In light of the Colorado floods today, it reminds me of one
of the most awesome God-stories in my life. It happened in the same location as
the current flooding.
One of those beautiful 1997 summer days in the foothills of
the Rocky Mountains had faded into a light rain as 3000 teens made their way
into Moby Arena on the campus of Colorado State University. Moby Arena is a
huge windowless concrete structure seating 8000.
As the worship finished, I stood to deliver the evening
message that I believed God had originated in my spirit for this group. I
preached passionately and although I was not scheduled to do so, I gave an
altar call. Students began to respond.
At that point I felt impressed strongly by the Spirit to
give a clearer, more urgent call for teens to come to the front and surrender
their lives to Christ. I hesitated as we were far past the scheduled dismissal
time. I sensed the nudging of God again. At that point I told them to keep
coming until God was finished with what he wanted to do.
We had no clue what was transpiring just outside the strong
concrete walls. As the altar call took place an eight foot wall of water roared
through campus of Colorado State leaving $200 million of damage and five dead
people behind.
The fact is had we dismissed these teens at the scheduled
time, they would have been directly in the path of the flood. Tens, if not
hundreds of people would have died. Instead we were in the safety of the
stadium. We spent the night in that secure environment while the flood raged
outside.
The next morning we emerged and many of the teens spent the
next day helping the devastated community of Fort Collins clean up from the
flash flood.
That story always gives me goose bumps about so many things:
The leading of the Spirit, the safety we have in Christ (our ark of refuge),
the fragility of life and the sovereignty of God.
