a publication of Life Action Ministries Volume 47, Issue 1 FOREST FIRE Dan Jarvis | p. 6 IN TRAINING TO LOVE Luke Johnson | p. 10 SOCIETAL TRANSFORMATION Bob Bakke | p. 14 A LOVE SUPPLIED BY FAITH John Piper | p. 18 CONTENT FOREST FIRE Our culture is being consumed by flames. Our families are being ravaged on a bonfire of selfishness and faith- COLUMNS lessness. How can we hope to recover what we’ve lost? 03 SPIRIT OF REVIVAL 06 Revived Heart, Fresh Love 05 CONVERSATIONS How Big Is Your Family? 21 FROM THE HEART IN TRAINING TO LOVE How’s Your Love Life? Loving my neighbor is one thing. Loving 31 NEXT STEP my neighbor as myself is quite another Where Do I Sign Up? story. How do we go about learning how to love like Jesus loves? PERSPECTIVES 10 22 HARD QUESTIONS Why doesn’t God seem as loving in the Old Testament? 24 REAL WORLD SPIRITUAL AWAKENING Stories from those who are BRINGS SOCIETAL actively loving one more TRANSFORMATION Whatever God’s reviving Spirit does 28 MAKING IT PERSONAL in us and among us to fix our eyes Practical application on Jesus, the Spirit also does for the blessing of other people. 30 LOVE ONE HUNDRED MORE 14 A personal story Executive Director: Byron Paulus Senior Editor: Del Fehsenfeld III Managing Editor: Daniel W. Jarvis A LOVE SUPPLIED BY FAITH Assistant Editors: Kim Gwin; Elissa Thompson What is the link between God’s great Creative Director: Aaron Paulus love for us and our ability to love Art Director: Liza Hartman others? How do we work out what Senior Designer: Thomas A. Jones He has worked in us? Design: Austin Loveing: Joseph Wilson, Beth Siesel Photography: Unsplash.com; iStock.com; 18 lightstock.com; India Gospel League Volume 47, Issue 1 Copyright © 2016 by Life Action Ministries. All rights reserved. Revive magazine is published as God provides, and made available at no cost Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy to those who express a genuine burden for revival. It is financially supported Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a by the gifts of God’s people. Its mission is to ignite movements of revival and publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights authentic Christianity. reserved worldwide. Life Action does not necessarily endorse the entire philosophy and ministry of To purchase additional copies of this issue, be placed on our free mailing list, all its contributing writers. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts or pay or contact the editors with feedback or questions: Life Action Ministries • our authors for content. We grant permission for any original article (not a P.O. Box 31 • Buchanan, MI 49107 • 269-697-8600 • [email protected]. reprint) to be photocopied for use in a local church or group setting, provided We do not share subscriber information with other organizations. copies are unchanged, are distributed free of charge, and indicate Life Action Ministries as the source. Revive magazines are also available online. 2 lifeaction.org/ ▶ When God’s love changes a life, that love REVIVED HEART, overflows onto others around them. Life Action sees this happen in church after church across the country, and I’ve seen it happen in my own FRESH LOVE neighborhood. Meet Marge. I received a letter from her of Jesus, her life demonstrated what that SPIRIT OF REVIVAL in April, exactly six months after one of Life kind of love looks like, and her impact grew! Action’s ministry teams was at her church. Soon, she would spread that love to people Byron Paulus With a heart overflowing with gratitude and on the other side of the globe. Executive Director praise to God, she wrote: Meet Barbara. In 1987 her husband was My life has changed dramatically, killed on a Navy ship, the U.S.S. Stark, by a and so have many others. Many of missile launched from an Iraqi jet. She took us came alive and went back to the her ten-year-old son and her $1 million settle- Imagine the Lord’s work. My joy was restored, ment and moved to the Middle East to share and I am now serving the Lord with Jesus with those who killed her husband. She impact we’d see all that I am, wherever He wants me. has continued in that capacity ever since. if every believer With many others, I will be going on a mission trip to Hong Kong. Never There is only one reason that Marge, Barbara, in Jesus simply in my wildest dreams did I ever see and thousands of others like them are joy- loved one more! myself