Old Lecture Notes for a New Generation

I’ve been brushing off old lecture notes, and adding new thoughts to them. Why, you ask? Because today, I’m going back – back to the classroom. No, not back on the faculty, but back to help prepare want-a-be preachers to preach revival meetings as a part of Southwestern Baptist Seminary’s spring revival practicum (now called, “Revive This Nation”). I directed this program for twenty-three years before my retirement, then continued to be asked to take few minutes at the beginning of each spring semester to review the history for current students, but now I have been invited to take the first lecture on spiritual preparation of the student to be an instrument God can use for revival in a local church. I do so with excitement, mixed with a bit of healthy fear. This is a different generation. My reputation is unknown to these students. Will they hear what I say? Will I be another old, retired professor, seeking past glory at their expense? But I accepted the invitation. I’m going to do it. I love a quote that is widely misattributed to Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” I’m not sure I have twenty more years left, but I get the point. I like a quote from the Psalmist even more, “When I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation.” (Psalm 71:18). What are you declaring to this generation?