You're listening to a bonus episode of the Daily Article podcast, presented by the Denison Forum.

This is Pastor Mark Termin. I was so encouraged by Dr. Denison's book about the Holy Spirit called Empowered

that I asked to record its 47 chapters as daily readings from my church.

When Dr. Denison heard about this, he suggested the great idea to release these as bonus episodes

of the Daily Article Podcast every day from Ash Wednesday to Easter.

I hope that you will likewise be encouraged by the short, insightful, and empowering podcast.

Empowered Day 3. Why do we need spiritual awakening?

Here's the good news.

As we have seen, David Barrett documents 82,000 conversions a day around the world.

Here's the bad news.

Of that astounding number, only 6,000 are in Western Europe and North America combined.

The number of Americans who say they have no religion has doubled in the last 20 years.

The number of atheists and agnostics in our country has quadrupled in that time. The U.S.

leads the industrial world in teenage pregnancy. One in three teenagers becomes pregnant in America,

81% out of wedlock. Americans spend more on pornography than on professional sports.

Same-sex marriage is now the law of the land with ominous

implications for religious liberty. It's easy to become discouraged, but it's always too soon to give up on God.

Before the Second Great Awakening, 1794, John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, wrote that the

church was too far gone to ever be redeemed. A poll at Harvard University found not a single

believer. Two were found at Princeton. Tom Payne claimed that Christianity will be forgotten in 30 years.

But he was wrong.

In response to a call to prayer, revival broke out on college campuses, and hundreds were converted.

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