Earth, Wind, and Fire

While doing this review I'm gonna listen to Delirious' Glo album because I think it applies to the themes involved. I could listen to Mezzamorphosis as well, but I figure I've listened to that way more times, and the themes aren't as direct as they are in Glo.

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire - This is a book. I first heard about it sometime in high school. My older sister had a copy and a few other people had mentioned it. The title made the book seem pretty radical to me, and also a little pretentious. Plus, I wasn't sure whether I wanted "wind" and "fire". You see, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire is a Christian book. It's about spiritual things. The "fire" in this case had nothing to do with Hell. Rather, it was in regards to the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life. Up to this point in my life my main experience with fire in a Christian setting was when people were approaching the last few days of Summer camp or Winter camp, or the occasional Fall camp. They would say "I am so 'on fire' for GOD right now!!". I usually thought this was a pretty neat thing, but after awhile I realized that being on fire didn't always last that long. Lasting impressions and changes were usually made, but the flame would get extinguished and we would become like a used incense stick. I like incense. When you light it, the stick gives off a smell and your room or house starts to smell. When a person comes within a close distance to the stick they can smell it. They ask you "Did you light some incense?" With a match, it only smells for minutes. With incense, it smells for hours. What am I getting at? The aroma of the stick lasts for quite awhile, but it eventually ends. If you really want to have the smell keep going, sooner or later you have to light another stick. Some may prefer candles. Whatever. The point is the fire dies. Unless it's lit again.

Which brings me to the book. I don't remember when I started it, but I think I picked up the book around my junior or senior year in high school. I read the first few chapters and realized a couple things. One, I didn't feel ready to read the rest of the book because of number two. Two, I needed to start applying the things I read in the book to my life. What I read in the book was that prayer is essential.

The book encouraged prayer meetings. For me, this seemed to be a good fit. People had been starting to gather on Wednesday nights for to pray. I joined for a couple times, and I remember those times being good. I was pretty busy with school. But, God met us there when I set the time aside to go. Overall in my life I wasn't talking to God all that much on a regular basis. However, those meetings (and the book) planted a few seeds.

During the end of high school and the first year of college, I looked internally for answers. Based on some coming age experiences I felt that looking internally was something I was compelled to do in order to understand what I really felt about things. If nothing else, I started to be honest with myself.

Sophomore year of college saw a breakthrough in my life. Miraculous circumstances and coinciding prayer led to a paradigm shift in my understanding of prayer. I'd prefer not get into the specifics right here in this review (which, as you'll note is only slightly a review), but what you should know is that what happened is that I started to believe in prayer and the Holy Spirit. Like, really believe. So, after that I started writing down prayer requests, multiple prayer requests, on the prayer cards that were offered in church. God started talking to me and letting me know things. He usually didn't speak audibly - unless it was through a lyric from a song or something - but He did show me how I could take part in things He wanted to do in my life and with people I knew at church, at school, at coffee shops, on the bus, etc.

As you can see, "fresh wind, fresh fire" became something experiential I felt by the grace of God.

A lot of things happened over the next couple years. InterVarsity(campus fellowship) and Coast Vineyard(local church) helped me learn more about relating to God. Oh, and back in my hometown I occasionally joined this one guy for prayer way early in the morning. I stumbled upon the book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire again about a year ago and slowly began to read it an soak in it's wisdom, knowledge, teaching, and general insight. Over the past Christmas break, I finally reached the end of the book, which led me to review it.

Now, I'm going to offer my two cents on how I approach Christian books, and then go ahead to finish the rest as a review.

My two cents: Christian books are written by people. They are not the Word. God said not to add to the Bible, and Ecclesiasties says "there is nothing new under the sun". However, as human beings we have learned to express ourselves in various forms. If you really break it down, even writing is an abstraction from the mind's thought process and the oral voice. In this light, I see books as being extended sermons. And it's nice because you can see how the sermon develops and go over it again when you are confused or if you really like a part of what it says. That's why I started liking Christian books in the first place. More recently, I have begun enjoying biographical Christian stories. It adds context and lived experience to useful applications of the word of God.

Here's the review. Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire seemed honest, it's well written, and it tells the story of people who turned to God directly to figure out how to follow Him. They followed Him by following Him. First, by talking to Him. Then, by obeying Him. I highly recommend checking out the book to see the process the Brooklyn Tabernacle went through in becoming a church that centered their lifeblood on prayer. There are bumps in the road all over, the way life is. You live, and you learn. God spoke to me through the book. My older sister and I agree that the Brooklyn Tabernacle would be a neat place to visit. Until then, I desire to emulate the church in it's approach to God. I've learned a lot over the years by having the book speak into my life at specific times. The main focus, prayer, is an area I have grown in directly because of the book. Additionally, I was surprised by how much wisdom the book had to offer. Being biographical, it's open-ended and doesn't limit it's focus to one aspect of life with Jesus. Prayer is a focus because it's the connection to the Head, but multiple expressions of following Christ are touched upon in the book. So, it's completely worthy of your time, from my point of view.

"But you don't have to take my word for it" (ba-dum-bump!) *Reading Rainbow*