"Fields of Faith"

I witnessed a powerful movement of God Thursday night among our youth here in Abilene. FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) had a youth rally at our local sports stadium. There was music and there were speakers, one of whom was a student at one of our local high schools. This event was his vision. What a cool kid. From what I understand FCA groups across the country were meeting on the same day at the same time all around the country to proclaim one thing - Jesus. How powerful is that!

The funny thing is that the music was good, but it kinda got lost out there and the kids didn't seem all that drawn into it. The speakers were good but not nearly as dynamic as I had hoped. The only thing that kind of bothered me was that the main speaker had everyone in the stands repeat a prayer after him. Seems to me that should be a choice, not a requirement. But I prayed it anyway. Then, if you had prayed that prayer for the first time in your life, he asked you to come down on the field. And that is when God poured out His glory.

As pockets of kids in the stands and on the field knelt to pray together, God showed up in a mighty way. (I love that we know God showed up because it sure wasn't anything man did.) It was all I could do to sit up in the stands and watch. I wanted to get down there and get my hands on them. So I did. As I walked out on that field it felt like walking out onto holy ground. What you couldn't see from above were the tears streaming down their faces, the smiles, the glow coming all the way up from inside their hearts. It seemed so simple and somewhat contrived, that prayer. But God used it to change hearts. Here are a few of the things I had kids say to me right before I grabbed them up in a hug. "I asked Jesus into my heart for the first time tonight." "It's about time they did something like this for us." Some didn't even speak you could read their minds from the looks on their faces.

Many of the kids from our church were reminded of Brody Bourland. Go here and scroll down to "Numb" if you don't know Brody's story. One of the last things Brody did in his life was respond to a prayer just like this. I tried to tell these children that was the great part of Brody's story. But their grief is still fresh 10 months later. I pray that they will not always associate salvation with death. Whoa - back up there. That's what God wants us to do, isn't it? We wouldn't have salvation without the death of His Son, Jesus. We just need to remember death did not keep it's hold on Him. And it hasn't kept it's hold on Brody either. That is the good news here. And now, it has no hold on a whole bunch of other kids in Abilene, Texas. I praise God that this is such a huge part of Brody's story and that he lives on so powerfully in these kids. My prayer is that Jesus will live on powerfully in them, too. I think I can rest assured that is His plan.