Fire holds a profound significance in both our natural world and spiritual journeys. Today's guest, Keith Polk, a seasoned forester, walks us through the incredible interplay of faith and nature, particularly how the concept of fire intertwines with biblical narratives. He masterfully draws parallels between the natural and spiritual worlds, signifying how prescribed fire, wildfire, and even personal fires of trials can refine and mould us.
Have you ever watched a fire from a distance and felt it's chaotic? That's how Keith describes observing the Lord's work from afar. Yet, as we venture closer, we begin to comprehend its true purpose, much like approaching the fire of faith and the Holy Spirit. Keith vividly recounts his own experiences of controlled burns and how they've impacted his understanding of spiritual warfare. Our conversation traverses through the story of Nehemiah, exploring how God utilizes both believers and non-believers in His grand design, ever reminding us of His presence even in our darkest hours.
Our discussions don't end there. We delve into the power of the Holy Spirit, highlighting how God's work progresses despite our missteps and shortcomings. Drawing inspiration from the story of Nehemiah, we observe God's ability to orchestrate His plans through diverse conduits. In our quest to find the intricate balance between faith and nature, we hope you'll join us in appreciating the beauty of this journey, understanding the power of fire, and acknowledging the influence of faith in our day-to-day lives.
Fire holds a profound significance in both our natural world and spiritual journeys. Today's guest, Keith Polk, a seasoned forester, walks us through the incredible interplay of faith and nature, particularly how the concept of fire intertwines with biblical narratives. He masterfully draws parallels between the natural and spiritual worlds, signifying how prescribed fire, wildfire, and even personal fires of trials can refine and mould us.
Have you ever watched a fire from a distance and felt it's chaotic? That's how Keith describes observing the Lord's work from afar. Yet, as we venture closer, we begin to comprehend its true purpose, much like approaching the fire of faith and the Holy Spirit. Keith vividly recounts his own experiences of controlled burns and how they've impacted his understanding of spiritual warfare. Our conversation traverses through the story of Nehemiah, exploring how God utilizes both believers and non-believers in His grand design, ever reminding us of His presence even in our darkest hours.
Our discussions don't end there. We delve into the power of the Holy Spirit, highlighting how God's work progresses despite our missteps and shortcomings. Drawing inspiration from the story of Nehemiah, we observe God's ability to orchestrate His plans through diverse conduits. In our quest to find the intricate balance between faith and nature, we hope you'll join us in appreciating the beauty of this journey, understanding the power of fire, and acknowledging the influence of faith in our day-to-day lives.
It's imperative, as believers, that we frequently submit to the uncomfortable but necessary fire of the Holy Spirit Working in our lives, so that we're not Bombarded with a prolific, aggressive growth of the world around us. That's pretty awesome, man. Let's, let's just start right there. So all right. So this week I've got Keith Polk. Keith is a forester. He is a procurement forester, meaning that he he purchases timber from landowners and runs logging crews. Keith is a. Keith has been Such an impact in my life. He moved in in my life when I needed a real biblical man that could tell me some things and Love on me and be and be Kind of hold me accountable to on some of that kind of stuff. So, keith, I really appreciate you being here and being on this man.
Speaker 2:Yeah this is gonna be fun.
Speaker 1:It is. So we're gonna be talking about fire, fire, we're gonna be talking about prescribed fire, wildfire, and we're also gonna be kind of talking about Nehemiah a little bit, and then also how you have kind of found some a way to To Relate fire to, to, to the Bible, right. So why don't, why don't you just what? Why don't you just kind of start off by telling us who you are, your family, and then kind of get into that first story that you were telling me about the, about Vernon?
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, grew up down in Prentice, jeff Davis County, south Mississippi, you know, been in church my whole life and went to Mississippi State, did forestry and wildlife major there and Anyway, graduated with that and went and did After college with any forestry and wildlife graduate would want to do and that's Step into an eight to five in downtown Jackson.
Speaker 2:For sure suppliers, for sure suppliers, yeah, but man, that's the Lord started teaching me Real quick about pride in my life and in man. Those years I spent ten and a half years or so at forestry suppliers and and my identity and and all those things, just so many lessons that God taught me through that. You know it was, it was a, an obvious door that opened in my life when I graduated, you know, to take that, take that job and Anyway, that's sort of a side note, but that was forestry suppliers of blessing and some awesome people there and a mighty good to me and and my family through the years. But which, yeah, so Left forestry suppliers kind of sense the Lord stirring in my life and knew there may be another Something that he had up his sleeve for me and I had, you know, I had told my wife, you know, at the time I you know, I just, I just want to know where God wants me, and Of course that would be nice to know, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm getting ahead of myself. You asked about my family. So I'm married to a, danielle. She's from Tuscaloosa. I've got a Fanatical Alabama fan for a wife in the house. She loves football more than I do, and we'll tell you that. And then I've got three boys who were just incredible Caleb's, a senior in high school this year. Collins, a 13 year old eighth grader, who, who is Chasing girls now, and then Ben, he runs the house. He's first grade. So I've got a senior and a first grader in the same year.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, planning is not our strong suit at the Polk House.
