For eight days I’m posting excerpts from each of the eight chapters in Back to Basics: Eight Foundations for Kingdom Living, the book I co-authored with Doug Roberts and Ben Pasley.
Each day I’m also going to give one 50% refund on the price of the book to the first person to gift a copy of Back to Basics to a friend from our merchandise page at our store..
our store.“Well good mornin’,” said Doug cheerily.
Tim got out of his truck, rubbed his cold hands together and took in the sunrise. He pulled a chair up close to the small fire that was already crackling and popping. “Mornin’,” he repeated groggily. As Tim shuffled around the campfire he thought to himself, ‘I have never been awake before Doug, and he has a mood at six in the morning that I can’t find until after breakfast and two cups of coffee. How does he do it?’
“Has Laurie had that baby yet?” Doug said, interrupting Tim’s thoughts.
“You think if she did I’d be in the woods with men?” Tim chided. “No, but any time now.” Tim had driven down the mountain after last night’s recording was finished in order to sleep at home with his wife, who was due to have their second baby right at the end of the camp-out.
“She must really think a lot of you to let you spend your days fishing, hiking, and hanging out with guys while she’s pregnant and has a two-year-old running around the house. Or maybe she just wants to get rid of you,” he smiled.
“Or she knows your book won’t be any good without me,” Tim shot back slyly despite his sleepiness.
Ben stepped out of the RV with scrambled eggs and some large strips of bacon and presented them to Tim and Doug.
“Thanks, I’m so hungry,” said Tim, who started eating without any hesitation whatsoever.
Ben followed with fresh cups of coffee, which Tim held on to like a man lost in the ocean clings to a raft.
Breakfast was quiet except for talk of afternoon showers in the forecast, the dreaming-up of canoeing and fishing plans for the evening, and the comforting crackle of the campfire. Beams of sun came over the treetops and changed the landscape. As the embers cooled from orange to gray, the three men leaned back in their chairs and felt the warmth on their faces.
“All fueled up?” asked Ben. They threw their paper plates in the fire and hopped into the RV, ready to record another discussion.
Doug fired away, “I am going to talk about the most controversial gift that the Father has given us. The devil despises and hates it so much. And the spirit of religion really doesn’t like it much either.
“It is the promise of the Holy Spirit.