Stirred Up!
Don't you love to be stirred up! The Spirit of God taking something and moving your spirit to worship, to wonder, to action; moving you such that the ashes of this life are shaken off and you feel the weight of eternity. So often I feel the sluggishness of the world weighing on my soul and then the Spirit comes in conjunction with the Word and stirs me up. I've been experiencing that a lot lately and it's no wonder. Lots of friends have asked us why we're here at Bethlehem Seminary, why we're putting ourselves through another 4 years of school and training. Simple Answer: so that we might be prepared to stir up God's people by the Word as the Spirit is pleased to bless it! We don't know where, we don't know how, we don't know the context, we don't know the roles...but we know that this is His purpose in bringing us here.
Here's a reading from my textbook that stirred me up today:
"Proclaiming the Word must be restored, because all the evidence shows that the churches are filled with people who so not know doctrine or Scripture - and many of them are hungry for teaching! No matter how the ministry of the Word is developed in the life of the worshipping community, when the people assemble for a full worship service with Holy Communion, the risen Christ must be lifted up in the eyes of the people and glorified through it...And the Spirit of God will burn the Word of God into the hearts and minds of the devout so that their loyalties will be renewed and the worship enriched.” (Ross. Recalling the Hope of Glory, p.430)
