Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - A New Set of Lenses (Part 4 of 4)

A friend of mine just showed me a video of him bungee jumping three different times from a seven-story platform in Dallas, Texas. When it comes to heights, I will be the first to volunteer to hold the camera and watch from the ground. I guess the bravest thing I've ever done relating to heights was experiencing a 40-foot-high ropes course in Northwest Arkansas.

For those of you who have never seen or attempted to cross a ropes course, it is basically a challenge of walking across thin beams and swinging bridges that are connected to poles or trees high in the air and your goal is to reach the other end - the finish line, if you will, without falling off. And in most cases, there's nothing to hold onto.

Your harness is tied to a safety rope, keeping you from a complete fall to the ground. But in the moment of being suspended in mid air by a rope, even the most courageous sometimes wish they had stayed where it was safe.

In the case of my friend, it was his first time to ever bungee. In fact, he had never seen anyone up close and in person jumping like this before. But what got him over the edge was one primary motivation, and no, it wasn't his wife cheering him on.

It was the reality that what he was about to do would be videoed for his incredible website and would soon become a tool in God's hands for rescuing teenagers across America from spiritual darkness and an eternity apart from their Creator. In his words right before he jumped for the first time, "Okay, Jesus. Here we go. This is for you."

Most of us can relate to the fear my friend experienced just before jumping off of the platform. Except we experience it every time we think about sharing our faith with someone. As I mentioned in the previous blog, I believe fear is the primary roadblock that keeps many of us from reaching our potential as Christ's ambassadors, His representatives and spokesmen of the Gospel in the circles we influence.

We have talked in this blog series about gaining an eternal perspective on life (or a new set of lenses), and we've concluded how important it is that we begin seeing lost people through Jesus' eyes, that we must see ourselves through Jesus' eyes as his ambassadors by understanding why we are where we are, and we must be willing to see our fears through Jesus' eyes.

What does it really mean to see our fears through Jesus' eyes and open up to others and speak to them about the life-saving message of the Gospel? First, it means that we understand who does the rescuing of people's souls, and God is the only one capable of changing the eternal address of people. We are simply his instrument, His mouthpiece for getting it done.

Second, it also means that we begin to fear the right thing. Instead of fearing what will happen to us if we decide to speak up and share with someone we love and care about, we choose to fear what will happen to them if we remain silent. And courage is not the absence of fear - it's the disregard of it.

Imagine for a moment what would happen if the men and women around the world who have been trained to rescue people from danger suddenly feared more for their own lives than for those they were being sent in to rescue? The result would be unthinkable. And yet countless souls are going into eternity daily and the people God has in mind to rescue them from eternal spiritual death are fearing more for their own lives and reputations.

If you are a fellow struggler like I am in this area, there's something you should know about my friend who did the jump in Dallas. After he jumped the first time, he couldn't wait to do it again. And that's what it's like when you join God in the adventure of a lifetime - reaching out to rescue those in need of a Savior. Once you get a taste, you can't help but go back for more! What are you waiting on? And what are you willing to fear most when it comes to the spiritual rescue of the people whose lives hang in the balance unless you act?