a tale of two cities

While traveling in Ireland this week, I've been reading amazing testimonies about the 1859 revival in Northern Ireland, and the positive impact socially in the decades following.  This weekend I'll travel north to visit, pray, and learn what that Move of The Holy Spirit in the past might say to us in the U.S. in the present and the future.  Hallmarks of that revival were a deep conviction of sin (many being "stricken" with remorse for days) and an equally deep discovery of the saving grace of Jesus.  The result was lives and communities transformed inwardly and outwardly,  We can pray for God to do the same with us today.

I compare this with my visit last weekend to Dingle in the south, where I literally couldn't find a Sunday morning worship gathering (3 RC churches - one not meeting 1st Sundays, the other every other week but not that Sunday, the other in Gaelic - and the 1 Protestant church meets Sundays at 12, but describes its ministry as sharing the building with the community).  The result of the church’s retreat and absence?  Dingle is a beautiful place, replete with nice shops and pubs, but with a coarse and crude character throughout, particularly on Saturday night, something I noticed before I struck out on Sunday AM.

So it does seem to matter that God's people are alive in Him and present in the world.  We need revival, and so do our unbelieving neighbors.  Let's pray for that together.