thoughts on a city, on darkness to light

Let me be perfectly honest with you. Denver is a mess. Denver is divided. Denver doesn’t know Jesus. Righteousness is not flourishing and Justice certainly isn’t rolling down the great Rocky Mountains. Not to be a cynic, but the proof is in the pudding. In the early 90s Billy Graham refused to come because there was such division among the churches. Colorado was the first state to legalize abortion; it has the highest rate of teen suicide, depression and cocaine and marijuana use in the country. Colorado has more adult entertainment venues per capita, more condom purchases then any other city-even Vegas. More occult activity then other state. I could go on, but I will spare you more of the gritty dirty details of this Mile High State only because there really isn’t room.

My God is a God of redemption. And over and over and over He uses the darkest places on earth to shine his glory in ways that are completely unimaginable. I think that it’s the part of his character that loves using the foolishly crazy, abundantly absurd things to shame the works of the wise, the slick plans of those who think that they can formulate the mystery of Him who always has been. My God is the one who in an ancient time and on a hill far away, on a deeply scandalous night, brought us out of darkness into light. And he is still working. He is still calling, He is still overcoming, He is still bringing light.

My heart is beating quite fast and it had been for a while now. I can’t get enough of Jesus. I can’t see gaze on Him enough. I am exploding because He has allowed me to see the end game, at least in part. I feel like I am stuck in a parallel universe, because Jesus is coming and Jesus is here, I can see his coming to Denver in a quiet earthquake, in a mountainous roar of the yearly blizzards; creation is groaning, I am groaning. Yet, He waits. And so I Burn.

And I call people to join me, and in the dark hours of the midnight hour, in the weird moments of half-light just before the dawn breaks; we call out to the one who brings redemption, to the one who saves. We cry out “JESUS, JESUS, JESUS!! YOUR NAME IS ABOVE EVERY OTHER NAME. COME TO THIS DESERT, REMEMBER YOUR PROMISES, REMEMBER THE ANCIENT SEEDS THAT WERE PLANTED, COME AND DO WHAT YOU LOVE TO DO.” Let me be clear, we are not pleading for revival, we are not pleading for a visitation. Honestly, Jesus has shown himself in revivals, he has visited cities the world over many times over the last two thousand years, yet our world is still a mess. No, we are pleading for him to come and inhabit. We are calling for him to dwell in the temple of our hearts, to mess up our neat little lives so thoroughly that our lives, our city, our world will never be the same.

Don’t get me wrong; this isn’t easy. Its not easy being a forerunner, its not easy being the one awake at three in the morning, the lone person on the stage of heaven, taking my rightful place in front of the King pleading over and over and over that He would come in a NEW way. My heart aches, my soul is lonely, my eyes want other lovers. But then I gaze, my heart beats faster as he shows me his heart and I step into that parallel universe of eternity. Though I am blind I am able to see.

Denver is a mess, but my God already paid the price, death has lost its sting and this Mile High City will be and already is a City on a Hill. Denver is uniting; passionate lovers of Jesus are coming and crying out like never before. Righteousness is being formed and Justice is being built. This state will be a beacon of the Glory, a beacon on the Presence, a beacon of Jesus. Light has come, Darkness has fled, and the end game has been declared.