Above and Beyond

Thinking back over the past couple of weeks since my last post, so much has happened that I hardly know where to begin on this post. First I think I need to share how the week at Frontier Ranch ended.

On our last day there, after we drove some go carts around a track, Monty mentioned that he wanted to rappel down the mountain that Nick, Rachel and I had done the day before. The one hitch about that idea was the climb up he would have to do in order to rappel down the 125 foot cliff!!! The camp doctor, who was at the track, told me that if he had chest pains and needed nitro, to come back down and not finish the hike. He asked if he had a fear of heights, to which I responded with a grin that he used to be a super-sonic jet pilot!!! No problem with heights!

The short story...........he did it!!! That is how "above and beyond all that we could ask or imagine" God has answered our prayers for him only four months before. He was so thrilled as he, Rachel and I rappelled down together!

The next cool God-thing......at the ledge below was a young man from Central Denver for whom I had been praying all week. He had been in a near fatal accident only 11 months before which left him brain dead for 12 hours, in a coma for 16 days and having to learn to talk, eat, use the bathroom and everything else. And here he was at Frontier Ranch, hearing how God has been extravagantly pursuing him since the day he was born. He said he is not ready to trust the LORD because of what happened to him. And yet he trust a rope and a carabineer on the side of a cliff. I continue to pray for him and thank God that He allowed me the privilege of putting a face with a name. What a blessing that was for me.

That evening in the final club time, they had a "Say So" time where probably a third of those students stood to tell the rest that they had chosen to follow Jesus the rest of their lives. Only the LORD knows what He is going to do in those young people's lives. How blessed we were to be there to see Him at work, transferring students from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His marvelous Light!!!

Frontier Ranch

Monty and I are enjoying the majesty of the collegiate peaks of Colorado outside of Buena Vista at the Young Life Frontier Ranch. We came up here with Nick and Rachel (our son-in-love and daughter)as "adult guests" to observe what happens at a Young Life camp for high school students. They are maxed out serving 503 of us this week, which is more than capacity for them. This place is a well-oiled machine where unchurched kids are loved and served to the fullest to show them Jesus and what He can do in their broken lives. They have been doing this here since 1951, with great old photos all over the place to prove it!!

If you are looking for a place to send your student who might not be so sure about Jesus and His pursuit of him/her, OR......if your student already has a walk with Jesus, but just needs to be with other Christian kids in a serve-others-for-Jesus setting, then you probably should go to the Young Life website and peruse to your heart's content. There is work for college-aged or high-schoolers in any number of capacities.

When I was 16 years old, I came to a YL camp up here in at another ranch just down the side of this mountain. It was a great experience for me to see many of my friends come to faith in Jesus because of the way they were loved for a week by these "strangers" who had no reason to serve them like they did. That was a long time ago, and this week has been so nostalgic for me to think back to what I saw happen in kids' lives. And now to be here and to be the one praying for God to work in the 476 students who are campers from Knoxville,TN, Northern CO, MO, TX, and Central Denver as well as some special needs campers in Capernaum . This week, God could change the course of their lives, from brokenness to wholeness in Him.

Greatest lessons I have learned

This title is not an original one; in fact it came from a book by that name that was compiled by Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. I have had that book for several years, but had never read all of the stories in it until recently. On my walks in the neighborhood with Monty, I have been reading these interesting accounts of many people(some well-known in Christian circles and some not so well-known)and their "greatest lesson learned".

"How would you answer that question?" I asked myself!! And I would ask you that, as well. For me, I think I came up with two that have impacted me the most. Without going into the details of "how" I learned the lessons, (as was done in the book)I just want to cut to the chase and say "what" they are.

They both came very close to the same time in my Christian life, several years ago, and have certainly been the most impacting since becoming a follower of Jesus nearly a lifetime ago, it would seem. The first was that "I do not have to live the Christian life!" Christ is the only One Who can and by His amazing grace, He chooses to do that through me by His Spirit. I realized, after years of trying to "do all of the right things as a believer" that God's program is not a "do-it-yourself" or self-improvement course of following all of the rules and regulations of the Law. But, rather it is God Who is at work in me both to will and to do His good pleasure. Phil 2:13.

There are many great writings that explain how that all happens far better than I could in this brief post. And that is true also for the second great lesson I have learned and loved living.

IT is the sovereignty of God. I remember wrestling in my spirit with the LORD about this because my finite mind just could not put it all together. SO, one year when I was choosing my topic for the year in reading through the Bible, I picked "sovereignty" as the doctrine I would look for and mark!!! I was blown away at the end of that year when I went back through the version I used that year and saw how many times I had written "Sov" in the margins. I would say that it was on nearly every page.............at least once!!! I LOVED IT!!! And, I have loved it and lived it ever since.

I am redoing a study I did many years ago by Jerry Bridges, who was with the Navigators Ministry in Colorado for many years, called Trusting God. Both, the book and the study guide, are excellent and I highly recommend them if you are struggling or have struggled with the issue of His sovereignty. Give yourself a treat, and dive into this wonderful doctrine, if you have not done so by now. It is a great place to live and to love........God and others!!!