Fire in My Bones

Have you ever wanted to go to a secluded place and scream at the top of your lungs, “God, why are you taking so long?” I have. Everything about my life has seemed too slow. My last name even means “gradual.” Some people might look at my life and say, “Lee has had a fruitful

Near the end of the film “Jesus Revolution,” Pastor Chuck Smith gives his young disciple Greg Laurie the keys to a church and challenges him to launch a new congregation. When Laurie expresses his lack of confidence, Smith says: “God has a long history of using flawed people.” Those words certainly apply to the Jesus

There’s a scene halfway through the new film “Jesus Revolution” in which Greg Laurie, a fatherless teenager who’s been searching for life’s meaning through drugs and Janis Joplin concerts, is baptized in the Pacific Ocean by a hippie preacher named Lonnie Frisbee. Before Lonnie dunks Greg in the water, he leads Greg in a salvation

By now you’ve heard that leaders at Asbury University decided to end the continuous revival meetings that broke out on their campus on February 8. It wasn’t an easy decision—students didn’t want to stop praying and worshiping, and the crowds kept coming to the tiny town of Wilmore, Kentucky. So many hungry people visited Asbury

There was nothing unusual about the 10 a.m. chapel service held at Asbury University on Wednesday, Feb. 8. Guest speaker Zach Meerkreebs shared a message from Romans 12 about demonstrating God’s love, and the last thing he said in his closing prayer was, “Revive us by Your love.” Whoever was videotaping the service stopped recording.

I wasn’t watching the Grammy Awards last Sunday night, but I couldn’t help but hear all the fuss about the controversial performance by artists Sam Smith and Kim Petros. Some people seemed surprised that their song “Unholy”—which is about a husband who cheats on his wife—won a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. It’s no

Many Christians pray for spiritual awakening, and that’s good. But I wonder if we realize how disruptive revival will be when it hits us like a tsunami. If you read accounts of previous revivals, three things become obvious: (1) revival requires a lot of work; (2) it’s always chaotic; and (3) it offends religious people.

Read Time: 4 minutes 36 seconds If you type in the words “Walmart brawl” or “Waffle House fight” on YouTube, you’ll find hundreds of videos of bizarre altercations between angry customers. They are throwing punches, hurling expletives, kicking each other, pulling hair and even brandishing weapons, near checkout stands or next to hot ovens. You’ll

Read Time: 4 Minutes 25 Seconds When I was filled with the Holy Spirit many years ago, I knew my Southern Baptist mother probably wouldn’t be happy about my Pentecostal experience. She and I shared the same core beliefs in Jesus and salvation, or course. But I knew that some Christian denominations don’t encourage believers

Read Time: 3 Minutes 40 Seconds At the beginning of every year, I always spend time in fasting and prayer to seek God for direction. In most cases, He gives me a word that helps me navigate the coming season. Sometimes the word has been as simple as, “Keep running your race,” a reference to

Read Time: 3 Minutes 41 Seconds Have you ever prayed for something for a really long time, with no evidence of an answer? George Mueller, a British man who fed hundreds of orphans in the 1800s, prayed every day for the salvation of five men. The first man was converted after 18 months, and the

Read Time: 3 Minutes 34 Seconds You probably already heard that Rev. Jamal Bryant, pastor of 10,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, defended abortion from his pulpit last summer after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision. Bryant said on June 26—ironically during a baby dedication at the mega-church—that the

Read Time: 3 Minutes 37 Seconds Most made-for-TV Christmas movies are like eggnog and sugar cookies—way too sweet, yet extremely addictive for a lot of viewers. But these Hallmark-style movies—the ones with predictable love stories that always end with jingling bells and a happy wedding—have suddenly become divisive in our polarized culture. At the heart