Speaker 1:Keith has got some pretty awesome boys. I haven't got to know his youngest, but his other two or you just get around them and you can kind of feel the presence of the Lord. In my opinion and maybe and he he gave a weird look there, but yeah, I mean it's, but it's. I know that they're in that, that that growing up stage, but as far as us outside looking in it, you've done well with them.
Speaker 2:Thank you, man, it's.
Speaker 1:That's all, my wife, and the grace of God almighty so and that's that's why I want to have him on, because Keith is a real humble man and I don't believe that. I believe that he is. He is really. What he's done in my life has really shown me that how, how awesome it is to love the Lord and and you know, being humble is is is big, but you, you are Sometimes. I think that we can kind of sometimes almost be too humble.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, well, you know it. That's something else too, that that I had a fella tell me one time. I'm Just about false humility. You know the Bible talks about that and and yeah, anyway, you, there is a such thing as false humility. You know when you're. It's kind of a backhanded way to get compliments, and so that's something I got busted square in the mouth with with a friend of mine Years ago at church and something that that I do fight. You know, it's one of those things.
Speaker 1:So but you know, I think that it's always good to go the other way than the other way, right?
Speaker 2:Well, you know it's. Yeah, I understand what you're saying, but but you know, sincere humility, I heard a guy say one time leaves the people you're with. You know, I forget how he said it was. It was a Timothy Keller book called the freedom of self-forgiveness. It's a small book. I may have sent it to you I can't remember, but it's. I've sent it to a ton of people, just the audible version. But, um, the freedom of self-forgiveness. Look it up and read it. It's a short read, which is what I like.
Speaker 2:Yeah on audible. It might last an hour and a half, you know, but it's about being a man of no reputation. It's uh, it's, uh, it's really, it's just, it's a good read.
Speaker 1:What do you? What do you mean by man of no reputation?
Speaker 2:So it's kind of one of these things that, uh, I don't care what you think about me, but I don't care what I think about me either. All I care about is what the Lord says. Who I am, you know. So my identity is found in Christ, you know. And who he says that I am, which is a blood-bought son of the king, you know, an heir to the throne, and so, you know, redeemed and Encovered by the blood, you know.
Speaker 2:If you've stepped into that, you know, surrendered your life to Christ and so um, and so, yeah, so we're constantly battling flesh and constantly, you know, sometimes we're not, we're not comfortable getting the pats on the back of the accolades, so all of a sudden, we run from them real quick, or we love it and we run to it, and so it's. It's this being self-forgetful where it's really not about us. You know what I mean. Hey, if they're patting me on the back, fine, if they're not, fine. I'm doing this because the Lord, you know, has directed me down this path, and so it's really finding that balance man.
Speaker 2:Balance like that needs to be the name of a Christian podcast is is balance, because I just that's and this is Keith's opinion, but I mean that's just what I think our lives should look like is balance, and and you know I'm not there yet, but you know that I think the only thing in our life that should be out of balance is our pursuit, our pursuit of Christ you know, and our love for Christ should be way out of balance. It'd be to the extreme.
Speaker 1:So so Fire we can really kind of look at what happens when we get out of balance. Yeah, you know we can look at if we are burning consistently. If we are, we're gonna have that that stand. It's gonna be balanced out to where we're getting good control burns. We don't have heavy fuel loads. But if we don't, we're gonna be looking at wildfire situations. If we don't manage the stands we're gonna be. You know we can really set up For some dangerous situations. So why don't you just kind of kind of talk about how fires impacted your life?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know well, I'm, I must you know self-proclaimed pyro.
Speaker 1:Me too. I've been since I was 10 years old.
Speaker 2:I have too. Man, I was the, I was the fire builder in the fireplace at the house and the fire builder and fires in the yard, so but I've loved it and and so you know, hey, if went through the courses and all that stuff to be a prescribed burn manager and I don't burn as much as some you and I both know guys in the industry that burn an incredible amount and have a lot more experience, but I do love to burn and have seen how it works and seen how it's used as a tool and on the landscape, and then there's just so many scriptural references and, I think, just things you can take away from it. But but yeah, we, we, you know, you and I were talking earlier about amends. My Bible study does amends retreat every February. I say mine, I'm actually a part of Corey and Zach's Bible study but we go to my aunt and uncle's place, you know, down in Bassville and and they've got a couple of hundred acres, you know, and got a lake and it's a pretty place and they, they open it up to us and that's we've been going for about four years.
