Fulfilling a mission

By Rachael Graf

“Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

These words were written by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:14, who was calling believers to live as children of the light.

David Cruz and Steven Meisinger, juniors at Liberty University, live to echo that calling.

“Even before coming to Liberty, I already wanted to see revival here,” Cruz said. “One day, I was thinking about how to make that happen. I felt that God said in my heart to start a Bible study.”

Cruz said he saw a need for awakening among the student body when he visited the Liberty campus as a high school student.

“There was a lot of knowledge here. But I feel that, a lot of times, knowledge becomes the only thing,” Cruz said. “Knowledge is really important, but I feel that everyone focuses on knowing stuff, not really putting it into practice.”

David Wheeler, professor of evangelism and director of Liberty’s Center for Ministry Training (CMT), agrees.

“Sometimes our faith can become formality,” Wheeler said. “Revival is reconnecting back to our heavenly father, cleaning out the clogged spiritual arteries. We need to be awakened to who (Jesus) is every day, otherwise he becomes a formality. You can’t make Jesus a formality.”

During the second semester of their freshman year, Cruz teamed up with Meisinger and invited a couple of friends to form a Bible study group, which began meeting weekly to study Scripture, worship and pray. They decided to name the group “Awake.”

“I thought that the best way to grow spiritually was by going to Bible studies and being encouraged by other people and hearing the word and worshipping together,” Cruz said.

The group was small at first, with only a handful of people in attendance. A time that Meisinger, Awake’s outreach coordinator, remembers as somewhat discouraging.
“We would just worship God like usual, and we’d pray,” Meisinger said. “It was through that hard time, that hard period where Awake was not anything, that God led us to the promised land. He strengthened us through that.”

The members remained faithful, however, and God gradually began growing the ministry.

“God wants to see the church be the church and be strong,” Cruz said. “Yes, we struggle, but God wants us to be strong in him. There are always going to be attacks from the devil, but with God, we are more than conquerors.”

Awake is just that — a call for students to wake up from their spiritual slumber.

“From complacency, spiritual laziness, apathy. For example, we love going to football games and getting excited,” Cruz said. “But when it comes to praying and reading the Bible, we (can) spend a whole day without even reading the word or praying.”

Cruz said his passion is for fellow students to truly experience God, not just know about him. Cruz wants students to be willing to live a radical faith.

“I want people to know that their mission on this earth is not to look good, to have the things that they want,” Cruz said. “I feel like we think too much about ourselves, especially here in America.”

Recalling the example of the early church in the book of Acts, Cruz said he wants to see believers living in community, working together for the Kingdom.

“I want everyone here to understand that it’s not about us,” Cruz said. “Even Jesus, who was God, was willing to give up everything for us and lay down his life for us. I want people to get to the point where they’re really like, ‘Wow, I’ve been given so much.’ The best way to show that we’re thankful is doing the same — giving everything to God.”

That being said, Cruz and Meisinger want to encourage Liberty students to get involved in Awake’s ministry — or any ministry — to experience God and share him with others.

“We go out and we pass out Bibles, we talk to people,” Meisinger said. “Anything to get the love of God out into the streets of downtown Lynchburg.”

A plan is also in the works to travel to different college campuses in Virginia — such as Central Virginia Community College, Randolph College and the University of Virginia, among others — every Saturday to share the gospel.

“When you put your knowledge into practice, you see God moving,” Cruz said. “You see people’s lives changed.”

Awake became an official part of CMT in January, which enables the group to increase its outreach. The CMT provides new Bibles for members of Awake to share with those in the Lynchburg community and beyond, as well as funding some of their ministry efforts.

“All of us are ministers,” Wheeler said. “All of us need to be involved in the great commission, living out the great commandment. All of us should be looking for ways in which God has created us and made us so we can best fit in and join him on mission.”

Cruz and Meisinger both agree that they have a desire to see students hunger and thirst after God, something they consider to be the very purpose of Awake.

“God wants to spend time with us one-on-one in his word, worshipping him, and that’s what we try to cultivate in Awake,” Meisinger said. “A desire to know him on a deeper level.”

Currently, Awake meets every Monday at 7 p.m. in Religion Hall 116 and every Friday in front of Elmer Towns Religion Hall at 5:15 p.m. to drive downtown for Bible study at the White Hart Café. After the Friday study, the group then takes to the streets to converse with Lynchburg residents, share the gospel and pray.

“Awake is a place where you get to practice what you’ve been taught,” Cruz said. “It’s a place where you can come and spend time with other people and worship God and take your faith to the next level. Awake is a ministry that wants to bring glory to God. God always reminds me that it’s not about us. Everything goes for him.”