A New Thing

Where I am from, Tent Revivals are so important we learn about them at school. Well, I guess if by "learning" I mean "getting made fun of." haha. 

Its so ironic that in my Kentucky History class we just got done learning about the influence of religion on the civilization of Kentucky and one of the topics discussed was the Red River Meeting House revival right in my home county, which my professor directly paralleled to modern-day "summer revivals" or "tent revivals." Its ironic because I have been in church my whole life and not until this week have I ever attended a legitimate tent revival. 

This is funny:

This is how my professor described revivals: 

"Evidently, the preacher came down and preached hell fire and damnation then people began speaking in tongues and fell into death-like trances and when they woke up they were magically converted. People danced around and said they were full of the spirit and jumped up and down and ran in circles and barked like dogs)..." 

Really?

This is how my grandparents and other elders have described tent revivals to me:

"Everyone worshiped together under a tent and people from all over the community heard the gospel. People would walk in off the streets, drunk or high, and go down to the altar and repent and cry. We baptized people in the river, and people were filled with the Holy Ghost. We had a shoutin' good time and celebrated what God was doing." 

So yeah, they spoke in tongues and danced and jumped around, but barked like dogs? I don't know. When I went to tent revival Tuesday night the neighbors dog was barking.

Its ridiculous how the world takes such a good thing that God has done and twists it to make Christians look like fools.

But I do have good news to share. So I went to the tent revival on Tuesday and I was really excited because I had heard such great things about them (Note: i have been to regular revivals, in churches, plenty of them. But there is something different about tent revivals. The old people love them haha). And it was awesome! About halfway through the sermon a couple came into the tent and they smelled strongly of alcohol, but I could tell they were really feeling the presence of God. They were just crying and they were really reaching out and went up to the altar when the invitation was made. 

And I thought about the scripture in Isaiah 43 that says: 

Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,who brings forth chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,

they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: "Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

God has done great things in the past, and we should not forget them, but He is doing a new thing! A great thing!