Speaker 2:We go for a weekend in February and, and and we go down there and have a good time. We usually shoot pistols and that sort of thing and some of the guys will fish, but that's really a small part of our time. It's a very intentional time to get away from the the distractions of life. And you know, iron sharpen and iron down there amongst our brothers and we, we, we actually have an agenda. We have Bible studies, prayer time, all that. So in the midst of that, this past year my uncle asked me to hop on his side by side with him, and so we go riding through the property and and he's showing me some, some pines that he had recently had thinned and it had had a growing season on it. You know, after the slash of the thinning and all that.
Speaker 1:What time of year is this?
Speaker 2:This is February.
Speaker 1:Oh, ok, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so. And so one side of the gravel road is a first thin pine stand. You know heavy fuels, actually heavy fuels. You know bigger fuels but also a heavy fuel load, and take some preparation fire lanes, so on and so forth. You know it's, you don't just jump on that you know, spur of the moment.
Speaker 2:On the other side of the road is a is a natural stand of pine, mature pine logs and hardwood and its rolling hills and it goes to the lake edge. So the gravel road serves as a big fire break, and then the lakes of fire break, and then you got this hillside. That's just beautiful. And he lets me know, you know, I'd like to burn that as well, and so I'm like I'm burning that right now. You know, and my guys are over there, you know they're grilling out and playing cornhole or whatever. You know, we kind of just taking a break, and and so they have no idea, and I happen to have my burning stuff with me, because I tried to burn on Friday.
Speaker 2:This is Saturday and so, man, without telling anybody anything, I'll float the four wheeler, grab the drip torch and the lighter, head down the road. And when they realize I'm on the four wheeler, there's a line of fire trailing behind me about probably half a quarter long, you know, up the driveway. And they're like, what is he doing? And so I zipped it back and forth, back forth and had it going. So, anyway, light fuel load situation, but a lot of fun, and got pictures of it. The pictures are pretty dramatic with the lake as a backdrop and all that.
Speaker 2:But you know, from from their perspective one of the guys actually said he's like you know, from from my perspective it looked totally out of control. Like you know, I was a wild man running around spreading fire everywhere, he said. But once we walked around there and got close to it he said you know, it was actually really inviting, almost, you know it was, it was obvious, it was in control, it wasn't crazy, it wasn't out of control and and he said it was it was cool to see how it was laid out to accomplish its purpose. And so the Lord really spoke to us through that moment, you know, and just in knowing what was ready to burn and knowing what wasn't the first thing and what ready it could have gotten out of control, it just just was not prepared and and experience and had told you that you know, knowing those fuel loads.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Going back to that was Corey right, so I think that was a. That's a big deal to me is when he said from afar it appeared it was out of control.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know one thing that, so you know Keith, has been there through the, the craziness of my life and one thing that I'm kind of shifted from recently is worship, music and devotionals to actual the meat and potatoes of the word. And and to me what Corey was saying, that it from afar, it appeared out of control when we were, when we were looking at Nehemiah it it it's crazy to me that you know, and Nehemiah I think it's in chapter three, okay, that we are the older, generic, older, older generation were grieving the old temple and they were. They literally kind of missed, missed the opportunity of what the Lord was doing right in front of them and they didn't see it. And to me I know that that's can't really get into current on this podcast, into that I do want us to get into that a little bit, but to me it's, it's amazing to me hearing you talk and being able to relate scripture to where you know it's, you don't really know, you can't.
Speaker 1:There's going to be some people, there's going to be believers that might not agree with what the Lord's called you to do, that are seeing it from a from afar, from from that cabin view, but until they get up to the fire and feel it and see it and see it under control. It's hard to they, can't, you can't get you know, make that, call on that. But I love me and I love fire is probably the most. There's nothing more I like in our, in our work that's. There's nothing more than I like than fire, and it's the closer you get to it, the more powerful it is.
Speaker 2:It's. It is, to me, is gratifying, because you kind of see the end product. There's a there's quick gratification. I guess you'd say it's almost like watching. I've gotten into watching this guy on YouTube that mows yards for free. He'll go reclaim people's yards and in the yard will be grown up, you know, out of control, crazy. They hadn't mowed it in three years or whatever. And this dude just rolls up, knocks on the door and like, hey, I mow your yard for free. And then you get sucked into watching because you want to see what it looks like. Afterwards, you know, and but fires that way for me, like I can't wait to go back. You know, if I burn into the early part of night and I don't get to see it right there the same day, I'm going to go back the next day because I want to see what everything looks like.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the one thing that people say, that I've heard some guys that are selling land one of the one of the best tools you have to make a place look good is to burn it. Go ahead and get it burned off and then come back and when that new regrowth, and it's just think about those stands that how much, how much better they look, aesthetics wise, you know All right. So we, so those guys, got to the fire and they and they realized it was what it was. How did you, what was your lesson to that? What were you able to, kind of?