as a volunteer for a mission fully sharing the love of Jesus, even laying trip anywhere. down their lives to serve others. They had an @ByronPaulus encounter with Jesus themselves, and their Some background: I came to Christ in acts of selfless love are really an overflow of my 30s. My life changed then, but not the love He has poured into their hearts. like it has now. I still held the ball in my own court, tossing it to Jesus once in That’s the vision cast in this issue of Revive: a while. I still had not surrendered to that revived hearts, full of God’s love, would Him. Then came Life Action 21 years begin looking out at the world around them later into my life. for more people to love. Imagine the impact we’d see if every believer in Jesus simply First, I quit smoking, after 43 years. I loved one more! used no manmade helps. The power of prayer worked. Second, my son was Meet Ollie. On a personal note, and sub- saved. I cannot tell you the joy I felt, stantially less dramatic, seven years ago I after 19 years of prayer and tears, to reached a point of fresh surrender to God. see the answer come. Not only that, As a result, my wife and I started asking how but God allowed me to be the one that we could really love our neighbors. Since prayed with him and led him to Jesus. then, I have been blessed to mow my elderly Third, there was an extended impact neighbor’s lawn. Last week, while I was out of in my family that is difficult to fully town, Ollie was taken to the emergency room describe: my mother, brother-in-law, with what First Responders thought was a niece, daughter’s fiancé, daughter’s life-threatening stroke. When my wife raced friend, and others in my family circle to see him, Ollie grabbed her hand and would were saved! On top of this, my nephew not let go. In a small way, the love of Jesus and his wife rededicated their lives to has been overflowing from my house into his. the Lord. I hope we can keep loving Ollie, and one One changed life had an effect on all more after him. these and will now reach more and more. To God be the glory. “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere The results of revived life in Christ were crys- faith” (1 Timothy 1:5 NASB). tal clear in Marge’s life. She shared the love 3 Innovative team-led events designed to encourage your entire church family toward TRANSFORMATION AND MISSION Spiritual renewal begins when we seek God with humility, repentance, and reverence. That leads us to fresh joy in obedience to Christ, for God’s glory. Our innovative, team-led events are designed to encourage every member of your church family toward transformation and mission. Call 269-697-2122 to schedule your Life Action event. Visit LifeAction.org/events to learn more. 4 lifeaction.org/Life Action events typically schedule one year in advance, in churches with a weekly attendance of 500 or more. ▶ The breakdown of the family has left a hole HOW BIG IS in the heart of a generation longing to be re- parented. Is there room at your dining room YOUR FAMILY? table for one more? Thousands of teenagers responded ecstat- started introducing us to his student friends. ically to the music as the most popular More and more of them started showing up CONVERSATIONS Christian band shook the house. By the time for meals and staying late into the night for Del Fehsenfeld III they finished, the atmosphere in the building conversation and prayer. I found myself reg- Senior Editor was electric. ularly stepping over sleeping bodies strewn across my living room in the morning on my As the speaker walked out onto the stage, he way to work. knew he had less than a minute to grab their attention. He proceeded directly into the audi- Over the next eighteen months, many stu- A family with an extra ence. Looking at a young man with tattoos dents came to our home. Some brought their and pierced eyelids, he said, “I wish you were friends, parents, and siblings. We keep ask- seat at the table is like my son.” And then to a young woman, “I wish ing, “Why?” They keep telling us, “We’ve never a magnet. you were my daughter. been a part of anything like this before . it’s like a different kind of family, where we all “Tonight, I want to speak to you like you were actually belong.” my own children.” You could hear a pin drop in the vast auditorium. And then the tears Here are a few things we’ve learned so far: began to flow down the cheeks of many.