A Great Re-Awakening

Rest is good for the soul. It is good for many other things as well, but rest is most definitely good for the soul. I love long weekends. I love them because I am able to spend them with my wife and children. I love them because when my three year old asks me if I can stay with him at home all day, I don't have to tell him no. I love them because my 7 month pregnant wife gets the much needed relief of having an extra set of hands to help her with our two sons. There are many reasons why I love long weekends, but aside from the most important ones already listed, I love them because I get to read!

In this Memorial Day weekend I read and finished a book by Steve Farrar titled King Me and began a biography on William Wilberforce titled Amazing Grace, by Eric Metaxas. The Farrar book is great and a must read if you are a father of boys. I will comment more on that book at a later time. However, today's post has to do with some things I read in just the first 60 or so pages of the Wilberforce biography. William Wilberforce, Wilber to those who knew him best, has fast become a hero of mine. I will explain more in the coming weeks why this is so and why I chose his nickname as my moniker. However, the post today has less to do with Wilberforce the man and more to do with society in general of Wilberforce's day.

In Wilberforce's early years he lived with his aunt and uncle who were comtemporaries of George Whitefield, the Wesley brothers and John Newton. The society in England at this time was very anti Christian. The culture ruled the day. When Whitefield and the Wesley's came on the scene, everything changed. They were so different that they were given the name of Methodists because of their methodological approach to preaching a true Bible based Gospel. Instead of becoming like the culture to reach the culture, they were so different that they stood out like a sore thumb.

When people became genuine believers at this time, you knew it. It was definitely an in but not of life that they lived. Wilberforce was exposed to this at an early age and when his mother and grandfather got word of this they removed him from the care of his aunt and uncle because they did not want him being influenced by a fanatical movement. Many years later, as the Holy Spirit continued to draw Wilberforce, he would in fact respond to the Gospel. Wilberforce felt he must immediately leave the political arena because he couldn't forsee a scenario in which he could serve God and the people in that arena. After receiving some much needed counsel from John Newton, he decided that he must stay in politics to be a true light in the darkness. Someone who would not stand for Christ and culture, but that would stand for Christ in culture.

The Education pastor at my church, who also happens to be my boss, recently went to a conference in which he was in a room with several other ed. pastors from large churches and various denominations. The topic came up of reaching the culture for Christ and almost every church suggested a strategy that included becoming more like the culture to reach the culture. My pastor was in tears when he realized one of the main reasons we are not reaching the culture for Christ is because we are obsessed with becoming like them.

I pray for a return to the 1700's. A time when people could acutally tell a difference in believers and the world. A time when people who stood for Christ stood out. A time when people knew what it meant to count the cost and weren't ashamed to do it. If I hear one more pastor say that we need to be students of the culture to reach the culture, I think I might puke. It isn't healthy and it dang sure isn't Biblical. When God's people decide to live like God's people again, I believe we will see what 18th century Britain and America saw; a Great Re-Awakening to the power and freedom of the Gospel.