Speaker 2:So this is just how the Lord works. So and it may take me a second to break, you know, explain what happened, but there was no lesson. You know the fire it was a total, total impromptu, kind of spur of the moment decision, just to do it. And yes, I did have all my gear on my truck, but that was because Friday, before we met down in Bassville, I went to Prentice to test fire a small portion of a 300 acre block of property that I was going to be burning, and conditions were in, you know it was so. So I knew Saturday the conditions were going to be miserable, going to be overcast. There was a front supposed to be blowing through, it was, you know, even a chance of rain late in the afternoon, and so I wasn't even thinking about Saturday. I just wanted to try and squeeze a little bit of a fire in on Friday, just see how it, how it was going to work.
Speaker 1:And before you get into that, let's, let's. I think people need to understand the importance of a test fire. You know there's a lot of people listening to this that are going to be, that have just kind of gotten into burning, testing your fire, testing your, you know, your control. Burn is so critical it's, it's, hey, we're going to take this one little spot and we're going to see what it what. When we look at this weather report, is it doing what we would? It saying it's going to do?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Because I've dropped fire a lot of times, and it's you dropping, you're chasing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, because I, you know, I I'm just so conservative minded when I'm burning I'm always going to have Breaks somewhere. You know this was a 324 acre, you know Management burn under a timber stand and there were roads all through it. But anyway, so I do that, and it was dismal, it did it pitled, you know, and I Like, oh well, so I took all my gear on to the lake, you know, to meet the guys and which is when it what he's saying by that is it's not worth burning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, not gonna get the what you're. You're not gonna accomplish your goal of killing understory, killing the hardwood competition.
Speaker 2:So you say, yep, You're gonna burn all your light fuels that carry the fire and you're not gonna get any of your heavy fuels burned which heat up and kill Undesirables like sweet gum and things like that you know. So it just was not the right day.
Speaker 1:We can. We can relate that to our life, to 100%. I don't see it, so keep going. That's cool.
Speaker 2:So you know. So I'm at the lake and, like I'd said, my uncle loads me up and then we start talking about you know him wanting me to burn this and that, and One of them you know, the first thing in was not Ready and I wasn't ready For it. There were no fire lanes around it, you know. But the other one was ready, so, anyway, so it was a. There wasn't a lesson. It, you know it, it did. You know it wasn't a, a spiritual purpose I had in mind when I burned it. However, god doesn't do anything by mistakes and the fact that it even burned and it burned in the way that it did, I mean it was a perfect burn, it was, it was picture perfect.
Speaker 1:Which in February we don't get that kind of weather at night a lot.
Speaker 2:Right, and that's what I was gonna say. If you've burned enough late evening into night, you know that Humidity spikes, the wind lays and your fire goes out. Pretty, you know in a nutshell, those nights where the wind continues to blow at eight to ten miles an hour and your humidity is stable and You're able to continue with your fire. Those are blessings from above and you're just like heck yeah when the most beautiful picture man it's awesome, it is so fun.
Speaker 2:But this was one of those nights. The front that was supposed to come in stalled and the wind was just coming, the humidity had not pushed through. I mean, I'm telling you, dude, from what the weather man had said, which I go figure, but it didn't happen. And and it was a. There was, we know now. There was a, I believe, a spiritual purpose in that the Lord Prepped everything for this moment. So, anyway, fast forward, we go through that, we eat supper. I'm so fired up, dude, I'm stoked the whole time, I'm burning and and it's like I'm wanting to make a big deal out of it, but at the same time I love fire. So I know I'm biased.
Speaker 2:And so that night we meet for Bible study. You know, we do our thing. Really, nothing said about the fire. I'm a little disappointed because I'm still just jacked about it. And we go to bed next morning, wake up, eat a good breakfast, get back together. We're, we're. We're back in our Bibles again, we're back talking.
Speaker 2:One of the things we do is when we, when we do get up in the morning you know, cori or Zach, you know we'll say hey, man, is anybody feel like Lord? Lady thing on your heart last night or is anything you want to share? And so we were kind of moving right on through that that portion and I just, man, I couldn't get it off my mind and so I just said, you know I don't want to make more of it than what it was, but I really think the Lord's trying to tell us something about yesterday evening in the fire that we got to witness. Does anybody, is that resonate with anybody? And I said, because you know, with these weather parameters, these things yesterday evening wasn't supposed to happen, and so we sat there for just a moment and then Cory, you know, shared that. You know that he was like yeah, he said, yeah, I tell you exactly what I felt. Like you know, I think the Lord was saying, and he shared, you know about how you know he looks up and there's a wild man throwing fire everywhere, and you know what we just talked about. You know the kind of From a distant to looked out of control. You know crazy, scary. But you know, when he got over there he realized it was very controlled, conditions were perfect for it and it was welcoming and inviting. And so, as he's saying that, I remember this email that my pastor had asked me to send him with regard to fire, and this was from 2020 or 2021.
