if you are counting (Nebuchadnezzar being the first) that Daniel’s life had changed.

So, what are the worldview lessons to take from Daniel?

1. You will seldom get what you deserve from people.
2. You will always get what is best from God.
3. Your faithfulness will change lives because all of you influence others.
4. When it there is a conflict between faithfulness and fairness–faithfulness must win.

What would change in our culture if God’s people were faithful to Him? Who in your life is watching you to see if you really are faithful? Who’s lives have been or could be changed forever by your example?

More to come…
Jeremy

Last week our topic was how Christianity is so much more than just a religion, but rather an all-encompassing worldview.  This week, let’s look into the question, “How do we live out a Christian worldview in a culture that for the most part doesn’t recognize Truth?”

Excellent question!  The best answer I have found so far is to see how the Old Testament prophet Daniel lived out his faith in a culture that was about as opposite as one could find from his Hebrew background.  How did Daniel keep his faith when he lost his family, his manhood, his name, his home, and his language? They also took away his religion and put him in a new religion, basically gave him a whole new lifestyle.  How did Daniel deal with this?  Chapter one verse eight tells us, “Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself.” (bold mine)  Daniel made a decision that he would not lose his faith no matter what the culture around him did.  We need to do the same!  Chuck Swindoll said of Daniel and it rings true for us, “Inner conviction can overcome outer pressures.  God-honoring convictions yield God-honoring rewards.”  We need to be men and women of intergrity because people are watching to see how we react as Christians when things don’t go our way.  Swindoll gives us four lessons from Daniel on becoming people of integrity in our culture today:

1. We need an excellent attitude (an extraordinary spirit)

2. We need to be faithful in our work

3. We need to have personal purity

4. We need to have a consistent walk with God

That is your challenge for this week.  Pick one of those to pray about and work on this week.  If you want, let me know which one you picked and how you are doing!  I will do the same as we hold each other accountable!

Next week….

Additional lessons from Daniel on how to live out our faith in today’s culture.

More to come…

Jeremy

What is Christianity?

How would you answer that question today if someone asked you?  Would you say that it is a religion?  Would you define it as having a relationship with Christ? I would say that it is both of those things, but also so much more!  I love how Chuck Colson defines Christianity.  He describes Christianity as “a way of seeing all of life, every aspect of reality; it is a worldview.” (Bolding is mine)  Wow!!  When we see our faith through this definition, everything is inbounds–there is nothing outside of our faith.  Everything we do, think, and create is part of our Christian worldview.  It is the lens through which we see the world.  I believe this makes our lives both more complicated and more simple.  More complicated because no longer can we say to ourselves, “Well, I can do this or think that because this area is really outside of where my faith meets the rest of who I am.”  Now, we have to think of a way to redeem all areas of our life and make sure that what we are doing and thinking fits with what we believe and what Jesus wants us to be.

It is this topic of Christian worldview–and everything that goes with it–that Awaken Ministries will be discussing.  I look forward to sharing the journey with you!

More to come…

Jeremy