What Manner of Men Will They Be?

Josh Harris:

I'm reading Arnold Dallimore's two-volume biography of George Whitefield, the great evangelist of the 18th century revival. I was deeply stirred by a paragraph in one of the opening chapters in which Dallimore shares that the "mission" of the book is driven by the profound conviction that the great need of our day is to see "a mighty evangelical revival such as that which was experienced two hundred years ago" and the prayer that God will "raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ." He continues with these words:

"And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrine of grace. They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be 'fools for Christ's sake', who will be reproach and falsehood, who will labour and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth's accolades, but to win the Master's approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat. They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant and extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and who will witness 'signs and wonders following' in the transformation of multitudes of human lives." (page 16)

I am praying for myself, for the men of my church and for fellow-pastors across the country that God will make us men like this.