CHAPTER 4
Sixty Million Times

"God loves me. God loves me. I've heard that sixty million times." That was the response of one brother who was faced with the basic truth of this chapter. But he stayed to hear more.

Before I go further and tell you how revival came to my own heart, there is an absolutely vital concept which must be introduced here.

God loves you. God loves me. These simple words wait to be understood. When they finally are understood the concept which they embody becomes the hinge upon which the spiritual phenomenon we call revival moves.

As he passed lonely hours shepherding farm machines over hundreds of northern Canadian acres, my brother-in-law prayed an earnest prayer. "God, you love, I know. But how do you love me? Lord, show me." And God answered him.

"Cecil, you want to know how I love you? It is something like this. Chris, your infant son, has been sick, right? And you noticed how Normie reacted. Your wife was quite despondent while little Chris was in the hospital, she wandered aimlessly around the house, she couldn't eat, she nearly became sick herself. That's how much Normie loves little Chris. And my love is something like that."

When Cec related the story to me I had to agree that it was a beautiful glimpse of human love, which in turn is a portrait of God's love. But we also know that is not a complete picture. The very immensity of God's great love makes it very difficult to describe.

At Ntorosso in Mali, West Africa, an African pastor approached me. Then in Bambara, through an interpreter, he told me his story. For many years he had preached the gospel. Now he was old but he still remembered the difficult days.

Yes, he remembered very well when they beat him for his faith in Yesu. But somehow, he said, the blows did not hurt. God protected him.

And as I listened to the animated conversation, gazed into his sparkling eyes and marvelled at the blackness of his skin contrasted against the long light brown tunic, I thought, "He was surrounded by love. That is why he was not hurt. Surrounded by love."

A mother's deep concern for a tiny red-headed baby passing through a crisis of life reveals something of God's love, as does the joyful account of a black man who has cheerfully accepted persecution for Christ's sake.

Still, our concept of God's love for us must remain terribly dwarfed until we read the words of Paul.

"Who then can ever keep Christ's love from us? When we have trouble or calamity, when we are hunted down or destroyed, is it because He doesn't love us any more? And if we are hungry, or penniless, or in danger, or threatened with death, has God deserted us?

"No, for the scriptures tell us that for His sake we must be ready to face death at every moment of the day - we are like sheep awaiting slaughter; but despite all this, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us enough to die for us.

"For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can't and life can't. The angels won't, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God's love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, or where we are - high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean - nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when He died for us" (Romans 8:35-39, Living Bible).

God's love is focused on the cross.

These pages and thoughts have come to me in different parts of the world and many times I have had the feeling that the Holy Spirit was, in a special way, completing the message of this book.

There was that awareness when Urunu, a handsome young African pastor. came to me at Dedougou, Upper Volta. Hesitantly, he offered this exhortation: "Is the message of love really complete without the preaching of the cross?" There was an instant accord in my heart. "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God" (I Corinthians 1:18).

Yes, God's love is focused on the cross. There the flame of God's love was ignited. Make no mistake, the preaching of love is the preaching of the cross. And the preaching of the cross is the preaching of love.

Love is like a protective flame. It comes from the heart of God and nothing can penetrate it, nothing can come between our hearts and this gentle flame of God's love.

Not a passing baby sickness - nor even a fatal one.

Not an African beating under knotted desert clubs.

Nor famine. Nor nakedness. Nor peril. Nor sword. Nor martyrdom. Death cannot penetrate the loving flame. Nothing in life can quench it. Not angels nor demons nor even satanic princes.

Time cannot dim it. Neither the light-years of heaven nor the innumerable fathoms of ocean trenches are able by any means to overwhelm it. God's love is supreme.

And it surrounds us all. It surrounds you. It surrounds me. Visualize yourself as wrapped, completely enveloped in this flaming robe of God's love.

There can be no really useful discussion of spiritual awakening nor even an effective testimony given apart from the recognition that all that has happened in Western Canada and many parts of the world really began in the loving heart of God, that Canada's revival was ignited by the fire of heavenly love.

If you like, you may consider this book a letter from one of God's children - joyously wrapped in love - to all the rest. God loves you, God loves you, God loves you. Sixty million times or so, the revolution of love begins right there.

Chapter 5