Reigniting Your Passion for Jesus (Part 2 of 2)

And he says in Matthew 11 28, come to me and I will give you rest. And the operative word, I used to always think it was rest. Yeah, that's what I want.

Give me some rest. Right. The operative word is come, come. And that is a choice that each one of us must make is to stop and turn and face him.

And that's when everything changes. He's back again today on Focus on the Family. And thanks for joining us. I'm John Fuller and your host is Focus president and author Jim Daly. John, I truly believe the only solution to the crisis in the world is spiritual revival. And I'm kind of excited about where everything's at.

I know there's negativity and there are things we need to be concerned about. But do you think God's caught off guard? Do you think he didn't understand where this would be? I think he totally gets it and it's working for his purposes.

Because that's what the Word of God says, not what I feel, what I think. And even when we don't feel like it's working for good, it is because Jesus said so. We're equipped to offer hope and joy and love to a hurting world.

And that's what he's calling us to do. And we've invited Kim back. If you missed it yesterday, get the download, get the app on your phone because it was really typical, great Kim Meter content. We're so capable of connecting normal stories of what we see and experience in this life to God's fingerprint and what he's doing right alongside us.

Yeah, she has an amazing ability to share stories and insights. And Kim's latest book is called Revival Rising. And we're actually going to bundle a CD of both parts of our conversation with Kim and some additional content as well. Call us for your copy of Revival Rising and that CD. Our number is 800-AFAB. And Kim and her husband Troy founded Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch in Oregon.

And they take on injured horses and hurting children and have a terrific ministry. We'll link over to that as well in the episode notes. Kim, it's great to have you back at Focus. Thank you so much. I so love your stories.

And my wife, Jean, is an animal lover. And the way you connect God's creation to our journeys and your observations are so powerful. In fact, I'm going to share with you a story that I learned from Kim. In fact, in the book, it's filled with that kind of power of observation, what God's doing and what you see in nature, etc. And I want to start right there because the stories, there's so many we can't cover it all.

And people need to get a flavor and a taste of what you experience walking with the Lord. But you have a fox story, I think, where you were in Alaska. And a fox, I don't know what it was doing. But how did the Lord speak to you through that experience with a fox? Oh, my goodness. I love how the Lord uses everything. He's talking all the time. And if we don't think so, it's because we're not paying attention.

And let me just say that to myself, it's because I'm not paying attention. Recently, my husband and I were gifted a trip to Alaska and we were fishing up on the Aleutian chain in wild, wild, wild land that you can only get there by a plane at low tide, when the weather's good, and there's not beach debris, you land on the Bering Sea Beach. And fly fish, this unnamed river that pours out into a wild ocean.

And even an inexperienced fly fisherman like myself was catching the outer reaches of believability. And finally, I just thought I must go down this wild beach and just worship God. And so the only highway on the beach were made by brown bears.

And no bears in sight. And he said, you can walk one mile down and one mile back, and that's all. And so I set my gear aside and just wanted to run and skip and laugh and do cartwheels and was singing and worshipping and crying as just worshipping with this mighty ocean and the grass blowing in the wind and down this black, dark sandy beach. And then suddenly realized I was not alone.

And all that stopped. And there's that super heightened awareness of all your little hackles up and realized all this time I was being followed. And I finally saw my little visitor popped his head up and it was a little red fox.

And I thought, you've got to be kidding me. A fox is following me. I don't think he's ever seen a person before. And so I wanted to invite him.

So I just sat down on the beach and didn't look at him. And he kind of came over and was about 20 yards away. And just really alert, like, what are you? Who are you?

What are you doing? And, and then, as canines do, he started kind of throwing his chin in the air. And I've never been around a fox before. So I just did the same thing. And then he would move his front feet back and forth. He was excited. And so I would move my hands back and forth. And I started to imitate everything that this fox did. He rolled over on his back and kicked his hind legs, and then popped back up. And he was like, what do you think about that? And I did the same thing.

And had somebody been videoing, it would have won the Dorky Woman of the Year award. And finally, communicating with a fox, a wild animal. Finally, he gets up and he starts to circle me. And as he goes behind me, in an action of complete invitation, I didn't turn around.

I'm inviting you to come and be my friend. And all I did was hold my cell phone up over my shoulder. And I watched as this little daring fox came up behind me and explored all along my back. And then took a couple steps away and sat down.

Okay, you're part of my pack now. And I it was such an astounding encounter. I didn't ever want to leave. I didn't ever want to break this amazing moment, and had to be obedient and return. And in the days that followed, I shared with my beloved friend Judy, this encounter and she just laughed and her sweet, wise Judy and she said, Isn't that like the Holy Spirit? He shadows us throughout our life, waiting for that intentional invitation. And then he comes. As a child, many know my story that I had a face to face with Jesus Christ the day that my dad murdered my mom and took his own life.

