2016 Revive Our Hearts Spring Newsletter by Revive Our Hearts

Spring 2016 Newsletter

hat’s the cry of your heart? Is it wisdom

for raising your children? A better marriage? Relief from a chronic illness? Someone to fill a lonely void in your life?

We are praying for hundreds of thousands of women to come together in thousands of locations that evening, lifting our heart cries to Him.

Each of us has some kind of burden on our heart. And it’s right to cry out to God for these situations. But I want to challenge you

My burden throughout this year is to call women to pray for

to cry out for something even bigger—to cry out for the kingdom

our homes, our churches, our nation, and our world “for such a

of God.

time as this”—to see God maximize the opportunities before us and spread the fame of His Name. I hope you’ll join with us this

Throughout 2016, Revive Our Hearts is calling women to cry

September, in Indianapolis or via the simulcast, as we gather as

out for the greatest need of this generation—a visitation of God’s

women to earnestly seek the Lord together.

presence and an outpouring of His Spirit in genuine revival and spiritual awakening. Throughout history, the Lord has used

It’s my prayer that in these days filled with turmoil and evil, we

prayerful women to advance His eternal kingdom purposes, and

would be filled with the Spirit and fulfill what God has left us on

today we are asking Him to do that again!

this earth to do—point men and women to Jesus. Would you cry out to Him with us?

As part of this call, we’re setting aside an entire evening of the True Woman ’16 Conference for the purpose of coming together

Seeking Him with you,

in prayer before the Lord. Cry Out! A Nationwide Prayer Event for Women is a three-hour simulcast solemn assembly where we’ll earnestly cry out to the Lord for mercy and grace in these critical days.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

A Prayer

That Contains It All by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” —Matthew 6:9–13

2 ReviveOurHearts.com

t seems that most of us struggle with the spiritual discipline of prayer.

We feel guilty because we know prayer is some-

God has often used this prayer as a means of grace to minis-

Why does God sometimes

ter to His children in times of distress and need. One particular

we should be praying more than we do. thing we don’t always understand.

Encouragement for Troubled Times

And

is sover-

story involves a young pastor and well-known Lutheran theologian

eign and determines the outcome of everything in the uni -

named Helmut Thielicke who lived in Stuttgart, Germany during

verse, why should we even pray?

World War II. During the final days of the war, his congregation

answer prayer and sometimes seem not to?

If God

I have to confess that prayer has always been a difficult area of my spiritual life. I have found much help through study and meditation on the Lord’s Prayer—the one Jesus used to teach His disciples how to pray. This prayer is familiar to most of us. Even many people who have no claim to a relationship with Christ can recite it. No matter how frequently you may have repeated it, I would encourage you to take a fresh look at this familiar passage—to think about it while you’re praying; to meditate on it phrase by phrase, word by word, asking God to weave it into the fabric of your life.

was in upheaval. These were horribly trying times for this little flock of believers. The bombs were falling day and night. The Third Reich was crumbling. The Allied Forces were coming in and overcoming the German resistance. The country was in chaos. Pastor Thielicke looked into the eyes of his people week after week and saw fear, terror, doubt, despair. These people desperately needed hope. Was their country going to be wiped out? Were they going to be wiped out? What was going to happen? If you’re the pastor, what do you say at a time like that? How do you try and encourage these people? How do you prepare them for what may lie ahead? Thielicke decided to preach a series of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer. That series was ultimately translated

A Model for Our Prayers . . . and Our Lives The Lord’s Prayer is actually found twice in the New Testament. Matthew 6 is the one we’re most familiar with, but there’s another version in Luke 11. And because Jesus gave this prayer a little differently each time, it shows He didn’t intend us to just use it as a rote prayer. There’s nothing wrong with reciting this prayer, but I believe Jesus intended us to use it as a model—a template—for our prayers. The Lord’s Prayer is simple, short, and to the point. Just sixtyfive words if you include the doxology at the end, with no one request more than ten words long. This prayer is comprehensive. Almost any petition we can think of will fit into this framework. In this entire prayer, we find six petitions. They’re broken into two sets of three. The first set includes three petitions about God

into English and published in the United States. In the introduction to that book, Thielicke said, “The Lord’s Prayer was able to contain it all.” We’re living in troubled times today. We don’t currently have bombs falling around us, but we all know that we live in dire times. The world is self-destructing under the weight of sin and rebellion against God. What do you say to people in times like these? How do we prepare our own hearts for the disastrous times we may be facing? We don’t know how to deal with these times. We don’t know how to deal with distress. God has given us His Spirit to intercede for us (Rom. 8:26), but He’s also given us the Lord’s Prayer to direct our praying. That pastor in Germany said that the Lord’s Prayer was able to contain it all. This prayer does contain it all, and it’s a prayer Jesus gave us that will help prepare us to face uncertain times.

and His glory. It’s all about God—His name, His kingdom, His will. In the second half, there are three more petitions. This time they’re about the needs of the family of God. These three petitions cover every possible situation. They cover our present, past, and future circumstances. And they teach us to pray for provision, for pardon, and for protection. As we gain deeper insight into the Lord’s Prayer, we realize it’s more than just a way to pray; Jesus is teaching us the way to live.

