Tens of thousands of people recently flocked to the tiny town of Wilmore, Kentucky, which has a population of just 6,000 (and also happens to be the birthplace of my lovely grandmother, Ruth). Why did these crowds come? Because they were told an amazing revival was happening, and they wanted to see and experience it for themselves. Interestingly, the school where this occurred, Asbury University, effectively ended these meetings after a few weeks, at least for outsiders/non-students. Someone rented out a venue about thirty minutes away, perhaps as a way to keep it going, but it was sparsely attended.
Even though there were fifty thousand or so attendees at the original gatherings, this event generated millions, if not billions, of opinions. While many immediately deemed it a sure move of God and celebrated what was happening at Asbury, others had their doubts. Overall, many questions have been raised, concerns expressed, and challenges made about this purported revival. And, as we might expect, there has been a lot of arguing and infighting as to whether this was an actual move of God, or not.
While it is important to assess the immediate question at hand — “Was this a true revival, or not?” — we are going to take a different approach here. Instead, we will examine how people responded (and are still responding) to all of this. In so doing, we will take advantage of the wonderful opportunities to learn from not only this particular instance but anything else that comes along—and to be better equipped to love and lead others—especially with truth, through discernment, and God’s Word of truth.
Let’s start with one of the most valuable and life-changing principles possible. Love, truth, and discernment are inseparable. Therefore, we cannot really love well without good, biblical discernment. In addition, without truth and discernment, we will be in error and will, almost assuredly, harm others and ourselves. This means that what a person functionally believes about the above principles regarding love and discernment will have a profound influence on how well they love, and on their life overall.
Get the eBook here > Love + Discernment: Why We Need Both
HOPE FOR LIFE MINISTRY
Hope For Life Biblical Counseling & Equipping is a non-profit ministry based in the Central Valley of California. We have always been fully committed to providing biblical counseling at no cost to anyone in need, along with classes, books, and other equipping resources for the local community and the worldwide body of Christ as a whole.
In addition to being a full-time counselor for well over two decades, Mark Baker actively develops and teaches courses on a wide range of subjects, including forgiveness, conflict, marriage & relationships, biblical counseling, and discernment. Emily, Mark’s wife, handles the administrative and artistic side of the ministry, while holding down the fort at home.
Because we truly believe that “everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope,” we are passionate about sharing that Word every chance we get —whether through counseling, teaching, writing, or art.
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