I knew that Jesus was with me a year later, I received him as my Lord and Savior, officially, but I didn't even know about the Holy Spirit. And much later in my life, as I started reading God's Word and learning about him, I was told that he was someone to be afraid of. You can't trust him because he might make you do something hard or scary or Lord forbid embarrassing.

You can't trust him. But that's absolutely not what God's Word says. As a matter of fact, it says, you want him, invite him in. And I'm thinking in Acts 10, where Cornelius, who was a God fearing man, he loved God, he prayed, he gave sacrifices and gifts to the poor, but he didn't have the Holy Spirit until he slowed down and stopped and invited the Holy Spirit to come. And that's when Peter came and, and everything changed. And that for so many years of my life, I was doing things through my own understanding and my own will and my own strength.

Because I didn't know him. And he wanted to come in. And he wanted me to want him to come in. And just like that little fox, it wasn't until there was that intentional invitation, that the infilling of the Spirit of Heaven came into this life, bringing everything that he is.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. To such degree, again, that flooding, that when we're flooded with him, he's what comes out into the world around us. And that's what he desires for everyone who calls him the Lord of their life. Today, to my today, yes, to do your will through me. I mean, that's an exciting way to get up out of bed every day, and get the day started. Kim, another thing that separates us from God is obviously it's in the word is sin separates us from the Father.

And that disobedience. Why is it dangerous to let, you know, the little things slide? We know the big ones, but you know, do I really got to work on gossiping? It's kind of fun. You know what I'm saying? Whatever that little sin might be, and we tend to make exceptions for it, or we shelter it. We don't deal with it.

How does that hurt our walk long term? And what experience have you had that illustrated that? I love that Jesus spoke in parables, using things that we see and understand to illustrate things that we don't see and are trying to understand. And recently, again, Alaska is one of my my hallowed grounds and where I go as often as I can afford. And we had been fishing in the Gulf of Alaska, a dear friend and I and we had caught halibut and salmon and now we had come into the shallow waters to catch rockfish and all that gear is different. Halibut rods are like fishing with a two by four and basically cable because they're big fish, hundreds of pounds. They're giants.

And they're so so powerful. And we had stowed all that gear. And now we're fishing with these ridiculous teeny tiny little, like pink plasti Barbie doll rods, little hooks, tiny hooks, tiny line, and you're catching rockfish like popcorn.

It's so fun. And the guide said, you know, don't let your gear touch the bottom. We're only in 30 feet. It's very rocky, you'll get stuck.

He just said that. And all of a sudden, I'm stuck. And I was embarrassed. I don't want to be the dumb lady in the back of the boat who wasn't listening to the guide. And so my husband is a merchant marine. He's also a fishing guide.

I'm also the first mate. We fish a lot. And so I've unstuck a zillion rods in Oregon water.

It can't be more difficult in Alaskan waters. So I'm trying to unstick it and the boat is drifting away from where I'm stuck. And finally, in this Herculean water, I don't want to break anything, but I really want this to come free.

And I pull really hard and it pops up and it was like, Yes, success. And then it starts swimming away. This was not a rock. This was a giant, giant fish, the heaviest fish I'd ever felt on any tackle of any kind. And, and I said, um, um, I looked at the guide and he turned around and saw this ridiculous pink plastic Barbie rod bent into the water. And he just puts the boat in reverse and said, Ah, let's go get it. And so I'm knowing that this is the equivalent of fishing with a twig and a thread tied to a pine needle. This fish can break all that in a moment.

He doesn't know he's caught yet. And so my challenge is to keep him thinking he's in charge. And I'm just going to annoy you until I can feel you turn and stop swimming away and start swimming toward. And that's exactly what we did. And it took about 20 minutes. And we're just annoying you with this tiny tackle. And to shorten up the story, it took about 30 minutes, we could feel him coming up. Everyone on the boat is standing behind me. Nobody's talking, no one's even breathing. We're just all, let us see it, God, let us see it.

And finally, it gives and as it rises up, it breaks the surface of the water. And the guide just comes on done. And he said, Are you kidding me?

This is amazing. You just caught a giant halibut on that gear. That shouldn't have worked. But it did.

Nice job. And what rose next to the boat was a five foot long, probably 150 to 200 pound fish that still didn't know it was caught on a how many pound line, 25 pound line, you can break it in your own hands. And it's lolling in the ocean next to the boat.

One strategic gaff strike would have landed it in my freezer, and I would be eating halibut steak for the next six months. And the point of the story is this. That's exactly how sin works.