Join Nancy August 1–September 22 on Revive Our Hearts as she dives deep into “The Lord’s Prayer.”

It’s a way to think. It’s intended to be the way we live our whole lives.

Resting

IN CONFIDENT HOPE;

Remembering

OUR CALL TO KINDNESS

by Dr. Russell Moore

our mission in a fallen world is to

If all we have to go on is what we see around us, we will become

speak the gospel prophetically into every sphere

scared and outraged, and our public witness will turn into an ongo-

But we also are commanded to speak truth with

ing temper tantrum designed to prove to ourselves and those who

love , to join our prophetic gospel of judgment and recon -

dislike us that we are worth something. And in so doing we would

ciliation with kindness and compassion.

talk and act just like any other insecure movement: with sarcasm,

of culture.

Christians,

Because the spiritual powers of the universe are in war against

anger, and ridicule.

the Church’s mission, this is always difficult to do. But it can be

But we aren’t trying to bring everything back to the “good old

especially difficult when cultural change makes our gospel seem

days.” We are the voice of the future, of the coming kingdom of God.

strange, even offensive, to our neighbors. When we sense hostility

The message of the kingdom isn’t, “You kids, get off our lawn.” The

to our message and to ourselves from a lost world, our instinct can

message of the kingdom is, “Make way for the coming of the Lord.”

be defensiveness and anger.

A gloomy view of culture leads to meanness. If we believe we

We may say things like, “This country is spiritually in decline”

are on the losing side of history, we slide into the rage of those who

or “If God doesn’t judge this country, He will have to apologize to

know their time is short. We have no reason to be fearful or sullen

Sodom and Gomorrah.” This kind of language feeds into a sort of

or mean. We’re not the losers of history. We are not slouching to-

apocalypticism that feels invigorating, with a jolt of adrenaline like

ward Gomorrah; we are marching to Zion.

a panic attack. But this hysteria is actually a betrayal of Christianity itself, since it assumes that history is ultimately in the hands of humanity. What defuses this hysteria and defensiveness in our hearts is

The worst thing that can possibly happen to us has already happened, in Jesus at the cross. And the best thing that could happen to us has already happened; we’re alive in Christ, our future is seated at the right hand of God, and He’s feeling just fine.

faith. Our confidence in the promises of God are what give us the reason and the strength to be kind in our mission as Christians. Consider the example of Jesus, who showed compassion even on the demons inside a possessed man when He gave them permission to enter a herd of pigs (Luke 8:31). Why? Jesus was not seeking to redeem these spirits; the Bible says they are unredeemable, not even included in the atonement of Christ (Heb. 2:16). Jesus responded this way because He was not afraid. He was confident in His Father’s mission for Him, and thus was free from the need, rooted in insecurity, to constantly prove Himself. 4 ReviveOurHearts.com

Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, will be speaking at True Woman ’16. The Wall Street Journal has called him “vigorous, cheerful, and fiercely articulate” while The Gospel Coalition has referred to him as “one of the most astute ethicists in contemporary evangelicalism.” Come hear him for yourself; register at TrueWoman16.com.

A Call to Fall on Our Knees • Random violence has become commonplace. • Terrorism is a daily threat. • Marriage is being redefined. • The political process doesn’t offer enduring solutions.

But God does. And the struggles we face are our greatest opportunities to watch Him work!

We’re asking God to draw hundreds of thousands of women together for such a time as this. Would you join us as we cry out to the only One powerful enough to bring about lasting change?

A NATIONAL PRAYER EVENT FOR WOMEN | SEPTEMBER 23, 2016 If you won’t be able to be there in person, consider participating from right where you are. Host a group at your church or in your home; join Cry Out! via the Simulcast; and earnestly seek the Lord on behalf of our families, churches, and nation.

Learn more at

CRYOUT16.COM

Mary Slessor of Calabar

The Great Mother of Calabar by Jani Ortlund

(1848–1915), I

sat in my cozy study , sipping my

As a young girl Mary had given her heart to Jesus, and

Mary Slessor

she shrank from nothing He asked of her. When she heard

was keenly aware of how different

about a new mission work in Africa, she longed to serve her

tea and reading about

our lives were in comforts and culture. beat with hers.

But my heart

Lord there. Her answer to the many who questioned this

Lord.

choice was that this was the post of danger and therefore

loved and served the same

Surely I have much to learn from her.

the post of honor. And so at age twenty-eight, she sailed for Calabar, heartland of the slave trade.

A Post of Honor Born into a poor family in Aberdeen, Scotland, Mary’s strong character was evident early on as she spent fourteen years working twelve-hour days in a factory to help provide for her mother and six siblings. But character doesn’t ensure greatness; using that strength to serve her King is what set Mary apart. Unhappy experiences in her home life didn’t cripple her. Rather they prepared her for what lay ahead. 6

Afraid that her departure would put too much strain on her invalid mother and sole surviving sister, she sought her mother’s blessing. Her mother’s faith-filled reply freed Mary to follow their King: “You are my child, given to me by God, and I have given you back to Him. When He needs you and where He sends you, there I would have you be.” Mary never saw her mother again this side of heaven.

