“The Gospel is not an old, old story, freshly told. It is a fire in the Spirit, fed by the flame of Immortal Love; and woe unto us, if, through our negligence to stir up the Gift of God which is within us, that fire burns low.” ― Leonard Ravenhill
My brother and I left that camp in the summer of 1982 “On Fire For God.” We went home talking about how the world was going to hell and God had Personally called us to do something about it. Well, frankly, we scared our parents, friends, neighbors, pastor, and youth pastor half to death… in the best possible sense. A tremendous spiritual battle had been raging at home with our parents the whole time we were at camp (imagine that) and we were hit with it the minute we walked in the door but the Holy Spirit was so near and at night when I would steal away into my room and stretch out on the floor before Him, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would come again in such sweet fellowship and power and with such a clarity of vision and passion that I couldn’t doubt that I was on the right path. The one overwhelming message to me at that time was “this life is a wisp of vapor, a puff of smoke, a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes into thin air… live for eternity!”
We started spending hours in prayer and in the word reading and memorizing. We talked to anyone who would listen about Jesus. It was a heavenly feeling to know your cause for which you were born and to be about that cause for the glory of God and for the thrill of being in the Lord’s army. I knew I had scared my mother when I came out of my room with a big box of all my worldly music and clothes (which I had purchased with my own money) and explained that these weren’t glorifying to God and so I was throwing them away.
I also asked her to take me to the Christian book store so I could get a “real” Bible. She did and I bought a leather bound King James Schofield Reference Bible. I was so excited I nearly burst. The first thing I did when I got home was to take a red pen and underline every verse in the New Testament about salvation and began to memorize them so that I could lead people to Christ. The word came alive to me and I saw so many wonderful things there. In a relatively short period of time I had read through the entire Bible. I remember sitting on the couch at my grandparents house on a Sunday afternoon underlining verses in red. Every once in a while I would exuberantly shout out, “Oh wow! Listen to this verse I found” and I would read it out loud to them. My grandfather would just look at me as if I had lost my mind. The other thing that changed that really shook some people up was that in our rather large church all of the teens sat in the back right corner of the sanctuary and mostly goofed off and passed notes during the service on Sundays but on my first Sunday back at church after camp I sat up on the front row with my new Bible and a notebook and feverishly took notes of the pastor’s sermon. Two weeks before I had been on the back row flirting with the girls and joking with the guys. How my heart and affections had altered. For the first time in my life I had been introduced to something… someOne Who was worth my full attention and devotion, Who was worth my whole life.
The summer was rapidly coming to a close and I began to anticipate going back to school and putting my Capture America plan into motion. The Holy Spirit was so heavy on me. Even though we were already beginning to experience some persecution from our family and friends, I could feel the Hound of Heaven pursuing me and pulling me into His kingdom work. I knew that there were about 4,000 students in my high school and in my first two years there I hadn’t ran into one who really knew the Lord. This was going to be my first mission field. God and Mark and I were going to turn this school upside down for God! The week before school started I called all of my bullriding buddies and told them that I had met the Lord and that I was a new man and we weren’t going to be having any more gang fights with the Cholos (a local hispanic gang), no more drinking parties, and no more skipping school (the semester before I met the Lord, I had skipped 2/3 of my classes to go get into fights and steal and drink). I told them that I was starting a Bible Study at lunch every day in the library and I wanted them to come. After long periods of silence, and a few questions like, “are you messing with me man?” some agreed to come. Mark and I were prayed up, fasted up, studied up and ready for school to start. In my next post I will begin to tell the story of the Manzano High School Bible Club. Aflame For God 3 – Cat Burglars For Jesus
The summer was rapidly coming to a close and I began to anticipate going back to school and putting my Capture America plan into motion. The Holy Spirit was so heavy on me. Even though we were already beginning to experience some persecution from our family and friends, I could feel the Hound of Heaven pursuing me and pulling me into His kingdom work. I knew that there were about 4,000 students in my high school and in my first two years there I hadn’t ran into one who really knew the Lord. This was going to be my first mission field. God and Mark and I were going to turn this school upside down for God! The week before school started I called all of my bullriding buddies and told them that I had met the Lord and that I was a new man and we weren’t going to be having any more gang fights with the Cholos (a local hispanic gang), no more drinking parties, and no more skipping school (the semester before I met the Lord, I had skipped 2/3 of my classes to go get into fights and steal and drink). I told them that I was starting a Bible Study at lunch every day in the library and I wanted them to come. After long periods of silence, and a few questions like, “are you messing with me man?” some agreed to come. Mark and I were prayed up, fasted up, studied up and ready for school to start. In my next post I will begin to tell the story of the Manzano High School Bible Club. Aflame For God 3 – Cat Burglars For Jesus