The Right Response? A Follow-up to “Wildfires, A Warning for the Region”

​If you have not read my recent post on the Wildfires in Gatlinburg, I urge you to read that first. It will give some needed background for the following thoughts.

Since the wildfires in the Great Smoky Mountains, I have had an increased burden to pray for Gatlinburg and the surrounding cities.  I have had a deep burden to go into the city and walk the streets and pray. It just so happens on the day that the city was re-opened for tourists, I was visiting a friend in Morristown and decided to go down and drive through Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg. I had a mixture of emotions as I drove in. Part of me longed to know and feel the Lord’s heart for the people affected by the tragedy. I can’t imagine the loss of my home, business, even my family members or friends. I wanted the increased burden to pray for them. I was also feeling a desire to just see and be in the area I have come to have affection for after this great tragedy.
I drove thought the region with a desire to be watchful of anything the Lord may show me or highlight to me and to listen carefully for His voice.
Three things I would like to share.
1. Probably the most significant thing I have come away with is a burden for the people of Gatlinburg to really recognize what the Lord is saying in this crisis. As I drove into the beginning of Gatlinburg, I passed a big marquee saying “Welcome Back” then “Mountain Tough” As I pulled over and got out my phone to take a picture, I realized it was the Welcome to Gatlinburg Visitors Center sign that was mostly burned up. This sign along with other signs that said things like “Gatlinburg Strong” were standing out to me. Is this the way God wants us to respond when there is a crisis? Are we to respond with human resilience or humble ourselves and pray?  All I kept thinking was Isaiah 9:10,
“The bricks have fallen down,
But we will rebuild with hewn stones;
The sycamores are cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”
 
This is a passage that was actually quoted by several of our governmental leaders after the twin towers had fallen.  Yet they were ignorant of the context of the passage. It is actually a message of judgment.
 
Read the punishment for Samaria in the expanded verses from Isaiah 9:8-12
The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
And it has fallen on Israel.
9 All the people will know--
Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria--
Who say in pride and arrogance of heart:
10 “The bricks have fallen down,
But we will rebuild with hewn stones;
The sycamores are cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”
11 Therefore the Lord shall set up
The adversaries of Rezin against him,
And spur his enemies on,
12 The Syrians before and the Philistines behind;
And they shall devour Israel with an open mouth.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still. (Emphasis Mine)
 
Even President Obama echoed this passage when he signed a beam of the new One World Trade Center,
“We Remember. We Rebuild. We come back Stronger.”
 
In any crisis, it is not the Lord’s prescription to respond in pride, arrogance, or our own strength. I believe He is beckoning us to humble ourselves in crisis and seek His face about the next step. (Joel 1 & 2, 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, Zephaniah 2:1-3)
 
My prayer is the church of Gatlinburg would get it and even more so, our whole region. What will we do in a time of crisis?
 
2. The only sign I saw on my drive about prayer was on the IHOP (the pancake place) sign in Pigeon Forge. “Praying for our County.” I was encouraged by this. I do not think it was a coincidence that it was on the IHOP sign, when IHOP is also the acronym for the International House of Prayer as well as the International House of Pancakes.
 
3. There is a controversy in the region. That area of the Great Smoky Mountains has deep religious roots but it also has in it many things that are an affront to God. (Compromise, idolatry of pleasure and self-gratification, sexual immorality, witchcraft, etc). God wants the church of the region to turn back to Him.
 
4. There is a divine destiny for the region of the Great Smoky Mountains, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville. It is to bring glory to God.
 
Colossians 1:15
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. (Emphasis mine)
 
I believe God wants the church of the region to fully return to Him and the kingdom of God to increase in the Smokies. That the people of the Smokies would love and glorify the Lord with wholehearted devotion. That it would be an area of real refuge. Even as the people return, the worship would come forth from East Tennessee with anointing and power. Can you imagine?? God anointed musicians and singers, prophesying and proclaiming the glory of God in strength and might on banjos, mandolins, basses, and fiddles?!  I believe God has unique designs for the Smokies and all of East Tennessee. 

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