What a wild ride of camp we had last week! Thank you all immensely for your prayers for both the students and for safety! As many of you know the van ride back was wild for a number of reasons (vans breaking down etc.). But, I don’t want that to distract from the great work God was doing in and through our group.
If you were unaware our students served every afternoon from 12-4pm all over Fort Worth, Texas, in nursing homes, homeless shelters, and food banks. It was great to see their hearts and willingness to jump right in and help. A strong reason I believe in this camp organization is because of the training that the staff does with the students to teach them how to strike up gospel conversations and share their testimonies. With this, we had several students boldly step out of their comfort zones and do just that- share the gospel or their testimonies with COMPLETE STRANGERS. AMEN! Students being the Church and spreading God’s word, why wouldn’t we get excited for that?!
As we returned back to campus each night we would have a service after some free time and dinner where Chandler Snyder, the Dean of Students at Southwestern Seminary, and our camp pastor, would challenge all of us with the topic of revival as we walked through the book of Jonah. Our theme verse for the week was 2 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Chandler uncovered with us where revival begins, what revival requires, what revival leads to, and challenged us with what will we do with revival. The culmination of the messages was that the source of Revival is God and in order for revival to happen we must be willing to recognize the messy sin that we have, repent and turn from our sin and follow after God. Once we have done that, we should proclaim the hope of Christ and tell the story of what He has done for us and has done for every human being. This is a simple message right? One that we hear often. But the Spirit had gone before us and the TRUTH of this message set heavily on the chests of a lot of our students. Many expressed the conviction that they need to be more bold in sharing what God has done in their lives. Some confessed sin, repented, and are pursuing accountability. One student even fully committed their life to Christ for the first time. EXCITING THINGS! Christ moved mightily amongst our group and I am proud of the students and families we have at Grace Community Church.
So I'll turn this message back to you. Revival begins with God. It requires a call from God. It leads to action… obedience, confession, and repentance. Then it takes commitment to carry on the message. What is God’s call to you? What is He trying to teach you or tell you? How are you acting on it, and how do you need to carry it on? Ponder these questions and ask God to reveal Himself to you.
Lord, please bring revival to our church, to our community, to our world!
Peace and Blessings,
Bryant Hart