Grace Awakenings and Holy Ghost Surprises

Somewhere near Salinas… I kept hearing that line from an old song reverberate in my head as we drove down the highway in Northern California just recently.

So as we were headed down the highway I figured the Spirit of God was seeking to direct us to something. So we got in touch with our friend Dave who lives in Salinas. We had met at Surfing the Nations (STN) in Hawaii and he got filled with the Spirit when we prayed for him over in the Islands. So we stopped by his place in Salinas and happened to arrive right when a friend of his was also stopping by, who happened to be headed the other way up the highway towards Washington State. Somehow, God is able to arrange that both of us came to Dave’s house at the same time; God coordinates things in such incredible ways it blows your mind.

Dave's friend from Washington had a recent encounter with the grace of God, something he never knew about nor understood even after being a Christian and attending church most of his life. After reading Romans and Galatians on his own where the Holy Spirit opened his eyes, he finally understood the full import of The New Covenant in Christ and The Righteousness that Comes From God. This opened up a long discussion with us where we were speaking even more of the grace of God into his life and then the Spirit of God began to fall on him and move on his life as we were talking, so we started praying for him. The Spirit of God began pouring out on him, and then also on other people who were there, as well as others who showed up later. We ended up having an all-night Holy Ghost outpouring as the Spirit of God filled everyone with His fire and glory: those who showed up to the house later who came straight into the glory when they came inside, along with a few who were there hanging out in other parts of the house that were drawn into the Holy Ghost fire. The Spirit of God moved with His power and filled, and filled, and filled, everyone there all night long. It was 3:33 in the morning when we finally hit the sack—basking in the glory while finally going to sleep.

Dave’s friend from Washington headed up home that next morning. However, the next night, another friend who was part of the Jesus People Revival back in the day came by, as well as another guy starting out in ministry who realized he needed the power of God, and with them and a few others we had another Holy Ghost all-nighter. God poured out his power, bringing forth another time of people being Filled with the Holy Spirit intensely, and after praying for hours for each other, we flowed into singing old Jesus People songs and worshiping in the Spirit late into the wee hours.

Well after another night of going to sleep around 4:00 AM I'm getting the feeling in these outpourings that there isn't going to be much sleeping going on in heaven, just basking in the glory! Praise God!

Broken things can be frustrating but....

On another note, sometimes you wonder how God can work all things for good: After trying to figure out how to mow the lawn after the lawn mower died on us and it was beginning to look like the Amazon jungle, we finally broke down just yesterday and hired a guy to do a quick job for a few bucks until we got it fixed. I began to think there was something more to why this guy was with us mowing the lawn. We began to witness to him and he was listening and interacting pretty well but he then began to talk about all this stuff he learned from the Jehovah's Witnesses. Instead of giving into the temptation to argue about the Jehovah's witness stuff I began to get a word from God that seemed like it might be offensive but I went for it anyways: "You keep getting involved with the Jehovah's Witnesses and you'll find out that what they want from you is money." Instead of being offended, he began to laugh hysterically and told us that’s exactly what he had experienced as he was involved with them. That word actually opened him up even more to what we had to say. He said he knew "that Christ doesn't charge us." We told him: "That's right. He offers salvation freely to all who will receive Him as Savior and Lord." He then prayed with us on the driveway to receive Jesus the Son of God, God the Son, as His Savior. Hallelujah!! Even broken stuff like lawnmowers can be used for higher purposes in God's Kingdom.

Columcille--A Spiritual Descendant of St. Patrick

Tower named after Columcille

in County Donegal, Ireland

One of St. Patrick’s spiritual descendants who had a similar impact as a pioneer missionary was Columcille (in Gaelic) also known as Columba (anglicized.) Much like Patrick, he crossed a treacherous sea to bring the Gospel to a foreign people, only Columcille did it in a curagh, a small, open boat made of hide and wood, and this going all the way from Ireland to Scotland in some pretty heavy seas in a tiny vessel.

Columcille, who was known for having a temper, had instigated a battle in his native Ireland where a large number of people were killed, something in the neighborhood of 5,000. Lamenting his involvement, he cried out to God that he wanted to spend the rest of his life seeing at least as many souls saved as were killed in the battle.