Speaker 2:I mean, this was two years prior and I hadn't even thought about it. But, as Cory's sharing that, I'm sitting there and it just hits me about this email and you know my pastor and I never talked about it. He just said, hey, send me something on fire. You know, he said I'm that's, that's not my expertise. He said, you know, the Bible is my expertise. You know fire is your expertise, and not that the Bible shouldn't be mine too.
Speaker 2:But you know it was like. I know you know about fire. Help me as somebody who knows nothing, help me understand fire a little bit. And so I sent him this, this email, and that's what you, you had read earlier and and so, man, it just, it just fit, it just resonated with everybody when they got to see it. And then they, they heard about it, it, it was just to us, it was a clear word. You know, from the Lord, you know that that, that, that that man, you know the Holy Spirit moves in in power and in love, and in that power, you know that fire of the Holy Spirit, you know it, it's going to accomplish its purposes and sometimes that can be a little weird, downright scary for some people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And some people back away from it. You and I've talked about, you know, spiritual warfare and different things like that. You know that we people out, but you know it's. I say it like this you know, if we're, if we're believing in angels and heaven, then you better believe there's a devil and demons you know, and so, anyway it's.
Speaker 2:It's just, you know, the Lord really spoke to us through to that that event, so much so that it was able to share it with some of the leadership in our church and a couple of Sunday school classes in our church, and, and so you know, god just speaks, man you know he's a talker and he uses different ways, as you've been so vocal about. You know the creation, obviously through his word, through people, but he talks, man, he will talk. He will talk to us as well.
Speaker 1:You know, for me, grew up in the church, steak into the church, but I wasn't a believer. I know that sounds weird, but it took the cancer stuff with Megan to go to get into that. Really probably, you know, you know your faith isn't really faith until it's tested and challenged. And when it was challenged I didn't have anything to. There was nothing there, yeah. And so my journey started with music.
Speaker 1:It started with creation and and when I was going through all that stuff I'm not gonna lie what I was kind of not believing I was kind of in a put position to say, okay, I'm kind of tired of hearing about he's the great physician, I'm kind of tired of hearing that these things I need to go test it, I need to go. And I just kind of started a journey of figuring out if the Lord was real. And that was kind of started through creation and and man fire is and it just it's amazing to me. You can just burn, you can burn everything up and what comes back is so much more beautiful than what's that, what was there?
Speaker 2:but Well, if I can interject, so I'm going to take you to task on something you just said about when you were in the church and you weren't a believer. Thinks what you said I would. I would say you more than likely you were a believer, because the Bible says this in James, chapter 2, verse 19. It says you believe that God is one and you do. Well, the demons also believe and they shutter.
Speaker 2:So so we can have a belief, we can have a head knowledge of God, we can say yet that sounds, that sounds good, I'll buy into that, and so we can go down that path and believe in him. But but I think the difference maker and that's what you found in your life is when you get to a point where you're, you're at the end of you know yourself and you're like no, I, you know, I wholeheartedly believe, I'm surrendering all, I'm laying it down, you know, I didn't have another choice yeah, I mean I tried everything, I tried to the drink and everything, and I just Lucky for me, I went down a really hard road that the Lord just kept throwing miracles and good things and good people in my life to where it was.
Speaker 2:Just it was almost like he held me down so long until I just said, you know, I could just release it, yeah, and well, there in James again, james 1, 12 blessed is the man who endures trials because when he passes the test he'll receive the crown of life that he has promised. He's capitalized, that God has promised to those who love him. Blessed is the man you just said I was lucky enough. You realize the blessing and, brother, I hadn't walked through. Where you walk, I mean that's trials beyond what I.
Speaker 1:I mean you have it, but you kind of have them and you walked with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I understand, but you know it's crazy that that verse is Meg, it was, that was our verse. On all her little bracelets was James one, verse 12. And I think that towards the end of her you know her fight I was really able to experience that crown of life and and, and it's it's people, I think it's, it's it's you get surrounded by godly men and women and there's no way to not believe it, at least for me. You know, going into that, which is, you know we're talking fire and you know I brought this little hat, this lahana, down the hatch, lahana Maui. That wildfire that went through that's just recently, went through that little town. It took everything and I've been, I've been grieving that and because my best memory, like when I think about, when I think about Megan, I have a memory, a video that plays that I go look at and it's in that little town. And so when that fire went through that little town and I can't, I don't know, I'm not saying I didn't have a sense that that was going to happen, but right before it happened, I just I made a post on Habco and about, you know, just, y'all be careful with fire. It's fixing the fire system and I never would have thought that hat would have happened.
Speaker 1:But you know, through our talking over, you know through that and really reading this Nehemiah and how Nehemiah grieved for days, so much when he found out that, you know, the walls of Jerusalem and the temple had burned up, that he grieved so much for days that he couldn't even stand up. And that was good for me, because I was able to say it's okay for me to grieve this right here. I grieve this. I look at that little town and I so many people have memories from that little town and I tell you, when you go around that area, it was just a, it was a bomb waiting to happen. I mean, it's invasive grasses. The whole little, whole little town is just a bunch of it's, it's buildings, it's wooden, old, little wooden buildings all close together and, man, it was just a perfect storm that went through there.