Satan is patient. And this little thing, oh, it's not the boss of you, you can break this anytime you want to. That show, that website, that book, those friends, that place, that addiction, whatever it is.

It's tiny, that gossip, those harsh words, that snarkiness or that sarcasm. Yeah, you can break that anytime you want. And then the enemy just keeps pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling, until we don't even realize we're following him away from the only one who can redeem us deeper and deeper into darker and darker waters that ultimately lead to spiritual death.

That's what I saw that day. And it's such a reminder that every time I feel that pull, no, don't go that way. Don't go that way. And that's a choice that we all make that can don't let a frustrating thought become a frustrating word. Don't be led by that little hook away from God's best. This is what he's calling for each one of us to choose every day.

So easy to fail in that way. Well, conviction and encouragement both from Kim Beter today on Focus on the Family. And we're going to encourage you to get a copy of her book, Revival Rising. We're bundling that with the CD of our two-part broadcast here, which will have additional content.

And that's available to you when you call 800-AFAMILY or stop by the episode notes for details. Kim, I don't want to let the fish off the hook on that story because there is a side to that I want to make sure people hear. And that is, I believe, the understanding that God knows this world. He knows what pulls us away.

He knows how that hook is set. And that's what's so amazing about God's grace, his forgiveness. And even though those decoys are there, the enemy of our spirit is trying to lure us into that kind of water. When those mistakes are made, God is there to say, come with me, come back to me, come this direction.

Let me get you out of that situation. But it requires us to embrace him and to be humble and to admit that we were wrong and that. But the Lord's heart, I mean, it gives me tears thinking about he is all for us in this life.

He's not against us. Apart from Jesus Christ, we are all like that fish, hook after hook after hook being led away into darkness toward the enemy's gaffe strike of death. And because of who Jesus Christ is and what he did on the cross for all mankind, every single one of us, when we're caught and we're being drug down into the depths that lead to death, every single one of us can cry out to God. We can cry out to Jesus Christ and say, Jesus, I need you.

I don't even know you. And I need you. And I'm asking you to come today and forgive me of my sins. Forgive me of this darkness that my choices have led me to. I chose this.

And now I'm seeing where it leads, and I can't fix it. And so I'm asking you to come into my heart and be my Lord. Will you come now and rescue Jesus? Yeah.

And so often, Kim, and I've seen this in people I know, there's a sense that they have to get their act together. They've got to clean up the house before the Lord can enter the house. And that's really not what God is asking you to do.

Right. Jesus went down the back streets and the lonely roads and the abandoned seashores looking for the hurt and the lost and the broken. And he says in Matthew 11-28, come to me. Come to me.

He doesn't say fix that first and then come. Come to me. And I will give you rest. And the operative word, I used to always think it was rest.

Yeah, that's what I want. Give me some rest. Right. The operative word is come.

Come. And that is a choice that each one of us must make is to stop and turn and face him. And that's when everything changes. Yeah. It's so true.

And when you read the word of God, the Bible, I mean, that's the eye you have to read it with those invitational words. But there is always a choice. God is such a gentleman. He doesn't make you do anything, but he's always extending that invitation. Come listen.

Yes. You know, and it's such a beautiful way that we need to express as well. Kim, there's an epidemic of discontent in our society today. And many people feel like they're maybe in the wrong circumstance of life that, you know, life has just dealt them a horrible blow or maybe several.

And they're discontent with their situation, basically. You face similar feelings after a failed rescue attempt in some cold seawater. It's a powerful story. And I was hoping we would have time to get to this, and I'm glad we have. But describe what that encounter was about, the sea.

You came upon something. I know it's rough to even talk about this, but I think it so illustrates what the points that we're making here. It does.

It does. My husband and I have a ministry where we take people fishing for free. It's not a business.

It's just a gift that we love to give people that are serving the Lord hard. And we had finished the season and we're down to the last two days and my husband and I were fishing alone. And it was a huge day, huge tide, huge surf, huge wind and huge waves. No bar on Oregon was possible. You'd be killed. You'd be killed.

And so we were fishing slightly upriver in ocean tidewater. And it was 4.15 in the afternoon. And that's when I sensed the Holy Spirit saying, it's time to leave now. Leave now.

Right now. You must go. Return to the harbor at once.

Go. And I shared that with Troy. And we reeled up our gear quickly. And he put the main down and we started to stream down the river on this very, very turbulent day. And as we rounded this great bend where the river widens and it's maybe a mile long of a straight stretch that just turns into a wind tunnel. And the waves were big. And in the distance, I could see something that I just couldn't make sense of. It was shapes and colors in the water. And I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing.