After being banished for his involvement in the battle—let’s not forget about Moses’ killing of an Egyptian and subsequent exile, as well as David’s time in exile—he was moved by the love and mercy of Christ and headed off from the coast of Ireland with some companions to reach the Picts in the land of Scotland.

As Columba sought to reach out to the tribe of the Picts in Scotland, he soon encountered opposition from Druids, just as Patrick had in Ireland, as well as from Brude, a chief in Inverness who wanted nothing to do with him or the faith he was proclaiming and in fact locked the gates to his city to keep Columcille out. Columcille persisted and remained steadfast, praying in front of the massive doors, when the gates suddenly flew open as he made the sign of the cross before them. Having witnessed the power of God in this miracle, the formerly closed and resistant Brude now listened and welcomed Columcille into the city. He began to reach people but also saw continued resistance from Druids and other pagans, but breakthroughs came mostly through power encounters as Columcille and his disciples relied on the power of God as they saw modeled with the disciples in the Gospels and the Book of Acts.

One of the most important aspects of his ministry was establishing a center on Iona—a small, bleak, and foggy Island off the coast of Scotland—where missionaries and evangelists were trained to go out with the Gospel. These Celtic missionaries went all over continental Europe proclaiming the Gospel of Christ; they held to justification by faith and the Scripture as the true authority, refusing to involve themselves in politics. Popular misunderstandings not withstanding, they were not Roman Catholic and in fact were very much in conflict with the Catholic Church as they sought to follow God’s Spirit and proclaim the Gospel as they saw it in Scripture. This incensed many a bishop and priest who were appalled at their willingness to enter their areas and preach, as well as their refusal to submit to the Pope and the Roman hierarchy. It seems rather, that these Celtic Christians chose to look at the whole of Scripture recognizing that God led Moses to resist Pharaoh and thus Christians shouldn’t be dictated to by a spiritual pharaoh and took Jesus’ words to heart: "But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." (Matthew 23:8-11--King James Version)

The studious and prayerful lives of the Celtic Christians led them to be standard bearers during a bleak time when Catholicism slid further and further into a political malaise; they persevered not only in holding to the true Gospel during a time of spiritual darkness but also preserved numerous important manuscripts and important works when the scourge of the Vikings later threw much of Europe and especially the British Isles into havoc. It is why it has been said that “the Irish saved Civilization” during that time.

Columcille was from County Donegal in Ireland, a place we’ve been blessed to visit on occasion and we’ve found out firsthand how rough that sea can be, in both good and bad ways—great surf when the conditions are right but treacherous when they’re not. We were driving through Donegal on one particular trip when I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to turn back towards a place we had just driven past. I wrestled with the why’s for a moment, as did Mercedes. However God’s presence prevailed and we went back to a small set of ancient buildings we had passed, to find not only a church that Columcille was part of, but also a tower that his disciples had later erected to watch for marauding Vikings coming ashore. (Ireland isn’t so great in marking out important historical places.) They had used these towers to not only hide important works but themselves as well from the menacing hordes invading from the north. We took a moment while visiting there to reminisce on that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us: those who have proclaimed the truth of Christ long before our time. Columcille stands as one of those very witnesses in that great cloud and it is inspiring to know what he did for the sake of the Kingdom.

For further reading click here and for related sources click here.

MINISTRY UPDATE--FEBRUARY 2011

We were performing some worship songs—something the Lord has us doing more and more of lately—at a meeting of radio producers, and had a real visitation of the presence of God while we worshipped. This led to us leading some worship as well as speaking at a church, where again the Lord poured out His Spirit in power. Many people in this small Hispanic congregation testified of how the Lord met them in grace and power that day. The pastor was amazed at how heavily God poured out His power after what he saw as merely a straightforward evangelical message on God’s grace: “You weren’t screaming or yelling or jumping up and down or wearing a shiny expensive white suit or any of the things associated with Charismatic stuff I see usually, and yet we experienced this powerful and incredible outpouring of God’s power!”