Speaker 1:But going back to Nehemiah and that experience, I was able to process that and realize that I was holding on to something. I was holding on to that memory. It's not a bad memory, but it was like the Lord was saying, hey, this goes back to some trauma stuff though. So before Megan had passed, when everything started getting real bad for her. That was, that was my good memory, that we both her too we'd go back to Hawaii and we would just picture it. And so a lot of my hard days I didn't necessarily lean on the Lord. I would lean on this vacation or I'd lean on this little town. And this week I was able to process that and realize and spend some time with the Lord to say, hey, not a bad thing, it's a memory, but you need to be, you need to, you need to give that up and you need to, you need to draw on to me. And the only way that I kind of drew into him is really through that reading of that word yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:I mean when you, when you, when you think about you know a wildfire, fire burning out of control, you know it's. It's typically there's some really fine fuels or some light fuel right there. It's just waiting for a spark and then it hits and you know it's going to build and run really fast when it's going to get behind. It's going to run really fast, but there's usually it's almost like a four year old pine plantation. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:It's it's it's this stuff, that's just it hasn't matured. You know, I mean it's you take, I envision almost like a seed tree or something you know, you take, you take, you take big, mature pines and even if it's got that level of young stuff under it, it can tote a pretty hot fire. You know, because it's mature, it's big, you know it's it's, it has withstood. You know, probably, other fires in the past and that sort of thing. And you know, while we're, while you're talking, I'm thinking and trust me, dude, what people can't see is why you're talking.
Speaker 2:I'm Googling some things for scripture. So I wish I had the memory to remember. You know, know where all these are in. The more I spend time in the word, the more I will. But Psalms one, three. It says he's like a tree planted beside a stream of water that bears its fruit and season and whose leaves doesn't weather. Whatever he does, prospers. You know that's, that's that solid. You know that's that's firm, that's a mature tree. You know what I mean. It's not, it's not the, the young one, you know that. And so it's sort of like you and I have talked before to you know, when we run, when we've not set our roots deep into the word and in with the Lord. And we're growing. We're still kind of on that milk of the word. We're mature in our faith. Sometimes we can run out ahead of God sometimes.
Speaker 2:And it's, it's almost kind of like that Wildfire is like whoa, I wasn't ready for this this heat, you know just yet. And so we back up and I've done it too Big time.
Speaker 1:You know, and even I think that some of those times I've gotten ahead of the Lord, I can look back and say that was definitely the Lord tell, like kind of letting me in on something. But where I did what I did, what I did was is immediately think it was right now. And I think that a lot of the times Lord will, he might, would share something with you. You experience something, but it's for something three, four, five years down the road and the experience now, going through all this and the mistakes that I've made, is saying okay, I think I'm here in the Lord. Now I'm going to take the discipline to sit down and wait and if it's the Lord, it's going to be constant.
Speaker 2:Well, talking about that waiting, and we've talked about Nehemiah, one of the one of the things a friend of mine actually brought up about Nehemiah, and this was recently. This was like within the last month. If, as you start chapter one and I read in the MLT a lot on my phone and listen to it in the truck but if you start in chapter one, it talks about how, in the autumn of the year, you know, it sets a stage in the autumn of the year. You know Nehemiah, he was a cup bearer and he, you know he gets word that Jerusalem's walls have fallen and you know all this destruction has happened and he cries out to the Lord, then I think it's chapter two. I'd have to go back and look, but it says in the spring of the year four months four months, okay, so.
Speaker 2:so there's this period of time to where Nehemiah's heart is broken. He cries out to God God, please, let me go back and help. Repair was broken.
Speaker 1:And he's in a good place. I mean he's he's in the Persia, he's in a place that's, but there's this period.
Speaker 2:There's this period of time that he's just, he's having to chill, he's just having to sit and call me man. There's nothing there. That's that's the hard man, that's the hard part.
Speaker 1:You're ready to roll, man, and you think?
Speaker 2:you've got it figured out, man. If I can just get there, I can fix things and the Lord says okay, yeah, maybe so, but I've got a timing that fits it, you know, in my plan. So just cool your jets yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know that. You know, if you think about it, if Nehemiah, going back to when he actually got to Jerusalem, there was a lot of serious evil all around that city that were even the people were frightened to rebuild, and all that you know, what you know to me looking, you know, outside, looking in Monday morning quarterback and is Lord really spent time with him to be patient in order to be patient, even when, those when he was, when, when, to telling the, when he was telling the families to you know, build the wall with one hand and hold a sword in the other hand.
