Bill Campbell

Great moves of God have spawned awakenings through world history. We may generally note seven great waves of revival from the time of the First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s to our day. Significantly, those that have made the deepest and most lasting impact were those, like the First Great Awakening, that were marked by a strong focus on Scripture. Without God’s Word as our rudder, the ship of the Church sails quickly into stormy waters and becomes lost in the sea of cultural confusion.

The aim of Scripture Awakening is to “Awaken the world to the power of God’s Word.” To put it more simply we are calling and equipping people to once again read, study, and live Scripture. We are engaging whole churches around the country to do the same. But we cannot do this without a groundswell of active participation. More specifically, I’m asking you to do your part. You can:

Pray. God moves through the prayers of His people. We just released our August Prayer Letter. If you want to join our prayer list for more specific requests, click the “Subscribe Prayer” link below. Read Prayer Letter

Engage. If you’ve not recently read through the Bible cover-to-cover, consider joining us on September 12 when we engage in a national launch of a new group going through B90+. Learn More Here

Give. If you are led, consider making a financial gift to help us develop our app—a critical component to expanding this ministry to the younger generations. We have a team ready to develop the app, and only need funding; it will require a website update as well. The total estimated cost is $40,000. This is a comprehensive project that will advance our entire ministry to a new level. Donate Now

Thank you for your important part in the fostering of a Scripture-based awakening throughout the land,

Bill Campbell
Founder & Director • Scripture Awakening

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John Wesley once said, “God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” If you think about that statement, you will realize that Wesley was talking about ministry-focused prayers—those petitions and requests that expand God’s kingdom. God made the universe before we were around to pray, and He controls it all just fine without our help. For the advancement of His work in the world, however, the Almighty has graciously invited us to partner with Him through prayer. You may recall our Lord’s words:

“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:37-38).

God is able to move at will, even if we do not pray. Otherwise, He would not be God. At the same time, God allows us to move Him through our prayers—and He is waiting to be moved. Jesus stated it this way:

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete” (John 16:24).

I highlight these verses to emphasize how much we need your prayers. Scripture Awakening was birthed by God to serve a growing awakening around the world—one that is grounded in God’s Word. The first and greatest thing we can do together to fulfill this vision is to pray.

Will you join us in daily prayer for such an awakening? You can read our July Prayer Letter here. If you wish to be part of our focused prayer team to also receive specific or emergency prayer requests, please subscribe here.

Thank you!

Bill Campbell
Founder & President • Scripture Awakening

For years, my wife and I complained about our dining room table. Some friends had sold it to us. It came with a modern flair, but no manual. Once we set it up, we found two flaws in its design. First, there were sharp corners where the legs connected to the main section. For years, we had to protect our children from injuries by padding these edges with gauze and tape. Worse, no matter how often I tightened the legs, the design flaws in this table caused it to wobble. Sometimes when guests were over and the table was stacked with food and dishes it swayed like a tree in the wind and the fear of a mighty collapse was always before us. The next morning I was inevitably found under the table, tightening the legs once again.

And then we moved. I reassemble the table in our new house and by mistake I reversed the legs. Immediately the table was stable and the sharp edges were gone. With a red face, I announced to my wife, Lin, that the legs had been attached backward for years.

If only the table had come with an instruction manual. Some people, like me, need manuals. This is especially true when it comes to living the Christian life. Without a manual, many of us will always find need to cover our rough edges. And our spiritual walk will always seem to have a wobble. Effort will be made, year after year, to conceal the sharp edges and to repair our instabilities. Prayers will be offered, church services attended, and Christian seminars and books digested. Still, the sharp edges and the spiritual wobble persist.

God has given us an instruction manual. We must live by it. We were never meant to read a manual like a list of want-ads, turning to the sections that interest us most, and ignoring the rest. Imagine trying to construct a detailed model by reading only certain, isolated parts of its manual. And yet that is how we treat the Bible.

Think, for example, about the Holy Spirit. There is much misunderstanding today about this topic. The Spirit of God is given to us for our unity (Ephesians 4:3). How odd that we have come to understand the Spirit in a way that causes so much disunity. It need not be so. God is described in the Bible as three persons, or parts, and all working together. The Spirit was given to honor the Son, who came that we might know the Father. Inversely, the Father’s love is demonstrated by the coming of the Son, whose presence is made real to us through the Holy Spirit.

If we will take time to read the entire Bible and to study all of its parts, we will come to know the fullness of God that we might experience the wholeness of God’s purpose in our lives. The love of the Father will remove our rough edges, the message of life through the Son will motivate us to invite others to the table of God’s grace, and the power and guidance of the Spirit will keep us stable.

