Tag Archives: Restoring the Core

Podcast

Prayer Revivals and the Third Great Awakening – Part 2

Haslam

Episode 92 is Part Two of a serialization of the article “Prayer Revivals and the Third Great Awakening” published in the Evangelical Review of Theology in January 2007. In this episode, an account of the revivals in Wales, Scotland, England and Australia is given.

A link to a downloadable pdf of “Prayer Revivals and the Third Great Awakening” can be found here

The autobiography of William Haslam, one of the revival leaders in England, is entitled CaliforniaTaylor01“From Death Into Life”. My podcast on William Haslam is Episode 14 of Finding Hidden Treasure. A link to the webpage can be found here

The upper photograph is of William Haslam; The lower photograph is of William “California” Taylor.

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Podcast

Prayer Revivals and the Third Great Awakening – Part 1

Episode jeremiahlanphier91 is Part 1 of a serialization of an article from the Evangelical Review of Theology entitled “Prayer Revivals and the Third Great Awakening.” The article centers on the history of a massive revival which swept the English-speaking world starting in North America in 1857.

The photo insert is of Jeremiah Lanphier, who conducted the prayer meetings during the Fulton Street Revival in New York City.

Link to a pdf of “Prayer Revivals and the Third Great Awakening”

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Podcast

Excerpts from “A Christian on the Mount” by Thomas Watson

WATSON-Thomas_detailThis minisode contains the reading of some excerpts on meditating on the all-knowingness (omniscience), holiness and wisdom of God. The excerpts are taken from Thomas Watson’s 17th century treatise “A Christian on the Mount.”

Link to Amazon for the print book 

Link to Amazon for the Kindle version

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Podcast

Some Spiritual Lessons Learned in London

Prayer Room - John Wesley House - London UKEpisode 90 centers on a discussion of four lessons in living the Christ life which the host learned from touring several sites in London which have deep roots in Christian history. The four lessons point to the importance of (1) Sacred Space and Time; (2) Disciplined Practice of Word and Prayer; (3) Living the Christ life well despite times and circumstances; (4) Planning and Organizing the work which God
Thomas Becket Memorial at Canterbury Cathedralhas given us to do.

Links to some entries from the School of the Solitary Place blog concerning how all this started and recaps of the visits of two London sites (Wesley’s house & chapel; St. Giles Cripplegate) can be found here, here, here

Links to webpages for Restoring The Core which speak in more detail about the London trip can be found in the following

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Another Canterbury Tale, Part 5

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Podcast

Some Reflections on the Inner Life in Christ

prayer-bibleThis blog post contains some recent reflections of mine on the inner life. (The audio of this post forms a minisode…with links below)

The time at which I’m posting this is at the end of one year with, of course, the dawn of a new year approaching. I’ve been reflecting at this time about how to deepen the inner life which we have with Christ. One person whose writings have been instrumental in my thinking about the inner life was Andrew Murray, a pastor and writer from the late 1800s and early 1900s. His caution to us is a good one although it might seem a bit counter-intuitive. He warned about substitutes for God. The very nature of idolatry is substituting a false god for the one real and true God. However, Murray’s words have us think in terms that, at first, might not seem idolatrous. In his book “The Inner Chamber and the Inner Life”, we read the following: “You are in danger of substituting prayer and Bible study for living fellowship with God….Your desire to pray humbly and earnestly and believingly may so occupy you that the light of His countenance and the joy of His love cannot enter you…the very Word of God may become a subsitute for God Himself.”

This is a good reminder to not let two means of God’s grace to us become ends in themselves. The Pharisees of the 1st century, written about so often in the Gospel accounts, had a formal theology which was closer to that of Christ’s than any other group of that time. Yet, Christ refers to them as sons of hell and their converts twice the sons of hell as those who converted them. (See Matthew 23:15) What was admirable on paper became abominable in the way it was practiced. As we look to deepen our inner life in Christ, at whatever time of year it is, or whatever season of life we live in, we need to be careful that, in our practice, time spent in prayer does not become more important than the One with whom we are spending time in prayer. We need to be careful to not allow Bible reading to simply become an item on our things to do list. We need to remind ourselves that the reading of the written Word of God should never be our end goal. The end goal must be encountering the living Word of God, Jesus Christ.

In conclusion, I want to stress the importance of prayer and the privilege we have of listening to or reading the Bible. We must not neglect them. We must never practice them as ends in themselves.

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