Speaker 2:Well, and so, like Nehemiah, man is like, and, trust me, what you hear me glean a lot of this is what brothers that I've been in Bible study with, what I've gleaned from them. But Nehemiah is like man, it's it's patience, humility, leadership, boldness, the favor of the Lord you know, like if you go back to his job as a cup bearer what is it? What is a cup bearer up, so he's like, he's the king's boy, like like he's like, you're my boy blue.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, you know so he's.
Speaker 2:He's trusted, the king, like I read a commentary when I knew you and I were going to talk about this. I read in a commentary and this made total sense, but it was like the cup bearer had to be like totally trustworthy because he could easily assassinate the king. Because he comes in, he actually, as cup bearer, he would take a sip to make sure what the king's fixing to drink or eat isn't poisoned. So he's totally trusted and he's in the presence of the king at all times. And then another thing that I'd read and you know I actually I didn't read it. A friend of mine was telling me about it, but I would. I would believe it to be so.
Speaker 2:When you read about biblical kings, some of these guys man had pretty severe mood swings. So they said, when he goes before the king in the you know, or let me back up when the king says, neil, my, why are you looking so down? And it's in the spring of the year. So so he's been coming before the king for four months, heartbroken, really want to go to Jerusalem, but he's been. He's been maintaining a joyful presence in front of the king for all this time.
Speaker 2:He's not dragging his feet. It's not. Woe is me. It's not. You know, it's not this show man. He's doing his job. You know he's doing it with gladness because the king ain't been able to figure it out yet. But on this day in the spring he comes in and his countenance has fallen and the king says what's going on with you? Well, it says in the scripture. It says he was terrified. And the reason a friend of mine was telling me he's like he's terrified because the king could have him killed that quick For any. You know what's going on with you, you know.
Speaker 2:And then he starts getting paranoid, and this, that and the other. So you know Nehemiah's prayer all the way back, however many months it was ago. You know autumn to spring, his prayer is fixed to be answered and the favor of the Lord is shown on him because the king grants his request.
Speaker 1:And it's so. The favor is so crazy. That's like Cyrus, which wasn't. He was not a true believer of the one true God, okay, but he used. He was the Lord used him to send Nehemiah back home to rebuild the walls. Like to me. That's crazy, because it's it for me. It helps me to know that I don't care who you are, lord might use you for me. So my job should be to be open to you. Know, look at Nehemiah. He has disciplined with the king. The king knew that man, I'm gonna have this guy out. You know I trust him and the Lord used him and so I don't know. That's pretty cool to me that Lord can use. I've seen Lord use believers and nonbelievers in my life, so for me it's hard to when you actually get to experience and anyone get used by the Lord, you'll never.
Speaker 2:This humbling man, man, that God, that God at the universe would choose us to play any type of role in his plan you know, and even, but even the other ones, Sure Like to me.
Speaker 1:that's. That's where it's like, that's the humbling, loving part to where you say somebody doesn't has a completely different religion, completely different beliefs, but they loved on me. I can't, I can't not love them, you know.
Speaker 2:yeah no, you're called to love them, you know. But it's and I mean, you and I were talking the other day about how we met or or. You know, we were kind of reminiscing on that and and that was from a I can't remember the name of the deal, but it was some kind of luncheon for business leaders or something, yeah, something at Heinz and Brandon, I think. Yeah Pearl the news center yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was a big luncheon and I I man instantly, liked the Lord, put you and a couple of the guys in the forest industry, or our forestry industry, on my mind and I was like, man, why wouldn't we get together? Cause it was like it's a little bit intimidating for me to reach out to you, because I didn't know, I didn't know you, and we knew one another by name, but even one of the guys I invited I did know it was.
Speaker 2:You know you, just you know when you step out of your comfort zone and and you and you, you try to walk in faith of what you feel like the Lord is leading you to do, you know it's the it's. You're walking my faith.
Speaker 1:You know not my sight and um wow, he, he blessed me because you did that.
Speaker 2:Well, it was a blessing to both of us. You know what I mean, and so um.
Speaker 1:I'll never forget, you know, waking up from surgery and you were sitting there, or I don't remember even no when you were there, but but I remember you and and was it Ashley?
Speaker 2:No, it was David Briggs, I think.
Speaker 1:David Briggs. Yeah, st Dominic's, yep, yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, david's on staff at our church and at cross gates and who came to my house. That was Ashley. Yeah, ashley Smith. And yeah, it just and he's on staff at St D.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he, every time we go to St D and this, that was both even before. Um, it just man, it's just, it's amazing the people that have impacted my life. But the cool thing about I can't do this with a lot of people and I'm not going to do with this with a lot of people but being able to call you every now and then be like man, there's some weird, there's some real wizardy stuff going on here and you know those talks that you know, and even you know, right now I'm in a, I'm in a, you know a spirit, a real spiritual war right now that, um, you know, just, I can't, I don't, I don't, I don't share that with a lot of people. And it's because it's not that, it's not because I don't want to, it's just because it's so critical, when you're in a spiritual war, to be talking to men that are grounded in the word and that are focused, you know their, their, their minds, right, Because if you get, if you get, bad information it could send, it, could, you could lose the war.
