{Passion}

{True joy is passion in action.}


I've always been a passionate person. About many, many things. For me, loving something meant that I was passionate, intense, zealous, overenthusiastic, determined, immoveable in conviction, exciteable and always VERY emphatic!

Passionate about my sweet, adorable little kitty...
Passionate about blogging...
Passionate about roomie fellowship at midnight...
Passionate about talking to my sis...
Passionate about photography, new locations, sparkly eyes and cloudy semi-sunlit days!
Passionate about Christmas.. music.. in early November while baking...
Passionate about cooking for a crowd..
Passionate about why I hate the smell of Subway (personal quirk)...
Passionate about Penn State football.. and losing...

But all these things I'm passionate about... are simply noise. Noise that fades when the name of Jesus is spoken. Noise that becomes unimportant, insignificant and pointless.

On Sunday morning, I remembered Who I am passionate about. During a regular normal Sunday morning worship service, as we sang songs that we have sung many times before, as I played the same keyboard and looked at the same faces... something happened. Like rivers of rushing waters, I felt the moving of the Spirit. We worshipped, we sang, we were hushed, we prayed, and we waited on the Lord.... and through it all, I was stunned. I thought, How did this happen? And then, It must be God.

We listened to teaching... challenging us about past revivals, awakenings and spiritual movements. From the 1st Great Awakening and the experiences of great men like John Wesley, Charles Finney, and others, to the Pentecostal movement beginning in Cherokee County, North Carolina and extending to the Azusa Street revival, we started to see the marks of the Holy Spirit's moving. How He is not limited by time, He organizes how He desires, He always convicts sinners in a dramatic, life-changing way, He moves upon hearts that are diligent in prayer and holiness and His presence is heavy, sobering, and unlike any of the modern charismatic imitations of revival.

When God revives, He returns the Church to its intended state. Read Acts and you will know.

So my passion is challenged... and this evening, in talking around the kitchen with my roommates, I felt the stirrings of God's heart in mine. And began to ask myself serious questions.
Why don't I have revival in my own life?
Am I willing to pay the price? Be wholly consecrated? Totally surrendered? Instantly obedient?
Am I genuinely, fervently, wholeheartedly seeking God's presence?

Answer these questions and act upon them... and I know, this is true passion.