15 years ago… Pt 6: The end of the beginning

We ride.
Now begins the 1,400-mile trek back the frozen homeland.

Less than a week has gone by, and yet everything has changed.

What will school be like?
What will my (then) girlfriend say?
What will my friends think?
What will my brothers do?

All these thoughts ran through my mind…
… and it didn’t really seem to matter.

I will never be the same!
Look what the Lord has done!

Whatever the responses will be, it won’t deter me from pursuing my Savior.

I have been born again… born in the fires of revival… and something unquenchable now resides in me.

What is store for me now?
What will my life be like?
What will God ask me to do?

To be continued…

To continue the story, click here. To start at the beginning, click here.

15 years ago… Pt 5: A new desire

This day, 15 years ago, I was a new person.
I was only two days into this new life.

I had grown up in church.
I knew the songs.
I had heard sermons and illustrations and testimonies my whole life.
There seemed to be something, though, at these meetings, that had gripped my heart.

There was this buzz-word…
Not only was it the name used for these services that we were attending, but is seemed to be something greater.
I had heard it used before, but being only 15 years old, there wasn’t any significant association to it.

Revival.

What was this revival that was being discussed, preached about, sung about, and even experienced?

Christian revival is a term that generally refers to a specific period of increased spiritual interest or renewal in the life of a church congregation or many churches, either regionally or globally. This should be distinguished from the use of the term “revival” to refer to a evangelistic meeting or series of meetings. (Read the rest of this definition by clicking here.)

What I was quickly learning is that there is something that is very distinct in these revivals: The active power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Not that the Holy Spirit isn’t present at any other time or place. But there seems to be a greater, ummm, “level” of Him in these occasions.

Why is that?
I didn’t know.

There seems to be some key elements that I was hearing preached, taught, and was observing at these meetings:

• A strong desire to simply give glory to God
• Repentance
• Much fervent prayer
• A hunger for more of God’s power and presence than what is considered “normal”
• Surrender of strict, religious control of meetings

This was all new to me.
I knew my life was now radically different.
I wasn’t really sure what to make of this revival thing.
All I knew at this point was that whatever this was, I wanted it…
… and I didn’t want that desire to go away.

To be continued…

To continue the story, click here. To start at the beginning, click here.