The Cliffs

Few things in life can compare to the exhilaration of a great leap of faith! To this day, I can recall defining moments in my life that demanded a leap of faith. Most of you can recall your favorite “swimming holes” that your family frequented while you were a child. For me, it was Logan Martin Lake. My particular part had a rock ledge that climbed up the side of the hill directly across the lake from where we swam. People of all ages scurried up the bank to jump from the ledge into the water. My first trip to “the cliffs” was one of those defining moments in my life. I was intrigued by those brave souls who were jumping and diving off that rock ledge. Time and again, they climbed up and jumped down into the water. Time and again, my friends and I agonized over whether or not to give it a try. My friends said they would go if I would go, so up the bank I went with no fear in mind. When I got to the top though, things changed a bit. It could not have been more than fifteen to twenty feet to the water, but it sure seemed a lot farther to a young boy. What had appeared so easy in the beginning now became a task of enormous proportion. All my friends were clamoring for action on my part, but I stood frozen on top of the ledge. The pressure was on. It was clearly time to act or eat crow, so I jumped. Overcoming my apprehension, I took the plunge. As I came up out of the water, I was overwhelmed by a sense of both accomplishment and great satisfaction. What originally seemed like such a tremendous undertaking had suddenly become a thing of great ease. In no time, I was scampering back up the path to jump again. More importantly, my friends took the plunge as well. All afternoon we jumped. It seems to me that there comes a time, in our Christian life, when we are challenged to take just such giant leaps. The truth is, without great leaps of faith, there can be no thrill of victory. God only rewards faith as it is exercised. This is a basic spiritual principle with numerous examples in the pages of Scripture. Whether it is Israel at the threshold of the Promised Land or Peter preparing to step out of the boat onto the water, God only rewards those who exercise faith and take great steps on His behalf, which brings me to my point. I believe as Christians, we are on the verge of do or die moment; God has poised us in a position that we must make a choice - A choice of action or apathy. When it’s time and God’s direction is clear, my prayer is that we will “take the plunge” in order that He can reward our faithfulness and do tremendous things in our midst. As for me, I’m eager to jump, because I am absolutely convinced of what God wants to do in our midst! What about you? Do you believe that? Will you take the plunge? With renewed energy and passion for God, we must strive for attaining some reachable goals in this year for the glory of God. Please pray for God to do an amazing work in you and others around you. I simply cannot bear to go through another moment of status-quo, mediocre Christian living; God calls us to so much more!!

If you are not careful....................

If you are not careful life will completely pass you by. I have had to have people convince me over the course of the last few days that the month of February even existed this year. The month started out with a mission trip to Jamaica (you can read about it in some previous posts) that will forever more change my life, and not in the way that most people would assume. Yes God broke my heart for the people of Jamaica, so much so that a return trip is currently being planned for this summer. But God really opened my eyes to the negligence of Him by the people that He has blessed so much. I mean, God's revelation of this in my own personal life simply blew me away, I was speechless, I was prayerless, all I could do was weep; And it didn't stop there!! I place a call to my then 7 1/2 month pregnant wife whom informed me that she was in the hospital with the possibility of the baby coming before I get home. WOW...... did my world turn upside down in a matter of moments!!!

Well to easy your suspense I made it home, but we spent the next two weeks in the hospital before God blessed us with Mason Bryant Lee, who spent a couple of days in the NICU before he was released. And he is simply amazing, but his birth again revealed to me how richly blessed we are but more importantly how much we ignore God. So, over the month of February I spent exactly 3 nights in my own bed. And it was in the uncomfortableness of those 3+ weeks that God taught me so much about who He is and how we as the church need to reverse the trend of neglect toward Him that we are in. We are so entrenched in the intricacies of how we do church that we have forgotten not only what the church is about but also who the church is! We are so concerned over what people think that we have begun to ignore what God says. We have become so busy in trying to attract people to a program or event that we have completely lost focus of the fact that we as Christians are the church and it is we who should be on mission for Christ in our homes (Dad's that is your responsibility), communities, schools, workplaces, and any other place that we find ourselves. Instead, we are trying to draw people in like a moth to a flame, with the end result being death. God is not about a place or a building He is about working in and through you on a daily basis.

