Asbury Revival 1970

There are several days which I count as formative in the beginning of my journey toward God.  The first was December 19, 1955.  It was the day my father died.  I was seven years old and on that day I started looking toward heaven.  Two years later I was baptized in Waycross, Ga. by a pastor who would later marry my mother.  Just before I turned 18 years of age I gave my life to Jesus and heard a call to preach.  Some six months later as a member of a lay witness team in Blue Ridge, Ga. I said "yes" to that call to preach.  And, then on February 3, 1970 the Holy Spirit blessed Asbury College with a powerful overwhelming revival.  I was blessed to be present that morning when it started.

 

The Asbury Revival became more than just a memory.  It was a moment in my spiritual journey which brought me to a place of wanting to give my whole life to God.  It was a moment in which the Holy Spirit worked to create in me a hunger for God which has always driven me forward; yet, which has never been satisfied.  This is not to say this life I have lived has been without the same sins and distractions with which we all struggle, but it is to say a hunger and thirst for God started growing in me that day that has been unshakable.

 

There have been those moments which I have sought to put what happened to me on February 3rd at Asbury College in some kind of neat theological box.  I have never been able to really wrap it up.  It was powerful and life changing in the moment and it brought me to an awareness that we ought to expect the powerful and the life changing work of the Holy Spirit to always be unfolding before us.  I have not always understood what it means to live under the control and authority of the Holy Spirit, but since that day I have been one who has been pressing toward that goal even though it always seems to be somewhere beyond attainable.