Life and Times of BAILEY.

A little meditation on Peter, James, & Johns conversion.

“When they had brought their boats to land they forsook all and followed him.”

This quote is from Luke 5:1-11.  Its the story of when Jesus speaks to Simon (AKA Peter), commanding him to “launch out into the deep and let down the nets for a catch”.  Do you know that story?

Well, it goes a little something like this.

Jesus, randomly got into this guy Simons boat as he was preaching to a multitude of onlookers.  

Now here is a question for yah. Do you think that Jesus knew this random fisherman would be Peter as in the Pillar of the church?  That he would be numbered apart of the twelve apostles? Did he specifically get into Simons boat for this reason?  Or was the “High guys in the sky” (AKA our heavenly father) guiding Peter, James, and John to be in the influence of Jesus at the boat to be blown away by his power? Its a heavenly triune question, isn’t it? Its one of those Trinitarian mysteries

I imagine Jesus randomly getting into Simon’s boat and Simon being caught off guard. wondering what in the world is going on here.  Who is this man and who does he think he is?  God?  And James and John just watching their partner fisherman wondering what in the world is happening?

Jesus’ command to let down the net for a catch must have been such an awkward question.  Any fisherman knows that the only time to be casting the nets is in the early morning or the evening before dark.  That is when they are running for food.

Peter’s shock and curiosity was made plane by his response.

“Master we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at your word I will let down the net.”

I am sure Simon Peters thoughts went something like this.  

Its impossible that there is fish, and it is a pain in the butt to throw the huge net in the water, but, why not throw the net in the water. Even tho I am frustrated and tired from getting skunked the night before. This man speaks to me with such authority.  I feel like I have to throw the net, and if I dont I am gonna miss out on something. 

Sure enough 

“When they had done this they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking so they signaled to their partners to help them and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.

As I read this story I am struck with how much of a blessing this was for everyone present.  I love spearfishing.  I love being in the ocean and seeing the beauty of Gods ocean. But most of all I love hunting fish.  When I go through the trouble of spearfishing and dont catch a single fish I am dissapointed.  But spearfishing for me is a hobby.  For Peter, fishing was his livelyhood.  He had worked all night and was completely skunked.  That must have been a frustrating moment in Peter’s life.  

I read this story and sense that this miriacle had a whole lot more meaning to Peter, James, and John then just a big catch of fish.  It was a display of POWER in the WORD of this man.  

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O lord! for he and all who saw it were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken. 

The night of fishing Peter had before this experience is a perfect illustration of their Godless life that they had been living.  They were in the dark, throwing the net, toiing away, and in the end they had nothing to show for it.  Only shame.  That pretty much summed up these mens lives up to this point.  Emptiness, and sinfulness. They knew it.  That why Peter felt the need to throw himself at Jesus‘ feet and humble himself.   

Then this guy Jesus comes along.  Gives a command to throw out the net in the heat of day and Peter, James, and John obey his word and get the catch of a lifetime. This is the perfect illustration of the Godly life. A life in the light, A life of obedience and faith. A life of miriacles. A life of tottal dependence on God to provide.  Peter, James, And John realized at that moment that  Jesus is all they needed.  

So “When they had brought their boats to land they forsook all and followed him.”  Wow.  we know the rest of the story.  They truly did.  No lip service.  They Just went for it. 

What does this kind of life, obeying God’s word and forsaking all look like today? Who around us is living this life?  

Am I living this life?  Have I forsaken all?

LIFE

I have not posted a blog for a year and a half to be exact.  I don’t know who would read this.  But, God has been doing a lot in my life.  I went from being Mr. single man to being happily married to a beautiful princess from the cold dark country in the arctic called Finland.  I went from being a seven year intern at Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara to directing my own non profit Christian ministry called Victory Sessions. Heck, I turned thirty years old!  I am so glad life has changed.

My life now is been consumed with being married and reaching out to Surf kids (AKA groms) in my hometown.  My new ministry is called Victory Sessions and the mission is to reach out to the surf groms of Santa Barbara through two seasonal programs.  Surf camps during summer vacation time and an After School program during the winter months. 

I have just finished my first season of Surf Camps.  They were a huge success.  I got the opportunity to minister to so many kids this summer. It was one of the most action packed, busy seasons of my life.  I love putting on Summer Camps.  They are so amazing.  God moves so mightily when you have an entire week, seven hours a day to pour into a fixed group of impressionable kids. I have never done so much ministry within a month and a half and had so much fun.  It’s similar to the high a christian gets on a short term mission trip.  But, I did not have to travel to a distant country.  I was doing it right here in my hometown.  I am already looking forward to next summer.