We are fooling ourselves into believing the lies of Satan, that one must only say a little prayer, attend church and give an offering to be justified. And if you are not careful Satan will be the ruler of your life instead of God. One of my favorite quotes typifies this perfectly:

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and get on by their life style. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

Man, think about that for a moment. Is the life you are living a refection of this or is it a reflection of Jesus Christ. I truly believe that I was like this until God awoke me from my religious stupor. God is NOT the creator of religion. Man is, and all the legalism behind it.

God has blessed me in my life in so many, many way that they are too numerous to count, most recently in the birth of my second child. That, coupled with the previously mentioned, along with the counsel of a dear brother in Christ revealed this question in my life: "Do I want my children growing up thinking that this is who God is and this is what church is about?" And that scares me more than I can even begin to explain. God please give me a revelation, show me what to do!!

I end how a began, with a simple statement that holds tremendous weight in my life as I look to the future of what God is doing in me, and I truly believe that my children's spiritual life depends on it! I know that they are to precious for me to wait for someone else to move.

If you are not careful........................

Jamaica Update

Wow! I did not realize how much God would work in me this week. I have been blessed beyond belief and I really can’t even begin to explain in mere words all that has happened inside of my heart this week, but I will at least attempt it. At the moment I am sitting out on the front patio of the guest house listening to the waves roll in on the beach. It is not the stunning setting that you might imagine or that you see on postcards and in the movies, but it is beautiful none the less. It was trashy when we arrived, however the locals have cleaned it since we have been here and it is now a pleasant place to spend an afternoon walking with a warm breeze blowing in from the ocean.

Speaking of the “locals,” I have grown to love them. They have touched my heart in ways that I never would have imagined. I have numerous things going on back at home but I still will have a hard time leaving my new friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. The children are very loving and trusting. They are beautiful in their own right and have stolen a piece of my heart. I had a hard time learning to communicate with them at the beginning of the week however I have started picking up the native slang that they speak called “patwah” and can now communicate rather well. Their national language is English so speaking with adults and older kids is much easier but I now find myself talking in “patwah” terms as well.

I mentioned earlier that God has blessed me, oh if I could only count the ways. Every time that I have been able to speak God has touched me tremendously. Wednesday morning I had the opportunity to give the morning devotion to the local public school. The kids were very respectful, much more than back in the states. They sang numerous songs and they were all about Jesus…… Praise the Lord!! A public school teaching their kids to love and worship Jesus in everything that they do! Imagine that happening back home – no way!! Somebody would be sued for everything they owned!!! We have been able to do some more construction projects and hopefully been able to help some families out in a small way. We also conducted another medical clinic and painted another church in a town called Orracbessa. As far as fun, me and my dad got to go deep sea fishing today. It consisted of a twenty foot oversized canoe with a motor, a fishing line and our hands, no fishing pole or rig at all, just hands. No luck with the fish but we did have a great experience!

Again I don't have a lot of time to update and all of this information is just barely scrapping the tip of the iceberg. I am hoping that when I get home I will be able to collect my thoughts and tell you all everything that happened. Again thanks for all of the love, support and prayers that you have all given me. I look forward to seeing you all and sharing more of my experiences. As of the moment we are looking at coming back during this summer but if you are interested in joining me please let me know. See you all soon. Much love and God bless!!!

Jamaica

Just wanted to give a quick update on how the trip to Jamaica was going. We do not have great access to the internet so this is the first chance that I have had to update. I hope that I have another chance before the week is complete.