A Message of Life in a Land of Death

my Savior had not been so close, I would have lost my reason.” But

Mary went to a people who were superstitious and engaged

those children knew a mother’s touch and voice, a mother’s prayers

in dark customs. Her aim was to help the poor and oppressed— particularly the women, who were considered nothing more than property. She begged God for guidance and help, writing home that “my one great consolation and rest is prayer.” She deliberately gave up everything for her Master and accepted the consequences without murmur or complaint. “Everything no matter how seemingly secular or small is God’s work for the moment and worthy of our very best endeavor.” She settled into an area of constant warfare, slave markets, cannibalism, and human sacrifice. If a chief died, his wives and slaves would be killed or buried alive with him. If a man was insulted, whole villages could be wiped out in revenge.

Mary was surrounded with death, disease, and darkness. “If

and passion. She was a true woman. Her children had a refuge—in her and in her Savior.

Make Music Everywhere One of the things I admire most about Mary is that she lived until she died. I mean she really lived. She served nearly forty years in Africa and stayed young in her enthusiasm, sympathy, and humor all the way to the end. One coworker wrote, “She seemed to grow more wonderful the older and frailer she became.” Hers was a life of unselfishness, of dedicated, unwearied devotion to Christ. She wrote to a friend, “Don’t grow up a nervous old maid! Gird yourself for the battle outside somewhere, and keep

In a land of death, she brought a message of life. To people

your heart young. Give up your whole being to create music every-

governed by hellish cruelty, she taught love and kindness. And al-

where, in the light places and in the dark places, and your life will

ways, always, she spoke of her Savior, who was the answer to every

make melody.”

human need. She never kept score of her accomplishments. “It comes back to this. Christ sent me to preach the gospel, and He will

Where can you make melodies for Him today?

look after the results.” She won these people over by her sympathy, by entering into

Mary Slessor is one of many who chose to live a

their lives and appreciating their difficulties and temptations, act-

surrendered life for Christ. Read more inspiring

ing as a wise mother would. The fame of her goodness and her

stories of “25 Women Who Impacted the World

moral and physical courage spread, and the people came to trust

for Christ” on TrueWoman.com.

her, appealing to this frail, fearless woman on their own customs and laws. When asked how a woman could be of much help, she replied, “In measuring the woman’s power, you have evidently forgotten to take into account the woman’s God.”

Just as Mary served with a mother’s love—though without biological children of her own—many of

Ma Akamba, the Great Mother She never married, though not for lack of a suitor. The mission board asked Mary to break her engagement to another missionary and she did, reasoning, “We alter things for the good of our children, and God does the same for us.” But the loneliness and isolation she lived with were not easy. Mary Slessor loved all children. She was called Ma Akamba, the Great Mother, and her house was a continual refuge for little children. She nursed and cared for all who were brought to her, sometimes able to pass them back to their parents, other times comforting them on their way to heaven and then burying them in the ever-extending cemetery plot behind her hut. One practice she fought against was the superstitious killing of all twins at birth, with their mother being sent off alone into the

you are also spiritual mothers who have tirelessly poured yourselves out for others. From all of us at Revive Our Hearts, we’d like to wish you a belated

Happy Mother’s Day!

jungle in disgrace. She had a mother’s heart and rescued all she could, often carrying them for miles on foot to obtain tins of milk to feed them. Spring 2016 7

BE F O R E T H E

Summer Begins . . . Before you know it, your summer vacation will begin. You’ll be having fun with friends and family, soaking up the sunshine. But don’t forget, Revive Our Hearts is possible thanks to the support of friends like you who believe in the ministry and make it possible with their gifts. In the summer, people get busy and donations to the ministry drop. But the need to call women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ continues to be crucial. Women like these two sisters serving as missionaries in the Middle East:

Full-time jobs and language learning commitments keep us from formally studying how to teach the Word . . . but through the Revive Our Hearts’ podcast, we are strengthened and encouraged biblically by women from around the world! Also, Nancy’s teaching on prayer and devotion to the Lord are vital reminders to cling to Him in the midst of spiritual warfare. We are so excited about how the Lord will continue to use this ministry in our lives and in the lives of others! Listeners like these are on our mind as we close out the fiscal year on May 31. This is the time when we look back, celebrating what God has done through Revive Our Hearts. It’s also the time we look ahead, seeking His direction for the new fiscal year.

Before the busyness of the summer begins, would you make a much-needed donation to help Revive Our Hearts stay healthy through the summer months?

Give Today

ReviveOurHearts.com/Donate

Thanks so much for your important role in making this ministry possible! Looking for bite-sized, daily encouragement right where you are? Follow us on:

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2016 Spring Newsletter Enclosed

Troubled Times

Encouragement for TM

Life Action Ministries 2727 Niles-Buchanan Rd. P.O. Box 31 Buchanan, MI 49107

is an outreach of: