Life Around "The Fire"
This podcast is dedicated to those wanting to experience a living and real relationship with God as well as growing together in love for one another. We consider that to be a true sign of spiritual growth as we journey along The Way. If this is you then come along with us as we co-operate with God in what He is doing around the corner and around the world!
Life Around "The Fire"
Lonnie Lane Is Back In "The House": When Holiness Meets A Hurting World And Man's Best Friend Barks "Amen!"
What if the most mature thing you can do right now is weep, listen, and yield? We open the door on a raw, hopeful conversation about growing up in God—where tears mark holy ground, covenant outlasts spiritual highs, and surrender becomes a daily rhythm rather than a dramatic moment. We wrestle with a sobering world, challenge the comfort of old wineskins, and ask how to discern God’s voice without hiding behind nostalgia or national myths.
Lonnie helps us reimagine Jesus’ tone toward the Pharisees—not as a cold rebuke, but as a plea born of heartbreak. That shift changes how we speak to people drifting from faith and how we hold truth with tenderness. We look at the cross through the lens of submission: Christ trusted the Father even when he felt forsaken, modeling a faith that stands when feelings fail. From there, we talk about shared suffering, the pruning that produces fragrance, and the real work of laying down even good distractions so we can live available to God.
The story turns practical and global with our partnership at Rock of Hope in Kenya. From a small home studio, we connect with pastors, widows, and an orphanage, believing the village can blossom in agriculture, finance, and hope as we help host and steward God’s glory. It’s a quiet picture of the Kingdom’s upside-down power—the foolish things confounding the wise, the one lost sheep worth leaving the ninety-nine to find.
If you’re longing for vibrant faith that can hold sorrow and joy, conviction and kindness, this conversation will steady your steps. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find these stories. Where is God asking you to surrender and grow?
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
Hi folks, and welcome back to another episode of Life Around the Fire. And you're gonna have to pardon my scratchy voice a little bit. I got something that I'm trying to get rid of, and so uh you'll have to bear with me. But today in the studio, we have a real treat, and that is that Lonnie Lane has joined us again, and she's been with us before, but for those of you who've never heard from Lonnie, she is a gift to the body of Christ. And we are thankful for the relationship that we have and the growing things that God is doing to us and through us. And we've invited Lonnie to take some time this season right now and be part of an ongoing series that we're going to be doing regarding interviewing people concerning their walk with God.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:And Lonnie has the ability to ask questions, kind of like uh, you know, a real good news interviewer, but full of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm also a Jewish grandmother.
SPEAKER_00:Ah, which makes a big difference, Lonnie. And so she has the right to ask any question in the house. So, Lonnie, God bless you. Wonderful to have you.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Davey. It's it's wonderful to be here again in your studio, even though I get to see you at other times in church reality. But yeah, there's so many different things that are that are happening today that are some of the new way to look at to look at the way God is dealing with the church in a maturity, yeah, that we've gotten away with more things than I think maybe we're getting away with. But it's his protection for us to bring us to a to a maturity and awareness of uh of just of love and sympathy for one another.
SPEAKER_00:It's kind of amazing what we've gotten away with. You know, but but but but but but I've read the I've read the scriptures, and I know of people who got away with things for like 400 years.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And God is known for his love, but he's also known for his uh truth.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And his righteousness and his justice. And so the scriptures say that his judgments, his ability to make decisions, are good.
SPEAKER_01:They're always to our best interest. And for kingdom reality.
SPEAKER_00:He's praised by angels for his judgments.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00:Amazing. And so, yeah, you're right, we have gotten away with some things, but I'm kind of glad that the things that we've gotten away with before, I'm not interested in getting away with anymore. I've I've lost my appetite in some of those things.
SPEAKER_01:It's they're not appealing any longer. And that's a sign of the times that we're in. I mean, it really is when you if you've you've you've read church history as as I have, as I'm sure many of our listeners have, and it's it's really fascinating when you even look at the different time periods and see what was really going on in crest, crazy stuff. I mean, there was a time, let's just put it this way a hundred years of war between the Protestants and the Catholics to overcome each other, and we still have Protestants and Catholics. Yeah so what was the point? Millions died.
