Had a great time this past weekend being at the cabin. It has been since July 4th weekend since my family was all there at the same time. Much needed down time and much needed time to just wind down and relax. Our day on the lake on Saturday was awesome and dinner at Larkins in Lake Lure is one of my most favorite places to eat at. The view is amazing with the water front and mountains in the back ground and being with people I just love.

It has me thinking on a few things that I want to share a little about today. There have been some major milestones that I have crossed over in my faith journey. Amazing things God has shown me and taught me and I am thankful for them as well as the people God has put in my life.

Following Christ is the hardest but most rewarding thing I could have ever poured my life into. When your faith is at a place where you dont want to just go to church on Sundays and sit in a chair year after year after year with no further walk than what I let God do in my life. Never challenged, never changing, never experiencing, never growing - or leading others. Imagine a life of 60+ years and that is the lifetime of Sundays. That is not me nor have I ever wanted that. I dont want to look back over my life and know I did nothing for Christ or led anyone to know Him. If I was that kind of person, it would be all about me and what I am getting from it. Most of the time, its very little. As I look back over the season of time in student ministry - I can hold my head up and say, I had a voice into the lives of so many students and their families that will touch their hearts for a lifetime. Their eternity for some of them and those are big things to celebrate. Its not my time to have a mid life crisis it is time to have a mid life calling. A man on a mission. Shouldn't we all be that way when we are truly following Christ?

Not many of us will have a Saul to Paul conversion through a blinding light and for Christ himself to tell you exactly what to do next. Most of us will be called to serve Christ in small ways but very important ways. You may be a small business owner but following Christ is so important to you that its your calling to handle business deals withy honor and integrity. You are leading your customers in faith and inviting them to church. You may be a stay at home mom but your children and the other 2 you watch who's parents dont know Jesus- you are shining a very important light into their lives through the power of Christ. You may be a student who is attending a new school for whatever reason and your scared of many things but your love for Christ shines over those fears. Other students notice this NICE difference about you. Your teachers are already talking about this awesome student they have in the faculty lounge. They are watching you because you are shining for Christ. Maybe it takes a little time for folks to figure that out about you but its there and people are noticing.

Maybe you were at a place a year ago and the Saul in you had revelation to go on a mission trip and you came back as Paul. Something changed you because you followed, because you answered the call, because God broke your heart on something so much that you took the risk and went.

God is calling us to go !! If God has called you to do something then do it.

God will never ask you to give up something that He doesnt have something far greater to replace it with.

Colossians 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

When you are truly following Christ - you will go. You will do. You will be involved. You will touch the hearts of others. You will follow. You will lead others. You can't help it.

I am thinking back to our Jamaica trip and their are 2 pictures, two things that stand out most about that trip. One being that we actually went and sometimes I feel as I can't believe we did something that bold and went to a far off country and served the people there who desperately need to know the name of Jesus. We served in amazing ways together. We loved not only on each other but also the people there in Jamaica. Lives changed. Hearts changed. Our hearts and lives included because it was time to step out in faith and do something.

I want to share 2 pictures today: My favorite pictures from Jamaica. As I looked them over and reliving the moments there and the people we touched along the way that week - Mr Cole sticks out to me as I am holding my Bible. On that cover if you look closely is written the word "Hope". That is something that he had - hope. He had hope because he had a relationship with Jesus. It was personal to him and as I read to him and we spoke of his family and one day God was going to call him home and he would use that walking stick again and never have to be confined to a bed - He had tears running down his face. So did I. That experience with Mr Cole was not one I was going to have sitting for years at the 11:00 service in that same old cushioned chair. I was not going to get a chance to share Jesus, cry with him or pray over him if I didn't just say OKAY Lord - I am going even if I had no idea what was going to happen.

The other picture is Morgan holding one of the many children she and our team got to touch that week. Its probably my favorite picture because of the smiles. Here is this little girl, probably from a very broken and disfunctional family and she got to hear about Jesus that day. She got to be held and hugged and loved on for a few hours because God broke a heart and Morgan was that person to pick her up and love on her. Morgan and many others got the chance to share with these children that they matter, they are important and that they are not forgotten and in those moments they felt special. They know the Lord love for them because we shared it with them and there was nothing in return that they could give us except the memories and our changed hearts.

I am thankful for the opportunity. I am blessed because of the opportunity and having enough faith to step out of my comfort zone, lead some folks to experience this journey with me and take the message that Christ has given us to the world.

I am thankful for a church plant Elevation Church University campus that has come just at the perfect season in my life so that I can be part of something bigger, broader and something that God is doing there that is amazing. I am thankful for the vision forward.

Luke 9:3- He (Jesus) Told them: Take nothing for the journey - no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.

Saul set out for Damascus that day to appose the Christian movement and he returned the most influential missionary the world has ever seen.
Hope this challenges you today and gives you encouragement. A little fear is a good thing but too much keeps you where you dont want or need to be.

Lonnie~