Build a Bigger Fire

I’m back home after this amazing Tour. It was beautiful, and exhausting. A marathon, and God was in it. It was demanding, and hard, but mostly it was beautiful. And filled with greater meaning. Something really important is taking place. Something really big.

Several years ago I was backpacking alone in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness in Colorado. It’s something I try and do once a year, that is, head to the high country for some time alone with God. I was camped on a high shelf in a high valley. It was June, and there were still patches of snow. The days were warm but the nights were cold. One evening after dinner I was just sitting in camp as the sun set, not really wanting to go to bed but too cold to enjoy the evening. I was sitting sort of hunched over, my arms wrapped round my legs, when God said, “Build a fire.” I don’t normally build campfires when I’m alone; usually when it gets dark I’m in my bag in the tent, reading by headlamp. But I clearly heard him say, “Build a fire.” My first thought was where am I going to get dry wood? I stood up, and turned toward a line of tall spruce trees about thirty yards behind me. Though it was a long line of trees, my eyes went immediately to one tree in particular, to the base, and there, under a canopy of boughs, was a pile of firewood. Stacked. Under the tree. Not broken or gathered, but actually cut with a saw. How, in this remote valley, in this secluded spot, under one of a hundred trees, was it possible I would find an abundance of dry wood neatly cut and stacked??!!

I slowly turned around, slowly doing a 360, to look behind me, around me, fully expecting Jesus himself to be standing there, smiling. You can understand, I was blown away. I gathered some wood, and made a fire ring. But I made it small, like an Indian fire for one person, and the wood God had provided did not fit. He spoke again. “Build a bigger fire.” I pushed out the stones, made a bigger ring, stacked the wood and let ‘er blaze. I knew it was a moment filled with greater meaning. A prophetic moment, if you will.

Standing each night on stage during this tour, looking out at the bright eyes and earnest faces eager to connect with God, eager to live this life he is calling us to live, eager to share it with others, I realized. Here is the bigger fire. You are the bigger fire. It’s come true.

Jesus and Pot

A quick update from Dallas. It went pretty well last night. Standing room only crowd and lots of eager and open hearts to God. How beautiful. The last part of the evening each night is Q & A. Had a first last night – a guy asked a very long and sincere (and vulnerable) question about smoking pot and what does Jesus think about that. I’m crackin up. Never had that one before. (Now you’re wondering what I said. I told him that apart from legal issues of concern, there is the whole issue the scripture speaks to when it forbids drunkenness, how we don’t want to do anything that diminishes our ability to apprehend or walk with God, to discern him clearly. In my past life, I had some first-hand knowledge on the matter, and warned him that pot really diminishes our heart and mind from God. That he would have much joy in giving it up). Anyhow, it was a delightful moment. Q & A is my favorite part of the evening. I remember reading a story years ago about Francis Schaeffer pounding the walls in his upper loft at L’Abri, where he would go to pray, and saying “I have answers! I have answers!” His passion was moved because so many people had questions, and through long searching he knew that Christianity offers real and substantive and healing answers. He wanted so badly for people to know.

I feel the same way.

Anyhow, I’m fighting a bad sore throat today, and weariness. Don’t want to get sick. So thank you for praying for that, for our flights, that the religious spirit be bound, that we stay close to Jesus in this. And against all dismay, and all sabotage.

The Kingdom is beautiful.

On the Road

Whew. Okay, we are off and running. Meant to get this posted Monday, but the Tour pace has been crazy. Had the first event of the Tour Sunday night in Nashville (which was also simulcast and webcast all over). Because Jesus is good, and I know he is faithful, I’m going to say that it went well. But man was it tough. The day was full of distraction and harassment. Getting lost. Showing up at the wrong location. Running late. It was hard to stay focused. A lot of moving parts, with a brand new event, a new talk for me, so many different people running around, and of course, the warfare. Thank you for praying. We couldn’t have done it without you. I really do believe it went well. I think the webcast is going to remain available for awhile, so I’ll let you know how you can access that as soon as I figure it out myself.