Speaker 2:I mean when.
Speaker 1:I and I, when I say lose the war, I just mean you know the crazy. The good thing is. Another thing about Nehemiah's is Lord's work is going to get done. Amen, yes, In my life it's going to get done. Even when Carter makes bad mistakes, lord's saying hey, you know what. You want to go, let all your um stuff out of work and I'm going to sit you down, you know, with my legs, my legs taken out from me. I honestly believe the Lord just said hey, I'm going to let you sit down for a minute and uh, and I'll never regret that time.
Speaker 2:I got to tell you this cool story. All right, so you're talking about the Lord's work is going to get done. Um, you know, this past, uh, february or January, we, you know, we had kind of our uh, we call it the weekend or disciple now or whatever you know and and man, the Lord really sat down and moved. Um, that was all really about the time of the fire event. You know that I was telling you about.
Speaker 1:I remember that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was and uh, and man that moved it believe it's floor of abyss saw a big move of God and um.
Speaker 2:So Saturday night of that weekend we were in a really awesome worship service to where the you know we we had about I think it was 180 or 200 students in the worship center and then the, the you know, 30, 40, 50 adults, you know. I don't know the numbers exactly, but you get the idea. There's a lot of folks and I'm against the wall. On one side of the sanctuary Our praise band is playing and just incredible time of worship and man, um, just a hush fell over the sanctuary. I mean from, from going at it, getting after it?
Speaker 1:where do you go?
Speaker 2:That's it cross-cage Baptist and Brandon, and um, and so, man, we're sitting there getting after it, man, just just praising the Lord and and you know, just pressing in, and and then it was just like. I mean, we were just led into a time of silence, I guess you'd say. But when I say silence, I'm talking about even the sixth grade boys were quiet, you know, like the 12 year olds in the room were just. It was just like. It was just really cool. Well, as I sat there a little while, man I felt like just I wanted to just start singing.
Speaker 2:I mean like really felt compelled to sing, but dude, the song in my head. I didn't. I didn't think I'd remember all the words. So I was. I was making these excuses for not singing and all of a sudden an an awesome man in our church, mr Tim Dahl. He just starts singing in the back of the sanctuary no music, dead silence, total silence. And, and I'm telling you, when he probably the second or third word into the song, everybody joins in and knows the song instantly and everybody starts singing.
Speaker 1:Everybody's wanting that.
Speaker 2:All right. So so hold on. So we're talking about God's purposes prevailing, you know what I mean. So I shared this with a friend of mine on staff at church a week later and I shared with him. I was like, dude, were you in there to hit, you know, when Tim started singing and everybody just started singing, just without the music, just praising the Lord, and he was like, oh yeah, he said I actually was in a time like that long time ago at a youth leadership conference and he said we were kind of standing in a line and he said I felt really impressed to start singing and I didn't do it.
Speaker 2:I was just like, oh, I can't do it, I'm too nervous, I'm too scared, or whatever you know. He said I just told the Lord no. And he said he said man right behind that thought the guy behind me started singing and he said we all joined and started singing. He said well, I was the fourth person in line. He said I talked to the guy, the first guy, the second guy and the third guy.
Speaker 2:All three of them said they felt prompted to sing and didn't do it. And he said he said we all three said we felt the same thing and it was like it was almost like the Lord was coming down the row saying, will you do it? Okay, will you do it, okay, will you do it. And so, anyway, that was his testimony from that and it was just like, wow, you know the Lord's going to accomplish his purposes. I had heard one time too that it and I'll butcher this, but you know, everybody's probably heard of Billy Graham, and there was, there was a guy that he may have been Billy Graham himself. Well, it was Billy Graham. I'll have to Google this to see, but I have heard that Billy Graham said one time that the Lord just whispered into his spirit you were my second choice.
Speaker 1:Wow Water, who the first was.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:That's that, you know. Looking at this, we're out of time. I want to end there. I mean that's, that's a. I've got a crazy story. Good friend of mine, bill Caldwell, you remember that night that I walked the night that he had that and I'm so thankful that he anyway we'll get to that.
Speaker 1:But man, look, I appreciate you coming on. I want you to come on again. I just love now where I'm at. I just love talking Jesus. I love talking the word, and I think that if I could go back to my time when, when I when I was really searching and not really thinking who I was, I just believe that if I could have somebody to look at, I may have found something you know. So appreciate you, appreciate your family, appreciate what you've done in my life and all the men that you're impacting. So thank, you brother.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you. All right, well, maybe something next week. I don't even know what the next one's going to be, but I appreciate you listening in, see y'all.