SPEAKER_00:How much money, time, energy wasted. Yeah. Wasted souls wasted. Wasted. Yeah. And so I I I we prayed before we started today, and we prayed that God would give some direction to the questions. And before we started this particular podcast episode, we were having a discussion in my living room, and our discussion brought me to tears.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because Lonnie asked me a question, and sometimes a well-placed question can be like a key. A little key opens up a big door. And a little question can open up a whole lot of good stuff. And so we invited you to he uh we've invited you here to ask some questions. And so I'm I'm on, I'm I'm I'm on for the question uh to be asked the questions of.
SPEAKER_01:So why well Lord, we just ask you to ask your questions through each of us. Um, I just want to say something about your tears. I was at a glow meeting earlier today, and we started the worship, and I don't remember what we were worshiping, but it brought me to tears. I just completely dissolved my face in my hands and and in tears because of the presence of the Lord. The sense of whatever we were singing about is a reality in the kingdom. It wasn't just a nice song, it was a profound accountability that was in that song in our way of living before him and wanting to be his. I just want to be his.
SPEAKER_00:I just uh that that that is that that's what brought me in my living room while we were talking. We were talking about just God, of course.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Seems to be the of course we don't ever talk about anything else. No, no, him. And that I want to be consumed by him.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And as we were talking, I began expressing, just trying to express. And I here it goes again. I ran out of words.
SPEAKER_01:I know.
SPEAKER_00:I ran out of words because I am loved by him so much. Let's get it right. He loves me first.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't go looking for him.
SPEAKER_01:No, I didn't either.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't try.
SPEAKER_01:Big surprise.
SPEAKER_00:He he found me. He knew I was, but he found me. And now He found you twice. He found me, and then he thought.
SPEAKER_01:But I say that, yeah, because you were his, and then when you get disappointed enough, sometimes you go off in another direction. He he refines us.
SPEAKER_00:He pursued me with the same love the second time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And I've heard that it can even be more than that, but I don't want. I don't want it to be more than that. This is I'm 66. This is my this is this is my this is my run to the finish line here, okay?
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And I got my eyes set on the prize, and the more that I see things taking place these days, the greater in my experience with God is the reverential awe of his love. But also of who he is in comparison to who I am. I I want that ex I want that relationship, not just experience. Experience is come experiences go.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:But relationship. Covenant relationship. What's mine is yours, what's yours is mine.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That doesn't go away. Even when I tried to go away.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:He he he didn't. He allowed me to try.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he gives us a little he gives us free will.
SPEAKER_00:He gives us free will. And so there are people listening right now, Lonnie, who are experiencing some things that they wonder what is this that's going on in my life? Because there's a there's a there there are there are things that are taking place that are difficult for us to understand if we've never been through them before.
SPEAKER_01:I would say that's probably true. And I think it's not just that we personally, it's because we are the body. And sometimes we have to know where we are in the greater picture. Where are we, where are we in the in God's kingdom reality? I mean, the in terms of I was in this meeting recently, and people are talking about, we're having a really good discussion, but it was old wineskins to me. Not real old, but just enough to have people walk on the leaves, they crinkle, you know, because they're red leaves, they're not green on the tree, and the bad analogy. But we can't, I think we're in a time when we need to be really aware of what God is saying today and not use old doctrines, old wineskins. Most of them are, if it's biblical, it's it's valid. But there's a lot of things that we and I I heard it in this meeting of, well, we're just, we're just, you know, God's people, and we're gonna sing and we're gonna be blessed each other. And it was just, but are you really hearing what he's saying in the day? Look at what the world's going. The world is about to do something horrible. I mean, it's you know, I I think we're in big trouble with it. Could be third world war. There are ministries that that have been around for a long time, Rick Joyner for one, to think that we might be heading towards a third world war. Well, that's just not, we're just gonna be really good Christians. And I what I heard them saying is they're talking about, well, we're just Americans, and Americans, we're safe because we're Americans. We're just gonna do everything well and we'll get over the annoyances with each other, whatever. It was petty. We're talking about a worldwide rebellion against God. And so I don't know what that has to do with what we're talking about, except that it's very sobering today to make sure that we're not keeping something of like, I know how to make God happy with me. I I'm just gonna repent and then I'll we need to find out. We're talking about holy God, the holiness that He he went through on the cross. Right. I recently have just been looking at, just looking at that cross situation and and what he went through, and suddenly I'm seeing things that I I didn't see before in terms of his suffering, which means also in terms of his submission to his father.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And in the things for the purpose of doing away with what Adam and Eve did in their rebellion. He's absolutely surrendered to the Father. There is nothing of himself in there, even when he thought, well, where is he? Where's my father? He didn't, like, my God, my God, where are you? Why have you forsaken me? You know, he thought for a minute he didn't see him. We might go through that. I could see that we he would because we can be faithful to know that he's never going to leave us or forsake us, even if we don't feel him. We're off track of what you want to talk about because this is where I've been recently.