Monday was Spartanburg. It too went well. Yesterday was Atlanta. A crazy day. Radio interview from my cell phone in the car, live TV interview next, then two events. In all of it, God sustained me.

The hardest part in all this is remaining True. To be entrusted with a message so beautiful and so powerful, to cut through all the swirling agendas and warfare and seductions, to just simply offer the true Jesus with clarity, man is that hard. The pull is to tone down a little, or back off, to get distracted, to forget just who God is, to take credit for this and start thinking it's about me, to give in to other agendas. I went to bed feeling all of that, and just a little grieved that some of it happened yesterday. But I had a good time of prayer this morning, and I know God is in this.

As you pray for us today, pray for our travels (Mike and Art are with me) and for the little plane we are using to run all over the place in these first five days. For our families while we are away. Pray against the religious spirit, and all distraction and sabotage. Against compromise. Pray that Jesus fills this, and that we remain True. His ability to be true, whatever the situation, be it adoration or opposition or indifference just astounds me. We want to live like that. Tonight we are in Dallas, and tomorrow in Houston. THANK YOU for praying for us. Together, we are bringing the beauty of the Kingdom and the heart of God. It's working. It is setting hearts free, and drawing so many people back to God.

God spoke to me through a ketchup bottle last week

I was on this guys trip, sort of a men’s retreat/fishing excursion, with a group of guys I don’t know real well. Anyhow, the fishing was lousy and so was the weather and we were getting pretty discouraged about that. (At least, I sure was). I was praying about it in my room one morning before breakfast, and I sensed God say, “Teach them to pray.” Meaning, explain what you think is going on, and show them how you pray about this sort of thing. I was reluctant. I wasn’t sure what their take would be, and I didn’t want to come off as the fruit cake in the group.

But, over breakfast I suggested we pray about the weather and the fishing. “Huh,” said one guy. “I don’t think about praying over stuff like this.” “Well,” I said, “just look at what you’ve got. Joy is being stolen. That sure looks suspicious to me. It smacks of the thief. The enemy hates joy. Maybe things will change if we pray about it.”

Now, I knew what I was risking. If we pray about this and nothing happens, it’s just so discouraging and it adds to that general unbelief most Christians live with, like a cold or a low grade fever that never goes away, that nagging malaise of unbelief that says, “See, prayer doesn’t really work. Or my prayers don’t.” So it felt risky. It also felt risky because I knew in order for something to change we would have to pray in a way not very common to most Christian guys. We can’t just shoot up a “Jesus, be with us” prayer. Those are for the most part impotent. We’re going to have to really pray, and that’s what God was up to earlier in the morning when he said, “Teach them.”

I sort took an internal breath and said, “OK. Let’s do this.” I led them in prayer, first sanctifying the entire trip to Jesus Christ. That’s level one. You’ve got to get things under the protection of Jesus by bringing them under his covering. Sanctifying things to him. Then we brought the full work of Christ against the thief. With intention. We prayed for the weather to stand down, by the authority of Jesus Christ. We prayed the fish would co-operate. We prayed like we meant it. Afterwards, I’m feeling like, “You are really out there now buddy. They think you are borderline anyways, and if this doesn’t work it gives them more reason to dismiss you.” I look up (I’m sitting at the breakfast table) and in front of me is the ketchup bottle. Now, it’s been passed around the table a lot, but at this very moment it’s facing me, and the words “Taste and Believe” are staring at me.

I crack up. I know its God. He’s been after me on “believe” for a while now. I know this is from him. It’s just his sense of humor to use the ketchup to speak to me. Okay. Taste and believe. We go out into the day, and yep – the weather stands down, the fish cooperate. I tasted. I believe.

What I love about this story is the playfulness of God, and his ability to speak to us in all sorts of ways. We know he is with us always. We also know he is creative. So he’ll use whatever it takes to get our attention. A burning bush. Or a ketchup bottle.