Revival Vacation

Today my lovely friend Maureen and I went on a little Swiss adventure. Maureen has been a wonderful host to me, making my time in Switzerland most enjoyable. Today was no different. Our destination was Stiftsbibliothek in the nearby town, St. Gallen. The bibliothek is the oldest monastic library in the world. There were books dating 1,000, and even 1,500 years back! For a book lover such as myself, it was amazing.

As I looked around the ornate room in awe, I had a flashback to my childhood years and felt that I was Belle, being ushered into Beast's library for the first time (come on Beauty and the Beast fans... you know what I'm talking about!). It was breathtaking. We were required to wear these little slippers over our shoes to protect the books from dust.

I browsed the hundreds of books containing beautiful theological truths under the cover of the ornately frescoed ceiling. Definitely a highlight of the trip for me.

After exiting the museum, we had a picnic lunch in the garden. As I prayed to thank God for the food, a whole other prayer began to pour out of me. I asked Abba that as tourists walked through that wonderful room, full of historic beauty, they would be struck with the reality of what those books hold. That is would no longer just be a tourist attraction, but a place where they would have a heavenly encounter with the Holy Spirit. That these books of yesteryear that hold the truths of our very present God would not be just one more image in the blur of a European vacation, but that those truths would supernaturally jump off the page and into their hearts forever. The Stiftsbibliothek was, after all, a place that was used to study the Word of God and the theology of the Christ's Church - why can't it be again? People shuffle past these books in their little slippers and ow and awe over their beauty, remaining completely ignorant to the true beauty of the Gospel. I know that Jesus is bigger than that and today my prayer is that He would show up and show off just how alive He is today in that library.

So much of European history revolves around Christianity. Granted, not all of it is pretty history, but what if it stopped being stories of dead people and started being encounters with the living God. I want to start hearing stories of people on vacation touring Europe having radical encounters with the Holy Spirit! That churches, cathedrals and monastic libraries would harbor such a thick presence of God, that people's lives would never be the same! Oh that the ancient wells of Europe would spring up today! Wouldn't it be great to have revival European vacations?!

Last year, while in Germany with GTS, we visited the church in Wittenberg where Martin Luther mailed his 95 theses. After a powerful worship time inside the church, we had a time of prayer outside. Holy Spirit came and touched our hearts. People were laid out on the sidewalk under the power of God. And where were we causing such a heavenly scene? Right in front of the door where Luther nailed his theses... yeah, that door. Other tourists were literally having to step over members of our team to get their picture taken by the famous door!

That's what I want to see again! I want people to know that God did not die in the 18th century! He is living and active! Spring up oh well in Europe!