We had a great flight into Jamaica with no problems going through customs with all of our bags. That was a answer to prayers to say the least. After arriving we a 2+ hour ride by van to the place where we are staying, it was definitely an interesting ride. They drive on the wrong side of the road and wrong side of the car, and we had a driver that has never driven in Jamaica before..... like I said interesting! When we got to the guesthouse (the place that we are staying) we had a wonderful supper waiting on us. It consisted of jerk chicken, Jamaican potato salad, slaw, and corn fritters..... it was amazing just as all of the food so far has been. I even tried some fish for supper tonight, and I hate fish, but it was pretty good to. We have a sea side place that we are staying, so we wake up in the mornings to the sound of the ocean and the cool breeze blowing in as well. The guesthouse does not have all the American amenities that we are all so accustom to like hot water, air conditioning, unlimited water supply, bright lights, etc., however it is actually better than what I was expecting.

The culture here is vastly different than ours. To say that some of the team members are in "culture shock" is an understatement, however everyone is getting use to it by now. We have met some incredible people and some new friendship that I hope will last a lifetime.

I have had the blessing of being able to speak three times while here so far. Once each on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and tonight at a midweek youth service. All three were amazing experiences and will never be forgotten. God has truly blessed me through each occasion. We have seen numerous come to Christ while here and one baptism in the ocean. God is definitely moving through out team members and I hope that each and everyone of them are having the same great experience that I am!

We have to date, worked on new stairs for the church, held a medical clinic, rebuilt two chicken coops. made new steps onto the side of a hill for easier access to the chicken coops, participated in some preschool classes, and many other things. We have numerous other endeavors planned as well.

I really don't have the time, or energy for that matter, to write about everything that we are doing right now. But please stay tuned in the future for more details. Please continue to pray for me and our team as we look forward to what God has in store for us the rest of the week. I know that tomorrow is bring a full day of events, I even get to go speak at the public school in the morning Love to all that are reading and God Bless!!

So What's With The Title...........

Well, I'm glad that you asked. I remember a story that I read some years ago about a group of climbers that set out to scale a high mountian. This would be a long trip with grueling days of hard climbing ahead of them. As they set out on their journey they could see the summit, its beauty was something to behold. The snow capped peak set against the blue sky was a breath-taking sight and it highly encouraged all that were taking the trek. It was on days like this that they made their greatest progress. Seeing the top allowed them to press forward toward a common goal, to work together as one, and to direct their thoughts and energy to the summit ahead of them. However, this was not always the case, there were other days. Days when there were clouds in the sky, days when the peak of the mountain could not be seen. It was during these occurrences that the climb became demanding and difficult. Instead of all eyes being focus upward on the same prize, they were cast down toward the ground or outward toward other things. Complains and grumbles were a common replacement for the high hopes and dreams of those long forgotten eye-catching, stunning days.

Man, that sound like us doesn’t it?? When we are able to see that peak, as long as the goal is within sight there is nothing that we can’t do. But as soon as some obstacle gets in our way, as soon as our vision meets resistance then we become discouraged believing that all is lost. Just like the hikers lost sight of the summit we too lose sight of what has been set out before us. And when this happens we start trading our once unstoppable vision for the eyeglasses of an ordinary life.

That, however, is not how life was purposed. We all have been given a vision of the Summit! This is why God sent Jesus to this world, so that we could see Him. The problem with the world today is that the clouds of sin have surrounded us and we have forgotten the majesty of the summit. We all have personal goals and dreams; something that our heart has been set on to achieve. But, all of these visions have something in common, we must strive after them, they will not come to us. In stark comparison, our Salvation came to us! We don’t have to imagine the summit on cloudy days, it has already been revealed to us in the form of Jesus Christ. John 3:3 tells us that “unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

God came near, and getting a vision like that can be like starting a whole new life. We must take our eyes off the grounds of our own lives or off those around us and train them towards Him. We must become like Peter and become eyewitnesses of His majesty. And that is why the blog is labeled as it is, I have glimpsed the peak, I have seen the summit, and because of this I refuse to quit climbing until I reach the top. God has given me a vision that I refuse to let stand idly by as Satan devours the people of this earth. So let no mountain stand in your way, because you have already seen the summit!!