SPEAKER_00:But the way that things wind up will be a little bit different. But in the end, God is glorified.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:And so I I believe in regard to what you're talking about, considering the life of Christ and his total submission to the Father. To whatever degree that is possible, each of us are gonna go through something similar. Where there's a utter surrender. Not just a verbal assent, a mental ascent, or a nice thing to have because it's nice to be involved with things that are good and clean. That's not enough. It's a matter of us yielding over our lives because the only way that you can get fragrance from a petal is to crush it.
SPEAKER_01:That's a that's a lovely thought. Also, if we are to be identified with him completely, I mean, I didn't think about it this way until just now. Jesus went through my God, my God, where I've why have you forsaken? Because he was without, he didn't feel the father. Because a couple hours earlier, or two days earlier, he had said to himself or to other people, he's always going to have the father. So he never has to worry about that. He was assured of that. And then all of a sudden, this one experience, he's not feeling or experiencing the father. And he had to stay, he had to be tested in that way, the way men are all tested. And he came through with, you know, the I was gonna say flying colors, but of course that's that's a pithy statement for him. But and that's where we have to be. And so it's it seems almost as if we prepare ourselves for it by saying, Jesus went through it, he lives within me. Should it ever be with me, I stand on the faithfulness of Jesus to trust that the Father never leaves me or forsakes me.
SPEAKER_00:And so in conjunction with that, I believe that part of the reason for us going through things like Jesus went through is for us to be able to relate with him as a bride.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a lovely thought to be one with him.
SPEAKER_00:To be one with him so that we know what he went through because we are going to be together.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And for us to be able to share in his sufferings. That's actually an honor.
SPEAKER_01:You're right.
SPEAKER_00:How that flies contrary to our uh cultural ways of viewing things, it's not a surprise because some of the kingdom things are opposite to what we see going on in our culture.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And we view painful things as being negative oftentimes. But sometimes the process of submission involves a yielding like Jesus. And I'm saying it because I'm experiencing it right now. I'm letting go of things that I used to enjoy and none of them I would consider to be wrong. But they consume my time and my time is being uniquely arranged these days to become more and more like the way Jesus lived his life. Because I believe that there is a maturing that is going on in our very day and age that we live in, that the Father is maturing through his spirit in us. He's maturing us, he's developing us, he's making us into a people that are mature because God is coming to a people who are being in the end consumed with him so that we become one with him.
SPEAKER_01:And you would respond to anything that comes up as he would.
SPEAKER_00:Amen. Amen. And I find that there is a growing number of people, at least that I'm talking with, that are sharing the same sentiments. That there is a joy of an anticipation of God's presence being revealed on a way that we've never experienced before, but there's also the notion that there is a great and a terrible thing that goes along with that. The great and terrible day of the Lord. How can it be terrible and be good? Except the absolute zeal that God has in seeing evil annihilated to evil, God's magnified presence is terrible. But to those who are called into relationship with Him, His revealed presence is great. But there's also a there's also a yielding over our lives. And I think that there's some confusion in people's hearts and minds when it comes to responding to God when things aren't going our way. How do we respond to God when it feels like things aren't going our way? When it's actually God who is causing things to come our way so that they can be used to deal with things that get between our intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I f I think that I I'm right there with all you're saying. If we think if I think there's something going on in my life that's God's not a part of, or that somehow I'm not s then I'm wrong. He's right. I need to find out what it is.
