By Rev. Dr. Ed Hird
Most of us each summer have a desire to get away and be refreshed. One of our favorite ways to do this each summer is through attending the BC Christian Ashram retreat. This summer we brought Jim Wilson from Redding California to the Christian Ashram to speak on the theme: Turning the Hearts of Fathers and Mothers. It is almost impossible to listen to Jim without waking up. Jim’s messages were so inspiring that we posted them to over 17,000 social media followers on YouTube, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram. You too can access these video talks through the user name EdHird.
Spiritual refreshing is often described as a form of waking up from sleep. Jim believes that we are in the early stages of a fourth Great Awakening throughout North America. Many of us will remember the third Great Awakening during the 1970s and 1980s when over three million young people, including myself, came to personal faith during the Jesus Movement. Times of awakening are usually unexpected and happen to the least likely people. I had no intention of ever becoming an Anglican priest until one day I woke up. In his recently published third book Kingdom in Pursuit, Jim said that “all that we need to do is to stop running away, turn to face Him, receive Him as our life and lifegiver”. It is easy to run from God 
and not even realize it. When I had my awakening in 1972, it was as if a light bulb went on inside. My whole life, that had been out of focus, came back into focus. Refocusing our focus is the essence of life-changing repentance. Refocusing often has to do with small, often incidental changes in our daily life: “His idea of repentance is to seek His face and voice in the still and in the seemingly small.”
At the heart of transformation is awakening to our primary relationships as fathers and mothers with our children. The Good Book says 
in Malachi 4 and Luke 1:17 that God will turn the hearts of fathers and mothers back to their children, and the hearts of the children back to their parents. Our selfishness and busyness often wounds these primary family relationships. Admitting that we are flawed is a good first step in reawakening a vision of what our families might become. It takes courage to apologize to our children when we have fallen short as parents. It takes humility to soften our hearts and forgive our parents when they have disappointed and disillusioned us. What if we created a culture of open hearts between parents and children so that apologizing and restitution became the norm rather than the exception? True repentance involves giving up our childishness so that we can embrace true childlikeness. Only the childlike can be healthy fathers and mothers to our children.
The Rev. Dr. Ed Hird, BSW, MDiv, DMin
-an article previously published in the North Shore News/Deep Cove Crier
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-Click to check out our marriage book For Better For Worse: discovering the keys to a lasting relationship on Amazon. You can even read the first two chapters for free to see if the book speaks to you.
-The sequel book Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit is available online with Amazon.com in both paperback and ebook form. Dr. JI Packer wrote the foreword, saying “I heartily commend what he has written.” The book focuses on strengthening a new generation of healthy leaders. Drawing on examples from Titus’ healthy leadership in the pirate island of Crete, it shows how we can embrace a holistically healthy life.
In Canada, Amazon.ca has the book available in paperback and ebook. It is also posted on Amazon UK (paperback and ebook), Amazon France (paperback and ebook), and Amazon Germany (paperback and ebook).
Restoring Health is also available online on Barnes and Noble in both paperback and Nook/ebook form. Nook gives a sample of the book to read online.
Indigo also offers the paperback and the Kobo ebook version. You can also obtain it through ITunes as an IBook.
To receive a personally signed copy within North America, just etransfer at ed_hird@telus.net, giving your address. Cheques are also acceptable.
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
Indigo also offers the paperback and the Kobo ebook version. You can also obtain it through ITunes as an IBook.
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
To purchase any of our six books in paperback or ebook on Amazon, just click on this link.
To receive a personally signed copy of any of our books within North America, just etransfer at ed_hird@telus.net, giving your address. Cheques are also acceptable.
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