How I see the world...

How I see the world matters when it comes to living out biblical Christianity.  This past week our speaker presented Biblical Christian worldview and Secular worldview and the importance of knowing scripture to live out how God told us.  Worldview is how the lenses through which we see the world. Many things affect how we see the world around us but not all of those things are from God.  We need to allow the bible to be the lens that we look through to see and understand the world around us.

 Tom

Some of the statistics Tom gave were staggering.  It's not that I hadn't heard them before but the urgency of preaching the gospel and discipling minds hit me again this week.  Here are some of those statistics:

In a survey taken 13 years ago in churched youth:

-63% didn't believe that Jesus is the son of the one true God

-58% believed all faiths taught equally valid truths

-51% didn't believe Jesus rose from the dead

-65% didn't believe satan is a real entity

-68% didn't believe that the Holy Spirit is a real entity

-It was also estimated that about 69% to 94% of churched youth are leaving the traditional church after high school, and very few are returning.

It also seems that it has not gotten any better.  In fact, out of the all the generations in the last 100 years it seems that this generation is the most biblically illiterate, which means that the current generation does not know their bible.  I have also heard that we currently have the most Christian literature published in any given time period, even things about the bible but young people do not know their bible.  Although this may seem like a grim reality hope is not lost.  There is also a hunger in young people to find out who the one true God is.  

ASL and David's Tent DTS w/ Tom

I pray that this hunger will drive the youth in America (and even over seas) to seek after Jesus and to find out who he is.  If Christians would live according to what their bible said there would be radical transformation in society.  But more than that, God is greater than the problem at hand.  All our human efforts may produce little to no fruit but with God all things are possible. Continue to pray for the revelation of Jesus to come again to America.

Save the Lost, Revive the Saved, Train them All

David's Tent DTS Students and Staff

The past 2 weeks, weeks 6 and 7, have been a jam-packed.  We started in Lancaster, PA for the School of the Circuit Riders.  Driving up from Washington, D.C., we spent a week participating in a school that started 2 years ago.  2 years ago I was a part of this school and came for outreach in D.C.  This was a more condensed version of the same school and for way more students.  We started with about 300-350 people and the last night session came to about 1,600+ people.

The idea of Circuit Riders is based on the old methodist pastors who would ride circuits around the United States preaching the gospel from horseback to all of America.  This training school was set up to teach people wherever they were to preach the simple gospel.  The motto of this school was:

Save the lost, Revive the saved, Train them all.

Night session in Lancaster

With 3 sessions of lecture and 2 portions of outreach, we saw a total of 320 people who came to know the Lord and over 60 healings.  There were portions where night sessions exploded in spontaneous worship because of the freedom and gratitude in the hearts of the people attending.  I wish I could recount all of the things the Lord did this week but this is just a very short summary.  One personal highlight for me was that I was able to reconnect with my YWAM family and friends who I haven't seen in over a year.  

From this training week we went straight to Virginia Beach to do some more practical application.  In Virginia Beach we helped run a youth camp called Culture Shift which was geared to help youth stand strong in their faith as well as preach the gospel in their high schools.  The age range for the students ran from 10 to 18 and it really impacted the youth.  During the week they went and did outreach in the local community preaching the gospel at parks, beaches and malls and they saw at least 12 people come to the Lord.  I can't seem to remember the exact number.  The youth also shared many testimonies of personal breakthrough.

Jason Hershey and Andy Byrd 

It was so encouraging to see what God was doing within the United States.  There seems to be more and more evidence that God is moving in the US. On one of the last nights during Circuit Riders Andy Byrd shared Reinhard Bonnke's word for America.  Reinhard Bonnke is an evangelist who has seen millions come to the Lord in Africa.  He said that for so long America was the offering plate to see revival in America but not anymore, God would move in America and all of America would be saved.  Such a statement of faith from a man who has been so faithful to see the Kingdom of God come to Africa.  Even in our current situation, I believe America can be saved and that the greatest move of God has yet to come for America.

You can be a part of this movement too by directly going out evangelizing and praying for America but also by supporting missionaries like me.  I am currently still in need of financial support for the David's Tent DTS and outreach. You can go to the financial support page at the top and using one of the donation methods.