A Book About George
Sunday, July 20th, 2008“The most influential book I have ever read.”
Those words always capture my attention especially coming from a person I esteem. Add to that, the book referenced being a biography of a godly man and I become intensely interested. Add to that, a book written about a man who lived in an era much like today, a preacher in the SAME CITY I preach in, and a person used by God to change his times, and I am ready… Amazon, here I come.
There are several biographies on GEORGE WHITEFIELD, but the one which has influenced so many is a 2 volume work entitled George Whitefield: The life and times of the great evangelist of the 18th century revival by Arnold Dallimore. I was tempted to get his condensed and much cheeper volume of 224 pages, but in the end I decided to go for the big dogs.
Chapter one ends with the author hoping someday for a new generation of young people who will transform their generation as completely as George Whitefield and his companions did in the 1700’s.
When speculating about the future people who will transform their days, Dallimore asks, “And what manner of men will they be?”
- “Men mighty in the Scriptures.”
- “Lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty, and the holiness of .
- “Their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace.”
- “Who have learned to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions.”
- “Men willing to be fools for Christ’s sake.”
- “Who will bear reproach and falsehood.”
- “Who will labour and suffer.”
- “Whose supreme desire will be, not to win the earth’s accolades, but to win the Master’s approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat.”
- “Who preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes.”
- “Whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit.”
- “Who will witness ‘signs and wonders following’ in the transformation of multitudes of human lives.”
This is our task, to become, and to spur one another to become, men and women who are ever increasing in these above things. Reawakening begins with us. It begins as we return to the Word, as we return to an uncompromising pursuit of personal integrity and holiness, and as we choose to walk away from our human ambitions and become consumed with the great “Well done” when we stand before God someday.
Father, Reawaken our land. Reawaken our generation. Reawaken us. For the renown of your Name in our generation. Amen.