unknown:That's good.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I don't want to hold on to what that's good to my paradigm when instead of his, you know, as a surrender, because there's so many things that are interpreted in some ways in scripture that I'm I'm learning as if Jesus was angry sometime when he wasn't really angry. Like when one example, and I'll try and get through this as quickly as I could, there's a there's a there was a movie made, it was called Matthew, and it was just on the book of Matthew. That was the only script, was Matthew. And and the gentleman who was playing Jesus, whose name escapes me at the moment, even though I know him. He was addressing in the scene where he where Jesus is talking to the to the Pharisees, and it looks like he's rebuking them. Well, the only script they used for this was the book of Matthew. And so he would pray, Jesus, put me, put me in your in, make me exactly to know what you were saying, what you were feeling, and that was the way they prepared the scripts. And so he said, while he was talking to those Pharisees, where before he had thought Jesus was rebuking them, and it's a lot of that's part of the of some rhetoric that's anti-Semitism. Well, see, Jesus was talking with those Pharisees and he didn't like them, and he was speaking down to them and just speaking, you know, a deadly stuff to them. But he said, I was feeling what Jesus felt for them. He said he was heartbroken for them because he knew what their eternal destiny was going to be, far away from him and from God. And he was trying to. plead with them. He wasn't trying to rebuke them. He was trying to plead with them to see differently. Well finally they these Pharisees walk off the set because they're, you know, they're going to that's the end of the scene, supposedly, as they rejected Jesus. But what he said is, because the only thing that happened in in all those scripts was what Jesus was leading them through, he felt so heartbroken that they these men were going to be eternally away from God, unless they changed, that he started to cry and he couldn't, he couldn't pull it together because he was overwhelmed with he sounds what Jesus was feeling. And he reached out his hand to the man, the men there, like one of them playing John, like somebody come help me, because he fell on his knees. He couldn't even walk and he came and this John Carrot came and picked him up. Well the cameraman was so taken with what was going on even though the end of the scene was supposed to be when the Pharisees walked away. But it was so moving to everybody that he kept the film running. And if you go to the Matthew series that did the movie, you can see that the whole series is on the film even though it's, you know, they watched it. But I heard him tell me he told me the story and he was taken with it even then of what he felt that Jesus felt of such a a dread of what these men were going to go through and that he had to let them go through it because they were rejecting him. And it wasn't that he was angry. So so often we misunderstand it must misunderstand what his motive is and I've that has helped me to see things and I've I've heard of other times when people think they think that Jesus is this big tough guy and he's saying you believe in me and or believe what I'm saying or or you're you're going to hell whatever it is. But in reality what he's actually feeling is heartbreak for them. And he's willing to die for these people to do anything he can to get them to rethink their thinking. So it it it it has, because this was a number of years ago but it has stayed with me as a paradigm for how to re reread the the scriptures reread the his the things that he did and said I don't know if that helps does that help I yeah no I I've I've I've never seen it that way but as you were talking in my heart I heard him say I was imploring them. There you go I I I've never I I I always thought that you It's interesting because he's still addressing it even right here today to us I was imploring them not choosing them off in front of people. I was imploring them in front of people so how are we to speak to people who look like they're going in a direction away from Jesus? Oh well we could rebuke them and we could tell them what I know better. You know get I'm got an arrogant attitude here right now I'm trying to imitate you know but that's a heartbreaking thing gently gently lovingly like he did so we it's talks about how how do we address people that are not in that that that I I have not up till this point in time I've never seen it that way and I I heard him tell me as you were talking I was imploring them.
SPEAKER_00:Wow so we promised that you're gonna ask me some questions one question just let's say you have one if you had one question to ask me.
SPEAKER_01:Hmm Well not having rehearsed this or even thought about it you are touching a a tribe of people in Africa because they heard your your show somehow online and and now you're you're you're helping them you're financially helping them but not only that more importantly you're meeting online with people on the other side of the world with pastors one pastor several pastors on how to be pastors because you have been that one in the in the past and to me that's that's really important. Your life what you have been through is now affecting you're kind of discipling others on the other side of the world because of our technology. Oh yeah I mean that's that's that's really valuable.
