--- In bodybuilderslord@yahoogroups.com, "Tim" <tm_files@...> wrote:
>
> The Holy Bible says trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean
> not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him and He will direct
> your path. How can we do that? What risks do we take?
>
> You have just finished scaling a canyon rock face. You are on top
> appreciating God's amazing creations: the canyons of bright red and
> orange, laced with wonderful shadowy patterns of dark brown. An eagle
> soars overhead in a sky of ultramarine, blue filled with puffy,
> cotton candy clouds drifting lazily past. You feel the gentle breeze
> on your sweaty forehead as you pray to God, "Father God, thank You
> for this wonderful life of mine!"
>
> By the power of the Holy Spirit God answers, "I want you to go
> forward over to that next rock face." You look and realize that rock
> face is across a canyon about one hundred feet away from where your
> standing. You say to yourself there is no way that I can repel
> forward from this canyon to get across to the next. I have to go back
> and repel from where I came up from. A thought then says, "NO! I want
> you to move forward to that other rock face."
>
> You answer to yourself, "This is crazy! I'm listening to this
> gibberish!" Then God says, "I am your God, and I say to move forward
> to that other rock face." You think, "This is stupid. I would have to
> jump a span of one hundred feet to even touch the top." The reply
> comes, "Don't you believe it's ME talking?"
>
> You are disgusted. You can't believe in the unseen or you can't
> believe God wants you to jump one hundred feet. Actually, you blow
> off this whole "mind-talk" and go backwards repelling down where
> you've been.
>
> That night you have a dream. You are standing on the top of the rock
> face you scaled. God tells you to move forward to that rock face one
> hundred feet away. You say to God He is crazy! God responds, "Just
> believe that it's Me talking and be obedient to what I'm saying."
> You are EXTREMELY afraid! You yell at God, "PLEASE HELP ME DO WHAT
> YOU WANT ME TO DO!!!" God replies," I'm here with you. Just DO IT"
>
> "Alright God!" you exclaim. "You want me to kill myself. Here I go!"
> You step back as far as you can go. You blast off with all the energy
> of a trained, well-muscled athlete, running to the edge of the
> canyon.
>
> You leap high into the air like an eagle starting to soar down the
> canyon. Suddenly! you fall. And more important, your fall is broken
> as you hit solid ground unhurt. You get up and realize there was
> an "unseen" ledge under the edge of the rock face. You never noticed
> it while you were on the top. You were so busy thinking that God
> wanted you to jump one hundred feet across the canyon that you never
> expected a plan "b" direction. Then you look and there is a sign on
> the ledge that reads "Simpson Trail." A path leads down the rock
> face across the river below and up to the other side where God wanted
> you to "leap" across in the first place.
>
> Then in your dream you say to God in disgust, "But God it'll take a
> whole day to travel on this path. Why don't' you just give me the
> strength to jump across the canyon." God laughs.
>
> We live our lives, meeting our responsibilities with all the training
> and experience we have acquired for the tasks before us. At times we
> have high points but usually we go through our day with less passion
> than what God wants for us.
>
> So God by His Holy Spirit tells us to "jump some canyons." He wants
> to run risks so we can believe in Him and His humongous love for us.
> God wants to walks with us through His Spirit.
>
> But we listen with ears that have been trained from what we have
> experienced in the past. So we are clouded from the miraculous
> possibilities that can be before us by the power of God's Holy will
> for each of us. When God told me He wanted me to be minister to the
> fitness community I thought, "Yeh, right God!"
>
> Then even more important God said He wanted me to use bodybuilding as
> an introduction piece for me to witness the Good News of Jesus Christ
> to a lost world. God-willing, trying to be obedient, the goal is to
> be a bodybuilder in a posing brief witnessing, saving as many people
> as possible from that eternal lake of fire. This direction is
> definitely "cliff-jumping." But with God He can make a path down the
> canyon, across the river below, and up the far canyon to the other
> side, all for His Glory!
>
> So how do we trust in God and lean not on our own understanding? We
> acknowledge Him and what He is wanting to do in our lives. We listen
> to Him, and strive with all the passion the Holy Spirit can give us,
> to be obedient to what He wants us to do. And by this trust, comes
> faith, and by this faith comes hope. Then we can discover all
> those "Simpson Trails" giving God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy
> Spirit the glory for leading us in this miraculous and joyous plan!
> God wants us to run risks.
>
> This message is taken from the verse:
> "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own
> understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and HE will make
> your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5&6. In fact all of Proverbs is an
> important book to live by. Take a look.
>
> If you want, also, take a look at www.musclebound.org,a ministry of
> information and inspiration.
>