And I pointed at it and Troy nodded and we started to go that direction. And as we approached, he shut the engine down and we just let it drift in the wind. And I couldn't understand what I was seeing. And then it moved. And it was a man in the water. And with all the remaining strength he had, he just raised his arm. And instantly, this is a capsized boat and this is debris. And there's a man in the water.

It's 49 degrees. And he was almost unconscious. And I just shouted, sir, sir, I've got you.

I've got you. You're going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay. And I grabbed a salmon net and I'm laying on the side of the boat and I got him. And as I'm guiding him through the wreckage and floating debris, that's when I can see reams of yellow nylon rope in the water. And it's around his legs and that rope is connected to the boat and the boat just went underwater.

And he has seconds to live. And I could hear the Holy Spirit shouting, get the rope off him. And it was like being electrocuted. It was like, Jesus, help, Jesus, help. And as I'm drawing him through the wreckage with this net, I said, I've got you. You're okay.

You're going to be okay. And his head rocked back and I heard him whisper, but he's not. What?

What? And I look through the wreckage and I look straight down and I'm drawing him right into another man who I didn't see, who is in the water, and he's already passed away. And I just screamed for Troy and he just went right over the rail. And I took my man to the back of the boat. And at this point, he's unconscious now.

He's leaving this life. And I grabbed him by the shoulders of his life jacket and I'm yelling at him, help me, help me. And he can't, he's unconscious.

And Jesus, I'm praying in words that I know and words that I don't and begging the Holy Spirit to help. And as only he can, the one who commands the waves sent a particularly large set that just crushed into the back of the boat and slammed us into the transom. I'm standing on an offshore motor mount in seawater being crushed by waves, but the wave was big enough to lift this man who was heavy to a position where I could get him in the boat.

Only Jesus can do that. And through a series of supernatural events, we were not drawn out to see where we all would have died. We were able to get these men back to the marina and all of our efforts of mouth to mouth and CPR and chest compressions and first responders came and all of their efforts failed for the one man who had already died. And the other man was rushed to the hospital and in the aftermath, we received a call the next day and it was a number we didn't know. So Troy put it on speaker and we heard this thin emotional voice say, Hi, you don't know me, but I'm the man that you pulled from the river yesterday. And I'm alive today because you stopped. Thank you so much for saving my life. And he said, I don't even know your name.

Can we just meet so I can say thank you and give you a hug? And in minutes, we were on the dock in one of the most profound embraces of my life. And what we learned in the aftermath, and the whole point of the story was this, that a healthy man dies in under an hour at water that temperature. These men were both 72 and they had been in the water almost two hours.

And during that time, not one, not two, but three boats passed them and didn't stop. And this is the point of this encounter and what I believe the Lord is saying to everyone who calls themselves by Jesus Christ beautiful name, beloved, there are men and women and children in the water all around you every day. And will you slow down? And will you allow him to work through you to become that life ring of hope and draw them into the refuge and the rescue that is the love of God? Will you reach for them in their in their worst time of need and just shouting, I've got you, I've got you, everything's going to be okay.

And draw them into the rescue boat of God, the Father's love, and the redemption of Jesus Christ. This is the Great Commission. And this is what it looks like from heaven. It is my commission.

And it is your commission. Man, that is so powerful. And what a great picture of what we're called to do. I mean, words seem inadequate to even wrap up right here. But this is what we're trying to do every day.

I mean, this is it. And whether it's that broken marriage or that preborn baby who may or may not get a chance at this life because of a decision. Man, we're trying to stand in the gap and jump in the ocean and pull them to safety. So, Kim, thank you so much. Wow, what a place to end. What a great book, Revival Rising.

I think you could feel it. I think you know what Kim is trying to express. And that's for us to be there, be present and be ready to rescue. God bless you, Kim.

Thank you so much. It's always really powerful when we have Kim in the studio. And we're going to invite you to learn more about what she's been talking about these past couple of days in her book, Revival Rising, Embracing His Transforming Fire. And if you'd be willing to join our team of monthly supporters and sustain our ministry here on a regular basis, we'll send a copy of Kim's book and a CD of this entire two part conversation to say thank you for joining that team. We recognize some people aren't in a spot to offer monthly support to the ministry, and that's OK. A one time gift will help so much. Or either way, donate and we'll send that book and a CD of the conversation. Our number is 800-AFAMILY.

800-232-6459 or click the link in the episode notes. And next time, we're going to hear a really interesting and pretty incredible presentation from Phil Robertson of A&E's Duck Dynasty. He shares his personal testimony.

So I didn't need a big, long explanation. I knew it was time and I was motivated by the gospel of Jesus. And I said, well, I served the evil one all this time. Now I'm fixing to serve God on behalf of Jim Daly and the entire team. Thanks for joining us today for Focus on the Family. I'm John Fuller inviting you back as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.