Move

The relationship of Christ with His Church presents of a picture of our Lord manifesting Himself through His people - that relationship provides a template for Biblical marriage, and Ephesians 5
expresses the desire that God has to be one with His people:
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Throughout the earth today, I believe that God is drawing people to Himself - He is showing Himself to be loving and faithful, and He is using the people who have committed their lives to Him and who are being cleansed by His Spirit to radiate a tangible expression of His presence.  He is repairing the broken, and strengthening the weak - He is transforming lives in profound ways, and wants to do more, in response to His people as they humble themselves before Him and seek Him.

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We can be involved in the glorious expression of Almighty God, as He moves through His Church -
His visible, earthly representatives. Acts 17 includes these words spoken by Paul:
26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'

Welcome to the 20's - the two-thousand-twenties. A century ago, the decade of the 1920's was known as the "Roaring Twenties," which, according to Dictionary.com, were "called 'roaring' because of the exuberant, freewheeling popular culture of the decade. The Roaring Twenties was a time when many people defied Prohibition, indulged in new styles of dancing and dressing, and rejected many traditional moral standards." The site says that the decade was "regarded as a boisterous era of prosperity, fast cars, jazz, speakeasies, and wild youth."  And, that decade closed out with the Great Depression.

There is a group of Christians who have another idea about the current decade.  The Christian Post reported on the "Roaring Twenties fast, stating: "The Roaring Twenties fast is fundamentally about cultivating expectant hope for another great spiritual awakening in America and in the nations around the world amid bitter divisions and political turmoil."  

Movement founder Malachi O'Brien, a pastor in the Kansas City area and former second vice-president of the Southern Baptist Convention was inspired by a talk by Louie Giglio at a conference and said, "there's such a direct correlation from the 1920s to the 2020s. So many things politically, spiritually, economically. The decade began one way, it ended a vastly different way..."

O'Brien felt led of the Lord to call a million young people to pray and fast during the next 10 years. He says:

"I believe that the Lord wants to mark a new generation, mark them with spiritual hunger and thirst that they rest not in what we can do when we have large stadium gatherings or when we do large events, but let them be marked that it's not by might nor by power but by His Spirit. And to know that there is something powerful that happens when we really consecrate ourselves to a place of fasting and prayer."

The article notes that Georgia pastor Jentezen Franklin, whose church, Free Church, fasts annually during January, and others came on board. Jon Groves of Think Eternity said, "There has never been a greater opportunity to flood the world and saturate the air with the message of the Gospel. To raise up digital Billy Grahams, cultural missionaries, to take Christ to culture..."

The Roaring Twenties fast is just one of many initiatives and gatherings that are planned for this first year of a new decade. I have already concentrated on 2020 as the Year of the Bible, led by the World Evangelical Alliance, in partnership with Museum of the Bible and the American Bible Society.

The Stream recently published a list of large-scale Christian events and conferences planned for the new year.  Some of the events listed include another Together event on the National Mall in Washington, led by Nick Hall of the PULSE Movement on June 20.  Hall leads the Table Coalition that is also involved with Year of the Bible.

Promise Keepers returns this year with a two-day conference at AT&T Stadium July 31-August 1.

Plus, next month, there is an event called She Loves Out Loud, a national prayer simulcast led by Diane Strack, the wife of Jay Strack, and featuring Priscilla Shirer and Sheila Walsh.  I will be featuring a conversation with event speaker Claire Culwell this month.

Stand to Reason's reTHINK Apologetics Conference is listed - it will be in Birmingham in April and feature Greg Koukl, Sean McDowell, J. Warner Wallace, and a host of apologetics speakers.

And, The Christian Post also has an article about what is being termed as "the 'largest Christian outreach' crusade in history across dozens of African countries next May in a movement that will culminate on Pentecost Sunday." It's called One God - One Day - One Africa, or 1GDA, and is being organized and led by Jennifer Wilde of Wilde 4 Jesus Ministries, a long-time missionary.  It will occur in late May. The article says:

The crusade events will be organized by local churches, religious leaders and ministries in partnership with foreign ministries and leaders. The aim, Wilde told CP, is to have evangelistic crusade events held in as many African countries as possible.

Andrew Palau is among the endorsers of the event.

Today I want to concentrate on something that is being reported regularly: God is moving, and it is helpful to concentrate on how He is bringing people into a saving knowledge of Christ and how people's lives are being changed.  And, we can also consider how He is moving, or working, in our lives.  If He is, praise Him; if you don't think that He is, there may be a reason, and we need to take a closer look at our relationship with Him.

It is helpful to identify how God is moving in our lives, our churches, and in our communities, and we can continue to call out to God, that He would display His love, power, and glory in the world today.

As people who belong to Christ, we can be reminded to look vertically - it's easy to get off track; if we're all focusing on the cross, the body of Christ is strengthened and we are more united because we are fixated on the same goal.