Even more amazing though was a surprise move of the Spirit at the end of the day. After eating lunch at the pastor’s house and talking a while, we were getting ready to leave and saying a quick prayer for God’s traveling mercies before heading out the door. As our quick prayer was closing up, I felt led to lay my hand on a young woman who had showed up during the middle of lunch, so as I was quickly saying a few words, suddenly she was powerfully struck by the Spirit of God and collapsed down to her knees and began to cry out in tongues with the sound of languages from places like Greece and Macedonia, which began to reveal a mission call on her life. This time the pastor’s mind was really blown—all we were doing is saying a closing prayer and this unexpected outpouring again, now on this sister?

Paul's words again and again remind us of the importance of walking in the power of the Spirit as a central core to the Christian life not only for ourselves but to influence others to do the same. It is His words that tell us in Romans 8:14 to be led by the Spirit. When we do, exciting things can happen, and we can be naturally supernatural about it. It is also exciting to continue to pass on to others that glorious blessing.

CAR UPDATE

I shared about some car problems we were having a while back so here’s a little update: We were having a mechanic work on one of our vehicles, but ended up getting stuck at his place when we went to pick it up as it immediately failed again right when we started driving off. We were stuck at his place for quite some time while he tried to figure out what was going on. With nothing to do, we began to talk with him and he began to open up a little bit and share how he had first come to the Lord. As we talked to him some more, I began to feel we needed to pray for him, though we had no idea for what or how he would respond. He didn't seem terribly open but we went for it and laid hands on him and nothing really happened right away. It was a bit uncomfortable for a bit there, but as the Lord started to give us specific revelation about what to pray for, a tear came down his face and then another one and more and more to where finally like a river God was pouring His Spirit into him while his tears flowed out. God powerfully moved on his heart and he was touched deeply by God’s grace; he seemed like a different guy after that prayer.

Well, we were stoked just on what God did with that. The blessing continued when he called us and said, “I’m not going to charge for the first car and have torn up the check.” Praise God for a breakthrough there as we really needed it! The other broken car still needed repaired too though and needed a lot of parts but he did discount the labor charge on that one too. Praise God for the breakthroughs and the work of the Holy Spirit in this guy’s life which is incomparably more important than money—God can use even car problems for good!

The car warfare continued though—each time these car problems happened it was on the way to some ministry event. We were on our way to a home meeting where we’ve been seeing some people from backgrounds not really known as Charismatic get filled with the Spirit when the hood came loose and was looking like it would fly up into the windshield. We had to immediately get off the freeway and drive slowly on surface streets, which of course made us pretty late to the meeting. Didn’t stop God from doing awesome stuff though.

We were quoted about two hundred dollars for a repair for that hood. However, Mercedes was driving around town one day and felt the Lord leading her down a street and ended up at a junkyard, where she started talking to the guys there. They are probably not used to having pretty female visitors on a regular basis and thus they went out of their way to help her out—not my experience at junkyards at all! Well, they not only found the right part to fix the hood but gave it to her and installed it all free of charge! Praise God! It’s awesome how God can use even car problems for good!! Hallelujah!

Thank you for your prayers and support, as they keep us out there “doin’ the stuff” as John Wimber used to say, in all kinds of different situations and settings.

Click here to donate: http://www.graceworldmission.org/contact_us.htm

Merry Christmas and Blessings to You in the New Year!

Listen to our Christmas message

about the supernatural God invading

our natural world with a little bit of Holy Ghost

Christmas worship in the beginning.

THE MIRACLE OF THE INCARNATION

Only through the revelation of the Holy Spirit can the glory and the enigma of the incarnation be understood.

That the Holy Spirit came upon a little peasant teenager living in an obscure village in an area most Jews referred to derogatorily as Galilee of the Gentiles should make us take pause and reflect a bit.

The town of Nazareth is so obscure that driving there, it’s easy to miss it, which is what happened to us when we visited it some years back. Mary was the ultimate nobody from a real nowhere town, and yet we’ve become so familiar with the story that we forget how ordinary and unassuming was the person and place through which God chose to bring his Son into the world.

Furthermore, Mary travels what would be considered a huge distance—while most likely 9 months pregnant—from her home in Nazareth to Bethlehem to fulfill the Roman census demand. A demand that seems most harsh, and yet God allowed it to come forth right when the woman carrying His very Son is closing in on baby day, so that the ancient Hebrew prophecy would be fulfilled.

The next scene has to really boggle the mind, and yet the familiarity of it all obscures its reality: Mary is out in a manger giving birth to the Savior amongst barnyard animals. The true rawness and grit of it all is often lost on us modern folk who see so many romantic depictions of this scene in Christmas plays and Christmas cards. We forget that this was a dirty, smelly barnyard. It is a place not much different from where the poorest of the poor often still dwell in our world even today.

While in a little Mexican village one time we visited some of the little plywood shacks with their dirt floors where I saw a little baby lying all wrapped up with a little teenage mother—the significance of the scene was not lost on me.

God reached down to the lowliest point in both the manger and on the cross to our lowest depths of sinful broken humanity. In all our poverty of spirit He identifies himself as one of us while still remaining sinless and God the Son, taking on Himself the transgressions of a fallen race that we might receive grace and redemption.

Much like the New Testament, which is written in the crude koine Greek of the marketplace, not the high Greek of Homer or The Iliad, with even some of its portions being penned by fishermen and tax collectors, hardly the scholarly type. It was in fact Alexander the Great’s conquest that spread the Greek language all over the known world and made it a language that was no longer high and scholarly but that of the everyman. God’s Living Word—both written and incarnated—reaches down to us right where we are in our human lowliness and brokenness.

On every level, God the Father reaches down and meets us right where we are. Stripping away all human pride and loftiness, He meets us with compassion when we are willing to divorce ourselves from the arrogance that stains the human condition and humbly receive His grace and mercy that He offers so freely—another thing the mind of fallen man has a hard time accepting—yet freely He forgives and receives us, adopting us as His very own.

The little baby crying in the manger cries to us to receive His abundant grace in Christ the Savior and the comfort of the Holy Spirit so that our human brokenness might be healed.

THE COMFORTER AND CHRISTMAS

Another aspect of the Christmas message that is often overlooked is the prominent role the Holy Spirit plays in the Christmas narrative.

Luke’s Christmas narrative is infused throughout with references to the Holy Spirit. Often overlooked in the Christmas story, the Spirit of God is in fact at its core. From beginning to end, the story of Christmas is an account of the supernatural invading the natural world with angels, dreams, visions, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

To the question Mary had of how she a virgin could bear a child, the angel answered, “The Power of the Holy Spirit will come upon you…” She wasn’t told the miracle would just all of a sudden take place; no, the Holy Spirit must come upon her first for the miracle to take place. The Holy Spirit came upon her and thus God brought forth the miracle of a virgin who bore forth the Christ Child—the supernatural invaded the natural through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We’ve been blessed to experience the Holy Spirit moving in power. The wind of God was blowing in a recent meeting at a church, and the pastor’s wife testified that the wind of God blew directly upon her with an angelic visitation as we ministered amongst the congregation. On another occasion, some guys asked us to pray with them before a worship meeting, when the Holy Spirit began to be poured out right then, and what was supposed to last just a few minutes, lasted for close to two hours as they were overcome with the presence of God bowled over on the floor. Numerous healings have also been taking place, as well as a number of people receiving Christ, including a young Latvian woman who was selling things door to door that we led to Christ right on our driveway. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you”…”You shall receive power”… “Live by the Spirit.”

Nothing could be more central to getting into the Spirit of Christmas, for the true Spirit of Christmas is THE HOLY SPIRIT!!

Christmas blessings to you – Be filled afresh today and as you begin the New Year!!!

Bryan, Mercedes, and Patrick Marleaux

SOME SCRIPTURES TO MEDITATE ON DURING CHRISTMAS TO GET INTO THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT, THE HOLY SPIRIT:

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Luke 1:35

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:41

He [John the Baptist] will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Luke 1:15

His [John the Baptist’s] father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. Luke 1:67

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Luke 2:26

Giving Thanks for America's Revival Heritage

Watch this video on the Great Awakening,

an important view into the revival that helped shape America.

