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To the Editor:
Thanks to the Elizabethton Star for reporting about …”Asbury authorities move to end 13 days of revival.” With all the bad news of the war in Ukraine and the many train derailments of toxic chemicals polluting our water and air it’s great to hear some good news.
So happy to read in the Star about students sharing testimonies of how God changed their hearts and how God set them free from addictions, repaired relationships and showed love to them. Jesus is speaking and college students and other young people are seeking Jesus. On February 8, Asbury University students didn’t leave when the chapel service was dismissed. Students continued to worship. After nearly three weeks the event has become a legendary, spontaneous revival.
A Fox News article reports the revival brought over 50,000 visitors to the services including students from over 200 schools. We hope this small Christian university near Lexington, Ky., is the start of a great American awakening. Seekers came from all over the country. Thousands of students headed to a worship experience of a lifetime. An Asbury Theological Seminary professor says the word “outpouring” and not revival may be the best label to describe the events. Revivals are usually centered on evangelistic preaching to reach the lost. Awakenings are to awaken the sleeping, cold indifferent and lukewarm believers and people in the nation whose spiritual eyes are darkened. Outpourings deal with the Holy Spirit being poured out as happened at Pentecost to begin the Christian church.
Christian movie maker Alex Kendrick said a sweet move of God hit Lee University, a Christian college in Cleveland, Tenn., about the same time as at Asbury. Kendrick said he heard about a woman who was deaf being healed. Also, he hears a woman’s knee being healed at Lee. He said he saw unity and everyone acknowledged the Lord Jesus and their need for Him in their lives. Is the timing of these spiritual events due to the emptiness of college students or the great need of young people to find a real source of truth, peace and forgiveness? It has been analyzed by spiritual leaders everywhere but the truth of it is, Jesus speaks, and young people are seeking an experience with Jesus. Social media has taken the revival viral. A popular quote was, “no glitz, just God.” Asbury didn’t have the paid singers, well rehearsed fog and light display of many modern mega-churches. People were worshipping, praying, singing and crying. They said the room was full of humble hearts displaying a love for Jesus. College students and other young people are seekers. They are hungry to fill their needs, figure out life and make sense of themselves in the world.
The awakening of the Holy Spirit in the lives of thousands who have and are experiencing the work of Jesus at Asbury and other schools has a far-reaching potential to change lives forever, just like the Jesus Revolution of the 1970s changed lives. The new Christian movie I recommend now at theatres called “Jesus Revolution” could also help increase interest in Jesus. College tuition will leave you stressed about your debt, entertainment will leave you empty, power will leave you heartless, lust will leave you loveless, money and material things will leave you comfortless, drugs will leave you senseless or dead: Jesus won’t leave you regardless because nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus. Jesus led the most freeing revolution in history awashed in blood, His own. There’s only one way to have true freedom and live free in Tennessee and for eternity – Jesus!
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3 in the last days people would “resist the truth.” Also in 2 Timothy 4 “And they shall turn away their ears from truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” As a result many T.V. and internet mega-churches have put a priority on being seeker-sensitive and not offend people to get the most followers and the most donations. This is evil because the Bible says to preach all of the Bible and Jesus and gospel is the priority. These evil seeker-sensitive churches are most interested in entertainment and never preach the truth that all are sinners and are going to hell for their sins if Jesus doesn’t pay for them. “It’s better to offend people into Heaven than flatter them into Hell!” They never preach the truth that God is a God of justice and either you pay for your sins forever in hell or Jesus pays for yours sins. In John 14:6 Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man comes unto the Father but by me.” Jesus is the way and not a way. The most important truth to know is about Jesus. John 17:3 says eternal life requires you enter a personal relationship with Jesus. Your eternal destiny depends only upon how you answer this question. Who is Jesus? Don’t wait for a revival. Admit you are a sinner and need Jesus the only Savior. Believe Jesus died for your sins and rose again. Call on or pray to Jesus to save you now!

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton