Nurturing Spirituality

Anyabwile hiAt FBC Grand Cayman we've spent the bulk of the year so far thinking about and praying for revival. A real spiritual revival.

A fresh outpouring of God's Spirit, enlarging the work of conversion and invigorating Christians, congregations and our entire nation. So I was edified when my sister Crystal sent to me the following excerpt printed in her church's e-newsletter:

Horatius Bonar, writing the preface to John Gillies' Accounts of Revival regarding the leaders of the First Great Awakening, proposed that men useful to the Holy Spirit for revival stand out in these nine ways:

1. They are in earnest: "They lived and labored and preached like men on whose lips the immortality of thousands hung."

2. They are bent on success: "As warriors, they set their hearts on victory and fought with the believing anticipation of triumph, under the guidance of such a Captain as their head."

3. They are men of faith: "They knew that in due season they should reap, if they fainted not."

4. They are men of labor: "Their lives are the annals of incessant, unwearied toil of body and soul; time, strength, substance, health, all they were and possessed they freely offered to the Lord, keeping back nothing, grudging nothing."

5. They are men of patience: "Day after day they pursued what, to the eye of the world, appeared a thankless and fruitless round of toil."

6. They are men of boldness: "Timidity shuts many a door of usefulness and loses many a precious opportunity; it wins no friends, while it strengthens every enemy. Nothing is lost by boldness, nor gained by fear."

7. They are men of prayer: "They were much alone with God, replenishing their own souls out of the living fountain, that out of them might flow to their people rivers of living water."

8. They are men of strong doctrine: "Their preaching seems to have been of the most masculine and fearless kind, falling on the audience with tremendous power. It was not vehement, it was not fierce, it was not noisy; it was far too solemn to be such; it was massive, weighty, cutting, piercing, sharper than a two-edged sword."

9. They are men of deep spirituality: "No frivolity, no flippancy . . . . The world could not point to them as being but slightly dissimilar from itself."

This was a gift. Now I'm left to ponder whether I am this kind of man. What about you?

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabitianyabwile/2013/07/23/are-you-the-kind-of-person-god-uses-for-revival/

 

Nurturing Audio & Video

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Reflections to Consider

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Nurturing Publications

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Publications

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Nurturing Music

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Music

  • Jesus be the centre

    Center is a song that speaks of the essence of our life in Christ, and echoes the words the Christ Read More
  • I Lift My Hands

    A powerful hymn of adoration and praise Arkansas Gospel Mass Choir. This succinctly captures the joy of knowing our savior. Read More
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Nurturing Reflection

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Audio & Video

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Favorites

  • Transforming this World: The Hope of Glory by NT Wright +

    Wright confronts the perspective that this world doesn’t matter, and that we live only to be in heaven. He shows Read More
  • What is Good in a World that Defies Hope: a talk by NT Wright +

    This is the second part of three talks by NT Wright at Harvard University in November, 2008 on the topic Read More
  • The Stream, the Lake and the River: NT Wright +

      Acts 2.1-21; John 7.37-39; a sermon at the Eucharist on the Feast of Pentecost, 11 May 2008, by the Read More
  • Jesus in the Perfect Storm by NT Wright +

    Zechariah 9.9-17; Luke 19.28-48; A sermon for Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011, In the University Chapel of St Salvator, St Read More
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Hidden Blessings

  • Christ is a Great Savior: a review of the movie Amazing Grace +

    Amazing Grace is a historical drama about William Wilberforce who was elected to British Parliament at the age of 21 Read More
  • Wilberforce, Hollywood's Amazing Grace, Charlotte Allen +

    William Wilberforce's relentless campaign eventually led the British Parliament to ban the slave trade, in 1807, and to pass a Read More
  • Making Beauty out of Ugly Things: Grace by U2 +

    Grace, she takes the blame She covers the shame Removes the stain It could be her name Grace, she carries Read More
  • The True Nature of Grace and Love: a movie review of the Soloist +

    The 2009 movie The Soloist is based on a book by the same name, written by Los Angeles Times columnist Read More
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