Be with Jesus, Be Like Jesus, Be for Jesus: A Path to Christian Maturity and the Next Great Awakening

By Doug Tweed

When it comes to the Bible, many people find some of the concepts difficult to understand. There is so much to learn and to understand. Even those who have lived a faith-based life may find it difficult to understand some of its history, especially in the context of the culture in which it was written.

Author Doug Tweed’s book Be with Jesus, Be Like Jesus, Be for Jesus: A Path to Christian Maturity and the Next Great Awakening is insightful and biblically rooted. It is both an important book and an easily remembered motto for Christians seeking personal spiritual maturity and a great awakening in our nation and world. With the support of over 575 scripture citations, Tweed persuasively asserts that the key to both maturity and revival is agape love that focuses on three things: (1) intimacy, (2) sanctification, and (3) mission.

Be with Jesus, Be Like Jesus, Be for Jesus: A Path to Christian Maturity and the Next Great Awakening, uses historical and cultural lenses to prepare you for the next Great Awakening as well as to live a better, more faith-filled life in the present. You will find this work as engaging as it is informative.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664218864

Doug Tweed

Doug Tweed is, with his late wife Christie, founder of Friends of the King Ministries in Kingsport, Tennessee. In 1995, after twenty years as a US Marine JAG officer and civilian trial lawyer, he entered a life of full-time Christian ministry. This is his third book. Visit him online at friendsofthekingministries.org.

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Copyright © 2021 Doug Tweed.

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except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The

Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing

ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked (NKJV) taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright

© 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (AMP) are taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright ©

1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1887-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1888-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1886-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021900396

WestBow Press rev. date: 2/23/2021

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.

—Colossians 1:15–20

My first book, Moon in the Darkness, was dedicated to my beautiful wife, Christie. This book is dedicated to my incredibly brave and beautiful wife, Christie, because it has been written while she and I walked with the Lord through the dark valley of a pancreatic cancer that assaulted her body but never gained any access to her spirit, her heart, or her soul. The last chapters of the first draft were written at her bedside, and the final piece to the first draft, this dedication, was written as we prepared for her to depart from her body, go home, and be with the Lord, face-to-face, forever (2 Corinthians 5:6–9).

Christie went to heaven on September 5, 2020. There is a scripture that applies to both Christie and this book: To live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1   The Pattern of Past Revivals

Chapter 2   Agape Love: The Root of Revival

Chapter 3   Intimacy: Be with Jesus

Chapter 4   Sanctification: Be like Jesus

Chapter 5   Mission: Be for Jesus

Conclusion

Appendix

PREFACE

M ost writers use a preface to thank people, and I have many people I can thank. But my preference in this preface is, first, to offer an apology, and second, to make a request.

I want to apologize for the lack of stories in this book. Stories—both personal experiences and the experiences of others—are important, instructive, enjoyable, inspirational, and memorable. I appreciate their power, but I am not drawn to tell them here.

As a former trial lawyer called to a life of equipping ministry, I am a Bible-believing, connect-the-dots thinker, and this is a Bible-citing, connect-the-dots book. There are 577 scripture citations in this book. Scripture offers much more God in our lives than we have been led to believe. This book is for those with hearts hungry to have more God in their lives and in their world.

My request is that, as you read this book, you will read the scriptures cited in it. Each scripture is a divine dot of truth. Just as the three rules of real estate are location, location, location, the three rules of scriptural interpretation are context, context, context. If we isolate scriptures or connect them in the wrong way, we often get a distorted view of what God is revealing. But when we connect those dots in the right way, interpreting every scripture in light of the whole of scripture, we see wonderful pictures of reality and opportunity God wants us to see.

I hope and pray good stories will be triggered by reading this book, and thank you for taking the time to read it.

INTRODUCTION

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

—John 17:20–23

Whoever says I know Him but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.

—1 John 2:4–6

Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

—John 20:21–22

S ome excellent books and blogs have been written about the desperate need in our nation and world for spiritual revival—what some call the next Great Awakening. I have read several of them and am a big fan. This book is not about our need for revival; I view that as a given.

Some excellent books and blogs have also been written about our need for passionate, persevering prayer to trigger the next Great Awakening. I have read several of them, written articles, and led three-day training conferences on that type of prayer. This book is not about our need for such prayer, because that is also a given.

This book is about the characteristics of the next Great Awakening and about the