Focus on the Family

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John Fuller: This is John Fuller and please remember to let us know how you're listening to these programs on a podcast, app, or website.

Kim Meeter: 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. 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.

John Fuller: Well, that's Kim Meeter and she was with us last time. She'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.

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 purpose because that's what the word of God says, not what I feel, what I think. 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.

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 Meeter content and she's so capable of connecting the normal stories of what we see and experience in this life to God's fingerprint and what he's doing right alongside us.

John Fuller: Yeah, she has an amazing ability to share stories and insights. Kim's latest book is called Revival Rising: Embracing His Transforming Fire and we have copies of that at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast. 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 at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast.

Jim Daly: Kim, it's great to have you back at Focus. 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, in the book, it's filled with that kind of power of observation, what God's doing and what you see in nature, etc.

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?

Kim Meeter: 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 no beach debris.

You land on the Bering Sea beach and fish, fly fish, this unnamed river that pours out into a wild ocean. Even an inexperienced fly fisherman like myself was catching the outer reaches of believability. 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.

The guide and I climbed to the highest dune and we surveyed the tundra. There were 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 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 was like what do you think about that? And I did the same thing and had somebody been videoing it, it would have won the dorky woman of the year award.

And finally that I'm 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 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 in her sweet wise Judy way. 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 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.

Jim Daly: Kim, and that is so good. Folks, that's the gospel right there. That's what it's all about. And again, if you're not experiencing that kind of vibrancy, do exactly that. Pray every day, do the right things, but start with that prayer. Lord, I want to invite you into today, to my today, 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, sin separates us from the father and that disobedience. Why is it dangerous to let the little things slide? We know the big ones, but you know, do I really gotta 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?

Kim Meeter: 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's one of my hallowed grounds 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 2x4 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 plastic Barbie doll rods, little hooks, tiny line.

And you're catching rockfish like popcorn. It's so fun. And the guide said, 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.

Finally, in this Herculean, 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 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 undone. 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 how many pound line? 25 pound line. You could 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 any time 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 any time 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, uh-uh, no. Don't go that way. Don't go that way.

And that's a choice that we all make. Kim, 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.

Jim Daly: So easy to fail in that way.

John Fuller: Well, conviction and encouragement both from Kim Meeter today on Focus on the Family. And we're going to encourage you to get a copy of her book Revival Rising: Embracing His Transforming Fire. And that's available to you when you call 800-A-FAMILY or stop by focusonthefamily.com/broadcast.

Jim Daly: Kim, I don't want to let the fish off the hook on that story because there is a side of 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.

Even though those decoys are there that 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. But the Lord's heart, it gives me tears thinking about it, he is all for us in this life. He's not against us.

Kim Meeter: Apart from Jesus Christ, we are all like that fish, hook after hook after hook being led away into darkness toward the enemy's gaff 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?

Jim Daly: 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.

Kim Meeter: Not at all. Right. Right. Jesus went down the backstreets and the lonely roads and the abandoned seashores looking for the hurt and the lost and the broken. And he said 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.

Jim Daly: It's so true. And when you read the word of God, the Bible, 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. 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 life has just dealt them a horrible blow or maybe several. And they're discontent with their situation basically. You faced 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 the points that we're making here.

Kim Meeter: 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 passable, you'd be killed. You'd be killed. And so we were fishing slightly upriver in the 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.

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 it was 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.

He has seconds to live and it was, I could hear the Holy Spirit shouting, get the rope off him. And it was like being electrocuted and 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 looked 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 scream 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 is 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 sea 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. 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's 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 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.

John Fuller: Kim Meeter has such a heart and wow, every time we're around her, Jim, things happen here. This is Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. It's so easy to understand why Kim is such a popular guest.

Jim Daly: That's so true and I think you can see why God loves Kim Meeter's heart. It just connects with him and with everybody. The way God uses Kim's gifts and love for people to bring about healing in the hearts of so many broken lives, it's amazing. And you know, here at Focus on the Family, we want to help families to heal and thrive in Christ.

That's why we offer so many resources. Whether you're looking for marriage or parenting advice, or even help in your faith walk, we have something for you. In fact, we've put together a collection of Kim's episodes that you won't want to miss. It's full of her breathtaking stories and powerful moments that will grip you.

And best of all, it's absolutely free to download. You can find out more at our website. We also have Kim's terrific book Revival Rising: Embracing His Transforming Fire. And when you give a gift today of any amount, we'll send you a copy as our way of saying thank you.

As a result of your generous support, I am pleased to tell you and report back that our research has shown that over the past 12 months, Focus on the Family has helped almost a million people grow stronger in their faith.

John Fuller: That is wonderful and it's one of the reasons I love working here.

Jim Daly: It's a big number, isn't it? And how about we aim to double that in the coming year? You know, that's just my goal. I love it and I need, obviously, for all of us to work together, so I'm asking you help us. When you support the ministry of Focus on the Family, together we are able to provide real help and answers to couples who are struggling, parents who are navigating tough situations and so many others. So donate today and join us in ministry.

John Fuller: Our number is 800-A-FAMILY or online you can donate and get Kim's book and sign up for that free audio collection at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast. And thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller inviting you back next time as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.