  Now I am gearing up for a new season of reaching out to the non-christian surf kids at the public schools.  I am gonna be going to four different Jr High and High schools everyday here in Santa Barbara and picking up kids in order to take them to the beach for a surf.  The idea is Recreation Relational Evangelism.  I am also partnering with the local Christian Surfer’s chapter to get all my kids plugged into a solid surfers Bible Study.  The common ground is surfing and the goal is to show them who Jesus is and the plans he has for them personally.  I also plan to remain involved in the Calvary Chapel High School group called Fulcrum where I served as the assistant Youth Pastor.  It compliments my surf ministry really and Calvary Chapel is a great place to plug bran new Christian Surf kids into as a church.

As for my marriage, I am just enjoying the ride of getting to know my bride and learning about myself.  She is still an enigma to me.  The fact that she is from such a unique culture that is so different from my own causes me to be aware of my culture.  I want to learn everyday more about her and what makes her tick.  It’s definitely been a challenge.  I have been humbled by the experience.  God, is using my wife to make me a better man.  She is my perfect suitable helper as my engagement counselors told me she would be.  I am so amazed everyday that she would leave her homeland to come to this crazy country and live with a crazy, salty, surfer, from California like myself.  I am pretty sure she had no idea what she was getting into when she said “yes”.  But she is such a trooper and I think God is making us one flesh.  Slowly, but surely. I have a lot to learn and grow into.  Being the spiritual head, like Jesus is for the Church is not an easy task.  Don’t let anyone tell you its easy.  But wow, it sure is worth it. 

Please pray for these two ministries if you are reading this.  Victory Sessions, and my Marriage.  They are both going good but I still would love your prayers.  And if you would like to leave a comment to let me know about your life I would love to pray for you as well.  

Bailor blog is back on Tumblr

I don’t care if no one cares about another cheesy blog.  This blog is back.

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Bailey & Eeva’s love story

Bailey and Eeva were united by a little princess named Lumi. Eeva came to the United States in fall 2007 to be a short time au pair for a family who moved from Finland to California. The family happened to move to a new place 2 weeks before she went back home. One evening she went to borrow a cookie tray from her new next door neighbors.. And Bailey was the one who opened the door. That was the first time they met. Bailey was smitten, but he didn’t let anyone know about it. Couple days later Bailey and Eeva happened to be at the same time in their common garage. They had a chat. By the end of the chat they realized they were both Christians and they had similar passions in ministry. That was the only discussion they had. Eeva went back home but some how she couldn’t forget her next door neighbor. Something was stirred in her heart. They ended up being Facebook-friends and chatting every once in a while via internet. They began to cultivate a friendship. Eeva decided to go back to California in summer 2008 to work with a Christian organization called Youth with a Mission. She lived in Los Angeles over the summer. She came to visit the little princess and her mom in Santa Barbara at the beginning of summer. Bailey found out that she was coming and invited her to visit his church that weekend. She finally ended up going there all by herself. Luckily they ran into each other in the church’s parking lot. After church Bailey asked her out to lunch before she went back to LA. It felt a little bit like a date, especially to Bailey. Few weeks later Eeva invited Bailey to a Dodgers-game cause she was already going with her YWAM team and she knew he liked Dodgers. Bailey was so excited and drove down to the base. He liked the Dodgers but he was really interested in Eeva and what God was doing through her at YWAM. He drove there and spent a little bit of time at the base with her and her friends. And they drove together in his car to the Dodgers-stadium and shared their testimonies together. At the game they both were little quiet. Eeva’s friends were worried about Eeva. But she was just in her own world and thought about different things and also Bailey who sat next to her. Bailey was just really in awe of Eeva. At the end of the game every one was able to go to the field and watch a firework show. It was at that point that Bailey realized that he had feelings for Eeva and wanted to let her know how he felt. So when he got home from LA a few days later he resolved to write her a letter to tell her how he felt. It took him many revisions before he felt comfortable with what he had to say. But basically he told her that he liked her and he hoped that she liked him. And he asked her out to dinner Earlier that week Eeva had realized that she really liked Bailey but decided not to do anything about it. She decided to give the whole thing to God and let him take the lead. When she got the letter, she was so happy. They ended up going to their first official date a week later at CPK and they hung out all day in downtown LA. The rest is history..