My Asbury Journey

February 11-14, 2023 It began with a phone call from a friend on Thursday afternoon. He had heard that a spiritual awakening was underway at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. In February 1970, Asbury was the epicenter of a campus revival that impacted hundreds of college and seminary campuses across North America. After reaching out …

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Birthed in Revival: Shubal Stearns and the Remarkable Expansion of Baptists in the South

Author's Note: Written in 2011, my purpose for this brief monograph was two-fold. First, I wanted to introduce Shubal Stearns, a pivotal figure in Baptist history, yet someone who is little known outside of academic circles. Second, I wanted to demonstrate the relationship between Stearns and the phenomenal growth of Baptists across the South. Many …

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Glimpsing Revival: The Haystack Prayer Meeting – How a Campus Revival Birthed American Foreign Missions

It was on a Saturday afternoon during the month of August 1806 that five young men from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, met together to pray near a grove of maple trees north of the campus. As a thunderstorm rolled in overhead, lightning and rain forced the students to run and take shelter in a …

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Deacons, Revival, and Spiritual Awakening

At 9 p.m. on a Saturday evening, a pastor and a small group of deacons met to ask God for a revival in their church. Their church was struggling. Church members felt spiritually dry and weak. Few people were coming to faith in Christ. Month after month that small group of deacons sought God together …

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Insight: Arthur Wallis on a Tender Heart

The Bible speaks often and profoundly of the human heart as the real "you." My heart pursues what I truly love, and is indifferent to the things that I don't care about (Matthew 6:21). My heart is susceptible to external influences -- good and bad -- and must be guarded (Proverbs 4:23). My heart can …

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Glimpsing Revival: Wales, November 1904

For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." ~Isaiah 57:15 The Welsh Revival of 1904-1906 …

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Glimpsing Revival: Khassia Hills, March 1905

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple... and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah 6:1, 4 Revival is not a calendared event in a church. It is not an evangelistic crusade, although evangelism …

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8 Reasons Why We Need Revival

Twenty-five years later, the experience remains vivid. The Lord still whispers the lyrics of that time across my heart, "this is My church". Church as He intends it to be. It was an ordinary church retreat, until He touched us with His presence. Five hours later, we were closer to each other. We were closer …

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Longing for the Presence of God

In the early 90’s, I worked for an environmental engineering firm in south Louisiana. Occasionally, I would go into a chemical plant or refinery to draw water samples. In the lab, we analyzed the samples for the presence of various chemicals.After a worship service, I often hear people say “God was here today.” How can …

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Pray Hard, Live Hard

On August 2, 1745, David Brainerd penned the following words in his diary after 28 discouraging months of serving as an early colonial missionary to native Americans in New England:"I began to entertain serious thoughts of giving up my mission. I do not know that my hopes respecting the conversion of the Indians were ever …

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