Link directly to video

Listen to this impacting audio message

on how the Reformation led to the development of America.

Luther’s admonition on prayer: “Pour out your heart before God and say, ‘I am empty, fill me…strengthen me…warm me and make me burn,’” as well as his insistence on the need for the Spirit's power: “Unless you are continually baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire you will fall back into unbelief" were taken up in practice by the Puritans in England when the Reformation spread there. They inveighed against a Christianity that went only through the motions and rituals, but instead preached that “one must have an encounter with God; Christ must fill the heart.” This was a central focus of early Puritan faith. They were, as historian Sydney Alhstrom points out, “an extended revival movement.”

Thus, when Puritans (those who desired to purify the church from Romish chains and return to a New Testament standard) and Separatists (those who sought to ‘come out and be separate’ from Roman Catholicism) came and formed the early American Colonies, they did so in personal obedience to the Great Commission. They sought to establish a place where worship could be free, free from the restrictions of dead institutional religiosity, returning to that of the early church in Acts. They were all about revival and eagerly sought after it.

Through long travail and many trials, revival finally came forth when Jonathan Edwards, a descendant of Puritans, and George Whitfield, who was converted to Christ directly by the teaching of reformers and the Reformation, ministered in the early American Colonies and the fire of God began to fall.

Edwards began to seek God concerning the lethargy that was later setting in amongst the Christian Community in the colonies and was directed by the Holy Spirit back to the central focus of Christ’s payment for sin and God’s prevailing grace for all who will believe. As he preached a tightly reasoned sermon series on justification by faith through grace, “a great acceleration of the Spirit’s presence took place.” This was followed up later when he invited George Whitfield, who would regularly preach on “the righteousness from God given to us as a free gift wrought by Christ’s work on the cross for us who believe.” Edwards, an unemotional person, would often weep through the entirety of Whitfield's preaching, so touched by God was he.

The embers Edwards stirred exploded into a raging conflagration through Whitfield’s preaching. The fire of God began to spread and powerful manifestations began to take place on a regular basis as revival took hold. The colonies were turned upside down with an outpouring of the Spirit and manifestations of many falling to the ground under the power of the Spirit, shaking, crying out, profuse weeping and laughing. All these took place regularly as the Spirit’s power spread. Whitfield crisscrossed the colonies and began to have massive crowds come out to hear him regularly. Crowds of eight to ten thousand people (for the size of the colonies this was huge) were the norm, culminating in him preaching to over 30,000 at one time on the Commons at Boston. Benjamin Franklin, a self-described skeptic who nevertheless was always interested in Whitfield's effect, measured the crowds and recorded the events, giving even more credence to the phenomenon of the revival. When Whitfield would preach, absolute mayhem would often take place, with crowds running to the event and stirring up so much dust it looked like a cloud had descended, with the added phenomenon of boats and carriages crashing in their attempt to get to the meetings.

Through the effects of the revival many were raised up to be preachers, missionaries, evangelists, and the like, and took the Gospel out to further reaches of the expanding settlements; churches were strengthened and grew and many colleges were raised up to train preachers, including Dartmouth (originally called Moors Charity School for Indians), and Brown University.

This revival, like all revivals, was of course not without controversy, as many in staid and formal churches didn’t appreciate “such enthusiasm” as they called it, looking down their noses at such base behavior, much like Michal looked down on King David’s worship and dancing. It is interesting to note, however, that many of those who opposed the revival would themselves fall later into liberal ideologies like Unitariansim; it isn’t really possible to resist the Holy Spirit on one hand and think He’ll bless you on the other. Whitefield's comment on that situation was "The reason there are so many dead churches is that dead men are preaching to them." Gilbert Tennent also wrote and preached on "The danger of an unconverted ministry" reflecting the reality that many leaders in a lot of churches resisting the revival didn't even know Christ personally themselves.

Nevertheless, denominations today like Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists owe their size directly to their participation in this and other revivals that took place in early America. However, the vast majority of churches in which the Great Awakening took place were Puritan. The Spirit of God was poured out in power with mighty manifestations taking place and so the Gospel spread.