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William Campbell is the founder and president of Scripture Awakening.

This coming January 22, 2019 will mark the 46th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. This landmark judgment created a legal line in the sand around which people have taken sides. Since 1971, an average of more than one million helpless pre-born human lives have been snuffed out annually as women exercise their legal rights to privacy.

The very mention of abortion often elicits in the average person feelings of anger, guilt, shame, hurt, remorse, grief, or loss. Thus, discussions around this topic often generate more heat than light. How then might Christians reflect thoughtfully and intelligently about this painful topic? One way is to look for insights from history.

“What did the early Christian leaders and thinkers have to say about abortion?” This is a good question to ask. The early Christians were closest to the life of Christ; we might expect them to have a better handle than we do on the thoughts of Christ. Moreover, the moral climate in Rome during Christianity’s first few hundred years was remarkably similar to ours today. Abortions were commonplace in Rome, performed primarily for convenience and to cover up unwanted pregnancies. Women in that day drank abortifacient brews to remove unwanted fetuses from their bodies and to prevent conception. And their abortions often were performed by gruesome procedures similar to those used by modern medicine.

The primary difference was this: The early church Fathers — those who led the thinking and theology of Christians in the first several centuries of Christianity — universally condemned abortion as a sinful and immoral practice that violated the Scripture and the purpose of God for humanity. They did not waver on this issue as do some who claim to be Christians today. Even though they lacked our understanding of genetics, of the continuity of human life from conception to birth, they soundly condemned abortion at all stages of life. For them, if the aborted baby had already-developed limbs (between eight and ten weeks of pregnancy), the abortion was considered murder. If the life of a fetus was taken prior to this early stage of development, some of the Fathers still considered it murder, and others deemed it a sin, but not necessarily murder.

The early Christians did their best to honor Scripture. How can we, who call ourselves Christians and who know about the continuity of human life do less? Let us resolve to graciously and boldly stand for life at all ages and stages, doing our best to provide alternatives for those who are contemplating abortion. And for those who have suffered abortions, let us also resolve also to be merciful and kind to those precious mothers.

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William Campbell is the founder and president of Scripture Awakening.

Imagine if God had shown up in the world as grand president rather than as a gentle baby. Everything would have been different for every one of us. You and I would have been excluded from God’s great purpose.

On January 20, 1953, Harry Truman climbed onto the platform next to Herbert Hoover for President Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration. He looked at Hoover and said, “I think we ought to organize a former Presidents club.” Truman replied, “Fine. You be the president of the club. And I will be the secretary.” Eventually the idea became a reality, establishing the most exclusive club in history.

If the Presidents Club is the most exclusive club ever formed, what might be the second most exclusive club? Some people would point to the Christian faith. “Yours is the only religion,” people have told me, “that makes itself the one way to heaven. By your very belief, you exclude the rest of the world.”

It is true that Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6, NIV). But does this emphasis on ‘one way to heaven’ make Christ’s message exclusive? Actually not. Rightly understood, Christianity is the most inclusive world religion in existence.

Imagine a city with a single gate that welcomes all who are willing to enter. Let us call it the gate of faith. Above that gate are written the words, “Only Believe.” Put next to it a thousand gates of works, representing the non-Christian religions of the world. Above each of these gates is a list detailing the things a person must do to pass through them. And if one succeeds in opening one of these gates, he or she will be immediately confronted by a wall rather than by direct access to God.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, speak with a devout Muslim, a member of the second largest religion in the world. Ask Islam’s most devoted adherents if they know for certain that they will be brought into heaven after they die. They will tell you they cannot be completely sure. For the god of the Koran requires us to “do” certain things to be pleasing to God. And we can never be sure if we have done enough. And so it is for every religion in the world … except for Christianity as taught by Christ.

God came as one of us that he might experience death for each of us and rise from the dead, offering new life to everyone who believes. The world says, “do” to enter God’s presence, and Christ said, “done.” It matters not how much knowledge, how much money, how much influence, or how much good behavior one can demonstrate. If you believe in the work that Christ has already done on the cross as a sacrifice for your sins, the gate is opened wide to you (John 10:9).  And God is right there, on the other side, waiting to fill you with his Spirit that you might live a life pleasing to God and challenging to the world.

God did not come as president, but as a baby. He came into the world as one of us, that we might become one with Him.

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Dr. William P. Campbell is Senior Pastor of Hendersonville Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, North Carolina. He is also Founder & President of Scripture Awakening, which helps others to READ (Bible in 90 Days), STUDY (BNEXT Studies), and LIVE the Scriptures (Beyond Words Radio). See ScriptureAwakening.com to find resources to strengthen your faith and to renew your church.