I’m on the final flight that ends a quick overnighter in California, where I filled in for my friend Greg Laurie, at his Thursday night Bible study, while he is in Israel. It was an awesome evening of ministry and a thrill to teach God’s word to such a stoked and well-fed group.

As much fun as it is to minister in different places, traveling always takes a toll. And what was the most difficult part of this particular trip? Getting only 4 hours of sleep after preaching at skull church the night before? (Partially due to the adrenaline in my system from seeing so many make decisions for Christ and also because I had to arrive at the airport at 5am to catch a 6 o clock flight) Having to land back at home and be ready to hit the ground running for the weekend services at fresh life? The wretched airplane coffee? Being in harms way while surfing with a gray whale?

Nah–that stuff just makes it fun! What made this trip difficult was not having the delightful sounds of fresh life radio streaming in my rental car over my phone’s mobile browser, like I normally do on the road, because I stupidly forgot my 1/8 inch cable, that connects the phone to any car stereo’s aux-in input, at home. Oh man, it was bad, terrible, no good and awful. There was no exquisite blend of groundbreaking indie, alternative anthems, modern worship and delicious jams stimulating my senses as I sat in socal traffic. Woe was me.

By the way, fresh life radio is now streaming on the web 24/7 at Freshliferadio.com on computers and certain mobile devices. No matter where you live,you don’t need to suffer unnecessarily, crank it up!

Six years ago today, on a Friday morning, I woke up single for the last time. I am so thankful for that–for many reasons. For one thing, I don’t know how much longer I could have survived on the nearly lethal combination of fast-food, Mountain Dew, Ramen noodles and pizza that I lived on as a bachelor.

And for another thing, I married the most rockin’ cool chick ever! These wonderful years with Jennie beside me have been an electrifying thrill. She is my love, my bride, my best friend and my partner in crime. She inspires me and makes me love Jesus more. Happy anniversary Jennie, I love you deeply!

The meaning of life is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Ok, but how do you do that?

In John 15:8 Jesus said, “When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”

God is glorified to the max through our fruit production. He is a vinedresser, and so the more fruit we bear the more His fame spreads. But we can’t grow anything on our own, we must abide in Christ and enjoy Him to grow good fruit.

So today the focus should be to remain in Christ so we can bear much fruit and bring glory to God. Everything else is secondary.

I am on a plane in Salt Lake City headed home to Montana where I will be speaking at Skull Church tonight on the life of Elijah. My wife and I spent the last few days with some of our favorite people on the earth teaching the Bible and enjoying the beauty of autumn in North Carolina. (I took this photo from the front porch.)
In some areas the leaves changing made the hills look like they were on fire, (I attached a pic of that at the end of the blog) it was overwhelmingly beautiful and refreshing.

Greg Laurie, Pedro Garcia, Don McClure and I all spoke 2x each during a seminar on Christ’s Return at the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove. There was also music at each session by the always enthusiastic Dennis Agajanian and worship by Marty Goetz. It was a really sweet blend of hanging out and ministry. Everybody brought their wives and Greg brought his whole family along and we all had a blast drinking sweet tea, eating delicious Southern cooking and meeting all the friendly people that were there on retreat. Skip and Lenya Heitzig were supposed to be there too but due to Lenya’s cancer treatment they had to stay home in Albuquerque–we missed them.

BIlly and Ruth Graham’s vision for the Cove was that it would be a place for Christians to go and be rejuvenated in the Lord and in His Word and be equipped to be used by God more powerfully when they went home. Their vision certainly became a reality, and everyone (there were people from 23 different states) who attended–including those of us who were there to serve–seemed to really be blessed.

Here are a few more pics:
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Here are some mobile musings on the following subjects: knowing and doing God’s will, Beatle’s Rockband and why (most of the time) I’m not tired.