This is a large unsung part of our Thanksgiving Heritage: Thank God for the way the grace of Christ and the power of His Spirit gave such a Christian foundation to this nation in its earliest days.

Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation

On October 31^st, 1517 Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Thus began the Reformation, which quickly spread all over Europe, leading multitudes back to Christ and the truth of His Word!!

Martin Luther said: “Unless you are continually baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire you will fall back into unbelief.”(1) The words of the great reformer couldn’t ring more true. So many of the people I knew from way back who played a game of safe Churchianity and warned against being too focused on that “Holy Spirit stuff” are not even walking with God now but have fallen back into the world while pursuing its empty nonsense. There is nothing better you can do for your walk with God than to pursue being filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit!! For the Holy Spirit is God, and He leads us into all truth, opens our eyes to spiritual reality, and gives us life.

Luther’s highlighting of Paul’s creed (Rom. 8:1-16; Gal. 5:16-25; Eph. 3:16-19, 5:17) puts into perspective the reality that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but spiritual forces of darkness who constantly assault the believer on every front. The battle of faith constantly wages on and we need the light and illumination of the Holy Spirit to see clearly the battle we are in.

Like the character Susan in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe who crosses over into another world she previously knew not existed and whose eyes open to a reality she beforehand knew nothing of, Luther himself says he entered into the paradise of God’s grace when the Holy Spirit opened his eyes to God’s Word declaring, “I was born again through gates of paradise and the whole of Scripture took on a new meaning,” (2) (click here for an overview of Luther’s life) as he finally understood that Christ had once for all paid for his sins on the cross at Calvary. Luther’s clarity on the finished work of Christ and subsequent confrontation of Catholic errors on things like:

• Indulgences—the Catholic Church selling documents proclaiming forgiveness to those who rendered sufficient payment, a practice that still continues in the Catholic Church in parts of Italy and elsewhere.

• Relics—the worship and idolatry of pieces of bone and hair from already-deceased, well-known Christians. This is actually a forbidden practice in the Old Testament called necromancy, yet one that the Catholic Church did and still persists in carrying out.

Confronting these abuses spurred the Reformation forward like wild fire, so many throughout the continent were sufficiently disgusted at the constant unbiblical abuses and money grubbing going on in Catholicism that when Luther’s sharp and clear words regarding the freely given grace offered through Christ’s finished work along with the pointed rebuke at the abuses the Catholic Church was carrying out, the sentiment spread like a wild conflagration.

Luther’s clarity in his writings on Christ’s finished work and confrontation of the errors of the Institutional Church turned many back to the truth of God’s Word and towards real relationship with Christ. Students grabbed hold of his writings and began reprinting them on the recently invented printing press (click here to learn about Gutenberg's printing press), disseminating them all over Europe, which stirred a movement that spread throughout the nations and eventually to the formation of a nation that would become known as America.

One of those impacted by Luther’s teaching and preaching was Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland as well as his contemporaries like Heinrich Bullinger and William Farrel.

Zwingli, a Catholic priest like Luther, was greatly disillusioned with Catholicism as well and yet, unlike Luther, found himself unable to live up to the demands of celibacy (like many priests we see in the news today). Zwingli later, like Luther, turned his back on the unrealistic idea of celibacy and married. He was influenced by Luther’s writings early on and experienced a conversion to Christ and began to disseminate Luther’s teaching in Switzerland. He subsequently began to lead the Reformation in Zurich and brought a great impact to the area and just as Luther, he taught on God’s grace while speaking out against the abuses and errors of Catholicism. (As former priests, all these men were intimately in touch with the damage caused by such institutionalized error.) Luther and Zwingli as well as the other reformers, stressed the authority of God’s Word over against the teachings of man found so much in institutional religion.

Zwingli also proffered great insight into the breaking process one goes through as we learn to lean on the cross of Christ. Faith and grace come forth “when one despairs of oneself and trusts wholly on Christ alone.” Salvation is known and matures when “a man casts himself off and prostrates himself before the mercy of God alone.” Until one stops looking to oneself and one’s own works “you remain yet to know the depths of the grace he offers.” Though Zwingli and Luther saw a few small details differently, on the main essentials their belief were the same: by faith through grace alone—nothing more and nothing less—does one receive the great gift of pardon and mercy God offers in his Son Jesus Christ.

