BrianIngraham.com | ASPIRE

Just over a week ago I found myself sitting in an old church building in Scotland listening to young men honing their teaching skills.  The weekend was called “Simply Holy Spirit.”  A weekend of teaching our people some of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, some about spiritual gifts, and some about the fruit of the Spirit.

Todd Weller put together the vast majority of the content and coordinated the teaching effort.  There were two focuses for the weekend.  First, to teach our people about the Holy Spirit.  Second, to train and give opportunities for young people to explore teaching or worship leading gifts.

Our church is both a church and a mission.  Although we are clearly a local church, which gathers weekly to worship and learn and spur one another on towards love and good deeds, we are not just a local church.  We are also a mission to Glasgow and to Scotland.   What I saw in these young teachers made me smile, knowing God is rising up a new generation of preachers who have the potential of seeing thousands return to believing in Jesus Christ, convinced that God is who the bible says he is, and certain that God will do everything he says he will do.

The future is looking a bit brighter.

(photo by Megan Ansdell)
I have been asking for so much prayer for the ReAwakening conference that happened last weekend and I am acutely aware that a ‘report’ is past due… in short: It was AMAZING.

Friday evening Andy Ashworth lead worship and I spoke on “Beginning ReAwakening”  It was a call to REMEMBER how the Church of Jesus Christ was supposed to be like.  It was a call to REPENT over the situation in our nation.  It was a call to RETURN and DO the things that were done rightly at first.

During that evening I became powerfully struck that the reawakening of Scotland has already begun.  It may be unseen at the moment, but already some in Scotland are waking up and a fire has been kindled in hearts.  The question is no longer will reawakening come to Scotland, but how brightly will it burn.

Saturday, Richard Spriggs and the West End Vineyard worship team lead us in musical worship while Hugh Halter, author of “The Tangible Kingdom” spoke.  I really appreciated his emphasis on incarnating (living) our message (what we preach).

In the afternoon Neil Glover was phenomenal in his bible overview seminar.  Dan Peterson’s prayer seminar was inspiring.  Hugh Halter fielded a Q&A from his message as well as expounded on some further concepts from his book.

Saturday evening Richard lead us in worship and I spoke a message entitled “ALL IN” where I discussed the reawakening of Ephesus in Acts 19 and called people to dedicate themselves to love-driven obedience–anytime, anyplace, any cost.

I don’t feel I have an accurate grasp on how the conference went.  With speaking and preparing, I felt my ability to assess was greatly diminished at the time.  I have now been hearing stories of striking encounters with God and ‘wake-up’ moments throughout the weekend.  I am curious to see what the fruit will be in a couple weeks.

A bonus from this weekend was to partner with different church leaders from denominations in the city.   After meeting guys like Richard, Neil, Dave, and others I was encouraged by the calibre of people God seems to be rising up in this land.

The team who put this conference together did an organized and effective job.  I was quite impressed with the quality of the conference.    Andy Ashworth, Leah Aston, and Kirsty MacIntyre spearheaded a great team and a huge undertaking.

May God use this weekend to continue the reawakening work which he as begun in Scotland.

Most of the messages will be available for free download on the ReAwakening website later this week.  www.re-awakening.org.uk.

I have been quite swamped this past month with preparations for the ReAwakening conference.

The conference is THIS WEEKEND and I would really appreciate the extra prayers. I will be speaking at the main session on both Friday and Saturday nights, as well as speaking twice for church on Sunday.

Pray for Energy, Focus, Clarity, Health, Joy, but most of all that the Spirit of God would move in powerful ways in the deep places of peoples hearts.

Thanks for praying.

As a church we are in a series entitled, “Becoming Abraham: Learning That God Can Be Trusted.”  Just today I came across this brilliant quote from John Calvin.

“Let us also remember that we are all in the same condition as Abraham. Our circumstances are all in opposition to the promises of God. He promises us immortality: yet we are surrounded by mortality and corruption. He declares that he accounts us just: yet we are covered with sins. He testifies that he is propitious and benevolent towards us: yet outward signs threaten his wrath. What then are we to do? We must close our eyes, disregard ourselves and all things connected with us, so that nothing may hinder or prevent us from believing that God is true.’

About a month ago I had the opportunity to sit around a table with some exceptional men who love the word of God and who are wanting to see God’s Kingdom advance again in Scotland. Some from the greater Glasgow area, some from Edinburgh, some from other places like Stirling, Perth, and Dundee.

We all got together and listened to Iain Murray, of Banner of Truth Publishing, speaking to us about what we, as the young Church leaders of today, can learn from the Puritans.

Michael Luehrmann recorded the session and has made it available HERE.

I found this to be a casual time jam-packed with gold… enjoy.

Two or three years ago Mike Strunk, of Christ’s Church Federal Way, Washington, gave me a simple book penned by John Piper entitled, “The Passion of Jesus Christ.” A more precise title would be, “50 Ways Jesus is Good News.” Each ‘chapter’ is a brief 2-page reflection on a specific verse that identifies a significant aspect of what was accomplished on the cross and why Jesus had to die.

We know some of the more ‘normal’ ones:

To save us from our sins.
To make peace between us and God.
To rescue us from slavery to sin and death.
To redeem us.
To Forgive our sins.
To make for himself a people of his own possession zealous for good works.

Some less common ones would be:

To redeem us from the futile way of life passed down by our ancestors.
To no longer live egocentric lives but to live for him.
To show that the worst evil is meant by God for good.
To free us from bondage to the fear of death.

As I preach, I want every message to come back to at least one gospel truth—one reason to celebrate Jesus. I find in Pipers tiny book, an amazing resource for going a bit deeper in the many faceted great truths about Jesus. Thanks Mike.