How To Bring Revival To Your Faith - Part 2

Quick Recap: This is the second in a three part series about how to bring REVIVAL to your faith life. The pandemic made things difficult for us all – but our FAITH WALK IS VITAL TO OUR HEALTH – emotionally, psychologically and even physically there are documented benefits to prioritizing your connection with God. The first step is WORSHIP. Showing up on a Sunday, and carving out time EVERY WEEK to spend with God and with family is crucial to developing a healthy rhythm. The second step in bringing REVIVAL in your faith is through something we call CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. Very simply – this is where we learn how to be a Christians. At our church we use the metaphor of fire-building. Worship is feeding the spark in our hearts, but Christian Education is fueling the flame. It’s that part where you put little twigs on the tiny flame to help it grow. Christian Education is the part where we GROW closer to God. It comes in different shapes and sizes, and it can be done by all Christians at any level. Some examples of Christian Education are Sunday School, Youth Group, Life Groups, Prayer, reading your bible, and maybe even fasting. There’s a lot of pieces to Christian Education – but the good news is there are a LOT of resources to help you. In fact, there have literally NEVER been SO MANY resources to help Christians learn about God at any point in history before. If you want to grow closer to God and take steps to bring revival to your faith – YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN. The only thing you need to get started is the WILL to make it happen. Where there is a WILL there is a WAY – so let’s look at some of those ways. In this article, I want to give you a pile of resources for the two BEST ways to grow closer to God – reading your bible and prayer.

Reading the Bible

This one is probably the most obvious, but let’s face it – it’s also the most intimidating. The bible is old, confusing and sometimes (dare we say it) BORING. It can be really daunting if you don’t know where to begin. BUT FEAR NOT! Here’s a pile of resources to help you get started.

1. Youversion Bible App

This APP is incredible. It’s a free download on your smartphone or tablet. It has dozens of bible translations – you can find your favorite or test out a few. There are two key functions I want you to be aware of.

FIRST – the audiobook feature. Sometimes reading the bible is tricky – your mind can wander, your eyes might heart or maybe staring at a screen for too long gives you a headache. With most of the translations, at ANY point you can just CLICK the audiobook feature and it will READ THE BIBLE TO YOU. Reading the Bible has never been so simple!

SECOND – the free devotional catalogue. Sometimes it can be scary to try and figure out where to start or how to read the bible. BUT the YouVersion App comes with hundreds of devotionals. Just click the “plans” button at the bottom of the app and browse their wonderful collection. (And many of them have videos or audio features as well).

This app will literally read the bible to you, AND explain it through devotionals if you ask it to. All you need to do is carve out the time and CLICK.

2. The Bible Project

The Bible Project is putting out some of the greatest biblical scholarship of the modern world. Their goal is to help people discover HOW to read the bible, and they do such a GREAT job explaining things.

This resource is more about understanding the bible, rather than reading the bible itself. They have a youtube channel, a podcast, AND an app. Their videos are so helpful for people who want to start understanding this crazy book we have to discover God. I recommend watching their videos or listening to the podcast anytime you have a passage that’s really tricky and difficult to understand.

3. With God Daily

With God Daily is a devotional for the intellectual. From brilliant author Skye Jethani, it’s described as “the daily devotional for people who hate daily devotionals.” Some people don’t really enjoy the devotionals, like the one’s you might find on the YouVersion App, and if that’s you – this resource is perfect! It can be sent as a daily email, straight into your inbox, OR you can download the app. It IS a paid subscription (I think it’s $5 a month) – but it’s well worth your time. As with so many resources, this one ALSO has an audio function. You can sit back and listen to the devotional with just a simple click.

4. RightNow Media

RightNow Media is often described as “Netflix for Church.” It’s a massive video streaming service filled with tens of thousands of video bible studies. They have stuff for kids, parents, couples, men’s groups, women’s groups and even personal devotions. Many of the video series have workbooks or printable resources that you can use or purchase to follow along with the study. It’s a subscription service, paid for by your local church – so access to it should be free. We’ve had it for 3-4 years in my local church, and we LOVE it. Almost all of our Life Groups utilize it, as well as many folks using it on a personal level. We offer it completely free to all of our members, their families, AND their friends. They are very open to sharing subscriptions to all who are connected to the local church.

WHAT ABOUT READING THE BIBLE WITH KIDS? Getting your kids to read their bible can be really tricky. On the one hand – kids have such an incredible curiosity and eagerness to learn about God. BUT the bible is a tricky book and you’ll need some help!

1. Bible App For Kids

This is great for kids of all ages – even the really young ones who can’t read yet. There is a setting where the kids can either read it themselves OR have it narrated to them with motion slides. At the end of each story, there’s an activity or game connected to the story. My kid’s were 3-4 years old when we introduced them to it, and they are always begging to read the bible on the app more. They love it, and the amount of stories they retain is incredible. It’s also an app that does a very good job telling the stories in a way that is appropriate for children, without cutting out or editing the stories. 2. Mr. Phil TV

Phil Vischer is probably best known as the voice of “Bob the Tomato” from veggie tales. But his life’s passion is teaching the bible in accessible ways for children – and he does a GREAT job with it. He recently launched a streaming platform for the incredible resources he’s created. There’s puppet shows (like “What’s In the Bible?”), music and songs, family devotionals, the Mr. Phil Show, Pirates Guide to Church History, Emily Elephant show and MORE. It is a paid subscription ($4.99/mo), but you can try it for free for two weeks. It’s excellent content that will help your kids get started reading the bible, even from a young age.

As I hope you can see – there is an INCREDIBLE amount of help out there for Christians who want to take that next step to revive their walk with God. I want to encourage you to try one, and if it doesn’t work out – then try a different one! Each of us has different preferences, but the key is that reading your bible will help you grow closer to Jesus – and that will satisfy your soul in a way nothing else in this world can possibly do. Once you get that Worship rhythm figured out, take the next step and start growing with Christian Education. Simple, right?