This essential Biblical foundation held in common by all the reformers became the cornerstone of later revivals at: Hernhutt in Germany, in England, and in the American Colonies. Revivals that, because they had a solid Biblical foundation, lasted, flourished, and spread the Gospel, unlike many of the so-called revivals of today that spring up quickly and seem focused more on an individual and his personality and die out just as quickly as they arose. (Can anyone say Lakeland….etc.)

Zwingli also influenced many others in his area that joined the Reformation as well, and these Reformers like Bullinger and Farrel, did much to reach out to the poor and bring reforms to not only the Church but social situations as well. Bullinger made Zurich a refuge for Christians being persecuted by the Catholic Church and fleeing the burning at the stake, especially other Lutherans. Farrel was a fiery preacher who raised up many young preachers and sent them out to reach others with the Gospel of grace as well as reaching out to the poor and sick. He was also a figure who shone the light of Christ and even reached out to the Waldensians who had been persecuted centuries earlier and had taken refuge in Switzerland.

This simple turning back to the fundamentals of the New Testament’s core teaching of Christ’s finished work and the grace he freely offers through faith in His blood, shook not only these regions but also the nations. As even Life Magazine put it, Luther and his influence remain in the top three of most important events over the last one thousand years.

I'll share with you shortly the radical divine appointment story of how the above video on Zwingli came to be made. Stay tuned!

Footnotes:
(1) Luther’s Sermons, Volume # 2, Page 182
(2) Martin Luther quoting on his conversion. Here I Stand by Roland Bainton.

Understanding God’s Processing In Us Through Trials

I want to give a quick synopsis of a recent message I gave as I believe it is timely for many people at the moment:

Joseph, Moses, and David all had important calls and purposes God had for their lives but all of them went through severe and extended trial, testing, and preparation, in being made ready for the blessing the Lord would eventually bring so as to handle it correctly once it came.

Imagine Joseph in prison wondering what had become of the dreams he had received and how on earth could this severe trial possibly have anything to do with those dreams. However, that trial was indeed part of the preparation for those dreams being fulfilled; God had indeed called him and would use him later in a very important way. Likewise with both Moses and David, trials did rule their lives for quite an extended period. David must have wondered what being pursued like a fugitive all over the countryside by Saul had to do with being anointed as the next king by the prophet Samuel. He, in fact, was having the Saul tried out of him however.

King Saul never had that preparation and in fact completely faltered when brought into a position of leadership; he thought his own human reasoning could take the place of being led by God’s Spirit, and it led him alright, right into disobedience and catastrophe. David learned to seek God through these severe trials and those lessons stayed with him later.

In the same way, God often takes us as his children through heavy trials but they have a purpose if we have ears to hear. He wants to teach us reliance on Him. The Apostle Paul learned to not rely on his own strength and instead learned to say, “When I am weak then I am strong, for God’s grace is sufficient for me.” Likewise God will extract out of our lives everything that keeps us from being centered on anything but the sheer grace of His glorious Son Jesus.

Jesus alone paid the whole price and all the glory goes to him. He will have no competing thoughts, idols, or strongholds that might lead us to think that our own works, or abilities, or accomplishments, have anything to do with the great blessing He brings. Christ and Christ alone is to be glorified. As Luther said: God creates out of nothing and until he makes us realize we are nothing He can do nothing with us. Oh, what do you know? Christianity actually has a cross in it (!) in spite of what some TV preacher guy may have told you about unbridled prosperity. The cross and trials are indeed part of the preparation process for us to handle the blessings and increase that He will eventually bring.

He wants to prepare long distance runners that persevere and hear His voice and follow His will and direction, those that are led by His Spirit and rely on His grace and love and power, and not human-centered individuals that look only to their own strength and resources and their own human reasoning and like Saul, falter when given a task to carry out by Him. And the only road that will get us to that place is through the cross.