Tag Archives: revival

Are You a Crybaby? Should You Be?

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There is a funny video on You Tube. A manipulative toddler falls to the ground crying, trying to get his mother’s sympathy. She walks out of the room.

He sees that she is no longer watching his masterpiece of drama, so he finds her and falls to the ground again, wailing his pain.

She leaves, the toddler follows and the show repeats itself. (See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQtpRjBLXic ) Those tears make us laugh. Most often manipulative waterworks aren’t funny, though.

All Kinds of Tears

All tears aren’t bad. We cry for a lot of reasons.

We might blubber because we feel sorry for ourselves. “Poor me. What an unjust lot I have in life.”

“Get the camera mama. This ought to be on You Tube!”

Sometimes we weep because we really do hurt and tears are our heart’s overflow.

Often we weep when we lose someone dear to us. That’s normal and even healthy. Continue reading →

Will Revival Come? Are We Condemned To Spiritual Medocrity?

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I never cared much for coffee–until I was 38 years old. I don’t know why it took me so long to like it. I guess maturity finally struck. It still hasn’t struck my wife who says she doesn’t like the taste. I tell her, “You don’t drink coffee because it tastes good. You drink coffee because it IS good.”

Many tout the health benefits of coffee. According to Wikipedia: “The consensus in the medical community is that moderate regular coffee drinking in healthy individuals is either essentially benign or mildly beneficial.”

Famous Coffee Drinker–Garfield

Famous coffee drinkers like Garfield the cat laud its benefits. In one Garfield cartoon the fat cat begins to slurp his morning coffee. His master John asks him, “How’s the coffee?” And we see Garfield, eyes wide, wide open, a crazy smile on his face, his whiskers sticking out as he answers, “It gets the job done.”

My excuse for drinking coffee (among others) is that it helps my spiritual life. I used to find myself dozing off as I read my Bible in the morning. Now, I’m “boing, boing, boing.” (That’s the sound of someone jumping on springs, in case you wondered, not “boring, boring, boring” which is a word sometimes associated with preachers).

Is the Church Short On Coffee? Continue reading →

A Key To Revival: Touching God’s Face

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I almost saw the dictator, Colonel Gadhafi, and the actress, Sharon Stone, the same night.

But I didn’t.

Gadhafi was on an official visit to Paris and I was walking up the famous street, the Champs d’Elysée, with some friends from eastern France, gawking at the Christmas lights.

Suddenly we saw a motorcade pull onto the street from the direction of the Palace of Elysée, the official residence of the French president. “I’ll bet that’s Gadhafi,” we said, but all we saw was dark cars.

A little later I noticed a crowd gathering in front of a hotel on the famous boulevard. “Who is coming?” I asked of someone in the crowd, as everyone shivered in the cold.

“Sharon Stone (the actress),” he replied.

“I’d rather see Sharon Stone than Gadhafi,” I thought. So we waited and shivered and froze. Finally I decided I would rather live, than die frozen like a popsicle waiting for Sharon. I guess she didn’t know I was there and she was taking her time.

But, hang on, another day I did see Hillary Clinton, wife of then President of the USA, Bill. Madame Chirac, the wife of the French president, Jacques, was with her.

As they got out of their car to go into a restaurant, Hillary waved and smiled just as if she were running for president. (I suppose she was practicing).

Serious-looking secret servicemen scanned the crowd, just like on television. I was amazed that I was close enough to see her well.

“David, what are you rambling on about?”

That’s a good question. Give me long enough and I’ll figure out what I want to say. Continue reading →

Yes Mr. Trump. There Are Evangelicals In Cuba

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cuba-890977_640
Donald Trump needs to update his data if he’s going to understand the world of 2016. At least as far as the Christian world goes.

Before the Iowa caucuses he asserted that there aren’t many evangelical Christians from Cuba. At one time that may have been true.

Now, one of the most powerful revivals in the world is shaking the island.

The economic crisis of the 1990’s after the fall of the Iron Curtain helped kick off the move of God. Evangelicals have exploded in number from around 70,000 to, according to some estimates, nearly a million in 2016.

That’s tending towards ten percent of the population of the country.

One denomination’s experience can shed light on what’s happening. US Assemblies of God Superintendent, George Wood, reports what Cuban leaders told him on a recent trip.

In the late 1980’s God began to demonstrate his power in an unusual way in Cuba by signs and wonders. Wood says he personally met a pastor’s wife who was raised from the dead. Continue reading →

Do You Misunderstand While Speaking the Same Language?

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language

Have you ever noticed that people who speak the same language are often speaking a different language?

For example, there is preacher language. For normal people, “just five more minutes, please,” means five more minutes, 300 seconds. For your pastor, five more minutes means … well it could mean a lot of things, but be sure of one thing. It’s never less than five minutes.

When preachers speak we love to say, “In conclusion,” or “I’ve got to hurry.” Roughly interpreted that means, “If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.” People wake up when I say, “In conclusion.” It makes them so happy that I conclude a lot when I’m preaching. I like to make people happy.

I’ve also found that you can honestly say, “For my last point,” and keep going a long time. You don’t have to tell them that there are fifteen sub points under that last point. And after that there are some more conclusions. Continue reading →