Awakening Grows through Abiding in God’s Word

Pray – (1/2 minutes)

Read – (2 1/2 minutes) – “To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.’ ” (John 8:31)
   Passage: John15:5-8

        Jesus changes lives and changed lives can change the world. The Great Awakening resulted in thousands of converts to Christ who then began to worship in churches and study God’s Word. One historian observed that “preachers used language such as liberty, justice and freedom for the first time. As a result, people began to get a deeper sense of having individual rights.” They taught the truth of scripture that all people were equal in the eyes of God and that He did not show favoritism. When the leadership of Harvard and Yale, universities founded by the established church of England, refused to support what was happening, four new universities, which are now in the Ivy League, were founded in the years prior to the Revolution to train preachers who preached Christ and the freedom He gives. As all this was happening, one writer says that there “began to be created a national consciousness of doing what is right and looking out for your brother and neighbors.”
      God is always at work and part of His work was using the Great Awakening to lay the groundwork for the establishment of the United States of America. Prior to the Awakening, both in religious life and political life, people were used to systems that had a person in between God and people. In the established churches of England, the line flowed from God to priest/pastor to people. In the government, the line flowed from God to King to people. As people experienced freedom in Christ and learned that all are equal before God, they began to challenge both of those systems. The newer denominations, such as Baptists were democratic bodies and as people confessed Jesus as Lord, they realized that He was their only King. God’s Word is powerful and when people know the Word, the truth sets them free.    
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