One Divine Moment: The Asbury Revival - Various

Published by Fleming H Revell Company: Old Tappan, New Jersey, 1970.
Edited by Robert E Coleman.

Near the start of the year I heard about what was being called a 'revival' at Asbury College in the United States of America. It was a short-term movement but quite impactful, with students from the campus being involved in a spontaneous ongoing prayer and praise meeting. One night, while visiting Elise's parents, I happened to mention 'the Asbury Revival' and Elise's mother gave me this book to read, which outlined a previous revival at the same campus back in 1970! The book is not an outline of events, but rather various chapters telling the different perspectives of those caught up in the movement, each highlighting different elements of what God was doing at that time.

Having a book written at the time of a revival that has now finished is quite interesting; the book is simultaneously challenging and slightly melancholic to read. Melancholic in that the hopes that those writing had for the movement seemed to have died away (although who can tell the ongoing impact on our world due to the awakening those who lived through this revival experienced!). Challenging in the way any Christian biography that deals with those who give themselves completely to God is. Reading it, I found myself stirred to give a greater response to God than I had been, and surely that is the point of any work like this!

If you want to read about a little-known revival, or stir yourself to a greater walk with God, or simply to challenge your assumptions that 'God doesn't do anything in our modern world' then this is a worthwhile book to check out. 

Completed 24 April 2023.

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