SPEAKER_00:That's a that's a big shout out to Mosan Sango and Rock of Hope in Kenya we love you. And I love you too so you are loved and uh the rest of the world now knows about you. Right.
SPEAKER_01:But and by the way I just increased my donation to Davy's ministry here so that it will some of it will go to Africa too.
SPEAKER_00:Yes it is I didn't know about that will Moses so you know it now man. But uh okay so what's your Yeah but but so okay so ask me the question.
SPEAKER_01:So you're you're being uh your discipling I guess I guess can you hear the dog in the background?
SPEAKER_00:This is our our our home studio.
SPEAKER_01:He's saying amen. Yeah I mean that must that's a sense of purpose and value and it's not about your life it's about a life on the a whole cult church on the other side of the world. You may not be pastoring anymore as you have in the past but you are pastoring a group of people in Africa by the technology that we have that's just amazing to me.
SPEAKER_00:I agree with it and our our our purpose our purpose in coming alongside of Rock of Hope and the ministries that go on out of Rock of Hope one of them is an orphanage and and I'll reach to some of the widows in the area but our purpose in coming alongside of Rock of Hope is to be there to help them host and steward the glory of God. Because God has intentions to turn that village around what was once viewed as a place that is impoverished is going to blossom, flourish both in the area of agriculture but also in the area of finance is going to change and it's going to become a model for other areas in Kenya to see that God is the one who answers the prayers of those who call out to him.
SPEAKER_01:Plus also the fact that he's been listening to the podcast but the things that you you introduce them to a a knowledge of reality of who Jesus is that they might not have gotten otherwise I don't know maybe the answer is by God's grace and his goodness yes and I get excited anytime I talk about Kenya because fruit is on the vine and it is Holy Spirit it is the work of God's love coming to us and through us that we're seeing a partnership take place that would have been impossible at any other point in time without the tool that we have with the technology yeah it's it's so we're we're glad to be part of it and yes we are committed to it and yes it's very very very near and dear to my heart. It's an expression is going through my mind and I'm not sure how it connects but of the um the foolish things that confound the wise.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:You know I mean here you're sitting in your little room here and you're talking to a couple people on the other side of the world and you know maybe there's some you know money you're able to send them but it you know that helps them when you I think in terms of big ministries and big church whatevers you know and nobody knows about this. I mean I I happen to know because I know you but and there's some people whoever but i it might seem like foolishness. Well you're just going to help this little group of people in this in Africa that you never even met, you know, except on life I don't know it just seems to me that there are things that that Jesus cares about so deeply and so it's so relevant to him and he's just happy I mean didn't he just walk around and talk to people in Israel that were like some people that were nobodies.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Certainly the Samaritan woman was you know or whoever but it's where our hearts are and that's what you know he said he said himself he goes when a parable he goes uh that the the the the shepherd who lost his sheep left a 99 and went out for the one and so sometimes it is you're right the foolish thing that confound the wise yes and the fact that we are excuse me we're seeing things take place that have been overlooked by bigger ministries. Yeah and so God in his wisdom and in his grace uses people like me who are willing to be a nobody.
SPEAKER_01:Right but who will want nothing but I don't mean right that you're a nobody because in the kingdom you're a somebody you know but I know what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00:We all know right but but but Jesus made himself with no reputation. Right and he associated himself with people that were in in a different category than he would have been if the marketers would have used their marketing skills to market Jesus he wouldn't have been hanging out with the poor.
SPEAKER_01:I mean with the fisherman would not have been on his you know go-to list.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly and so the uh the the the the question was posed considering the things that we're doing in Kenya and the how it took place that's how it took place Lonnie and we are now so thankful to have this as an ongoing relationship not just the ministry that we're doing but a lifelong relationship with people that we're going to spend eternity with so folks we absolutely love you amen and if you have any thoughts questions concerns please feel free to drop us a line lifearoundtfire at gmail.com that's our email address or you just type in life around the fire and look us up on the web we would love to hear from you in the meantime God bless you adios amigos