Christmas and Revival!

We had a wonderful Christmas!

I will definitely try to do a Christmas re-cap soon.  I need some time to sort through my pictures.  As I began to scroll through them today my heart was filled with joy as I was reminded of the moments (just 2 days ago!) where the kids were filled with such excitement they could hardly contain themselves. :)

Christmas night, after the littles were tucked into bed, Andy was upstairs playing new video games with the boys, so I curled up on the couch and picked up this book that my MIL gave me for Christmas.

In case you are wondering why this might be a book I would receive as a present, 

my mom was raised Jewish, but became a Christian as a teenager.  So I am part Jewish and have always had an interest in learning more about my heritage.

Andy grew up in a church that focused on teaching about how the Jewish traditions and feasts point to the coming of Christ, and so Andy's parents have always had a love for Jews and spent many years studying how Christ is revealed through these feasts.  So along with my mom, Andy's parents have great resources to pass along to me.

That night as I was reading I came to the chapter on Rosh Hashanah.  As the author began giving the biblical history of this time my spirit leapt as I read the passage below about King Josiah.

This righteous king's zeal for the Lord inspired a revival in Israel...

The part that jumped out at me was the word "revival".  About a month ago I was awake in the night and could not sleep and remembered a teaching I had recently heard that said if you are awakened in the night and can't sleep, maybe the Lord wants to share something with you.  

In the past if I couldn't sleep at night I would usually pick up a book and begin to read until I felt groggy enough to drift back to sleep.

But, remembering that teaching I decided to just pray to the Lord and lay there and rest in Him.  All that kept running through my mind was the word "revival".  I was awake for awhile longer, and all I kept thinking about was this one word.  The next morning I wondered what it could mean.  Is it a revival for our family?  For our country? For the church?  I really didn't know, but I did share it with a few friends because it was so clear to me that night.

So as I'm reading this book the word "revival" pops out at me and I immediately thought back to that night.  Leading up to this passage, the author had begun to share a little bit about King Josiah from II Chronicles.  Now most of this year I have been camped out in the New Testament for my personal quiet times, but Christmas night I was excited!  I wanted to get my bible and open up to II Chronicles as quickly as I could so that I could know more about this King.  Since I can't get upstairs very often right now I called to Andy and asked him to bring me my Courson commentary that included this book of the Bible.  I began to read.  Here's a portion of what Jon Courson shared about II Chronicles 34:15,16 (where Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses.  He found it during the restoration of the House of the Lord that King Josiah began).

"Throughout history, every lasting revival that has taken place has been liked to a rediscovery of the Word.  The same thing will happen in our lives personally.  That is, if we get into the Word, revival can't help but break out.  A Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't."

-Jon Courson's Application Commentary (Old Testament Volume 1)

This year I feel like I have had my own personal revival and it has all had to do with being in the Word consistently.

These past few weeks with the busyness of Christmas and recovering from surgery I haven't been rising early to open my bible and so my bible time has been more sporadic.  It does not take long to lose the excitement of the Word.  So as I read this passage the other night I couldn't wait to dig back in, and now I'm excited to head to the Old Testament!

When I read the part in the commentary about a bible falling apart, it made me think of Andy's mom's bible that she gave him.  I think she gifted it to him before we were married.  It's full of her handwriting out to the sides of scripture where she was sitting under the teaching of the pastor who taught them so much about the Jewish people and another teacher she greatly admired.  What a treasure, what a gift!

There is even a note written in the openning of the bible where they prayed for a specific request, and then the date when that specific prayer had been answered.

I desire to have a bible like that.  Full of notes from Godly teachers, personal revelations from the Lord, and faith builders where the Lord showed himself to our family and me in real and personal ways.

Yesterday and today I listened to a teaching about the "Road to Revival".  There were 8 challenging and encouraging points that Courson made.  If you have time I encourage you to listen to this teaching.  Listen in bits and pieces if you don't have extended periods of time.  Many times I will put my laptop in the kitchen while I'm fixing breakfast and listen to 5-10 minutes at a time.  If you aren't feeling drawn to this teaching, he has almost every topic you can think of.  Maybe the Lord is speaking to you in a different area.  All I can tell you is that more of the Word builds an excitement in your soul and draws you closer to Him.

I'm still not sure if I fully realize the meaning of the word I was given in the middle of the night, but I do know that although I was given lovely gifts and I know I will enjoy them, right now I'm drawn more to spending time learning about King Josiah and the other kings from II Chronicles, which begins with King Solomon.  I already have read enough to know that some did right in the sight of the Lord, and some did evil in the sight of the Lord, and I can't wait to see what I can learn from each of them.

Courson mentioned lyrics from this song towards the end of his teaching, so I'll leave you with this. :)

(P.S.  If you can't hear it, click on the mute button.  For some reason my mute was turned on.)