Jesus Love You!

On January 14, 2004 My wife and I were both baptized in a small church in Clewiston, FL. We were visiting their with good friends Mike and Neva Rudder during an FLW event. Our friends showed us the importance of being baptized after being saved to continue our quest toward becoming closer to God. Finally I filled that void in my heart, so I thought! I continued to feel empty, and many times alone. The struggles of everyday life were just getting harder and harder to bare. I though I had a grip on everything, but I was still empty. I had helped bring people to the lord and felt like I was doing what the lord wanted me to do, but I was still left empty.
Carol and my younger Daughter April and I moved from Connecticut to Boaz Alabama in June of 2005. It was just a short time after this move t

hat we became active members of Victory Baptist Church in Guntersville, AL. Since this great decision my walk with God has never been closer. "Jesus surely loves us all." My service to our Lord has enabled me to get closer to God in a way I never thought imaginable. Jesus has blessed me so much and has allowed me to have a much broader outlook on my life. The lords comfort allows me to handle the stresses in my life much better and understand that he has complete control. The VOID was finally filled. I learned that being saved and baptized was just the beginning. Completely and unconditionally giving myself to my lord Jesus Christ was what was needed to truly fill the emptiness in my heart.
My walk with God is a great one, and I become closer everyday, but this is not without it's trials. One thing I am most thankful for is serving a just and honest God. It is great to now have a personal relationship with the lord and to be able to listen to him when he speaks. This has taken awhile for me to learn, but now it surely is wonderful.
The first time God spoke to me clearly scared me to death, but I knew it was him. It had to do with a path he wanted to lead me down in which I was not sure I was ready for. God wanted me to help bring the word to the multitudes through my fishing and design blessings.

I worked on the design of my 2007 tour rig for almost two months and felt I finally had it right, however was still a bit uneasy about it. The message I was going to use worked right in with my Pro angler number and the 007 James Bond theme. It was to read "Eyes On the Gold" leading
me from a great season in 2006 to an even better 007 season. Well I was sure wrong about that, God had other plans for me. I was sitting in church on Sunday after I had already sent the design in to the graphics company to prep it for printing and installation. While sitting there listening to our Pastor Steven Swords preaching his sermon the LORD spoke to me in no uncertain terms that I needed to change my design again. This time when he spoke to me I understood it was not the design that he wanted changed. However, it was the slogan I had chosen that needed to be changed. I was sitting there with my wife and became so fidgety that she asked me if I was alright. I told her I was and would explain latter.
Jesus said that the slogan I was going to use might give people and children the wrong message. "It is not about the gold", It is about ME "Jesus". I found myself in a position that I never felt in my wildest dreams that I could ever be in. To be close enough with my walk in Jesus to actually have him speak to me to do something for him. I was honored and a bit scared to do this work for our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. But I did! "Eyes On Jesus" was the slogan decided and put on all my Uniforms, truck and boat for the 2007 Elite Series.
Again this happened to me after the 2007 Elite series was over. I had the worst tournament season in my career and also had my title sponsor after 11 years decide to put their marketing monies in a different direction. After all this I was at my wits end. I was doubting my faith and direction once again. I knew my walk with the lord was close and was great. However I was confused with myself as to what direction the lord was leading me in. My design and internet business was starting to take off and our deadline for the 2008 Elite series commitment was quickly approaching. I had some pretty heavy decisions to make.  When it came time to send in our deposits for the 2008 Elite series I had no title sponsor and nowhere near the amount of money needed for the deposit. With this, our Daughter moving back to Ct, no title sponsor, and  putting our house up for sale, I waited until the very last minute to try to get things together for the 2008 Elite deposit day and I did not have the money. Scared and confused, I bowed  my head and prayed to God, "I know everything in this life is for you, and it will be your will as to what I am to do. I have done what you asked with the "Eyes on Jesus" on my rig and will continue to do what you ask of me no matter what road you have chosen for me. I just need to know what road that is. If you want me to continue on the elite series I need to get $7,000.00 today, or I will loose my 2008 Elite series spot. If this is your will for me not to compete in the elite series and to move my direction somewhere else I will do so praising you all my days. Please LORD give me a direction."

Well to say the least the lord provided me with the money needed to send in my deposit on time and preserve my 2008 Elite series position. If this was not enough he supplied me with twice what was needed. To add to this he also allowed me to secure the domain www.EyesOnJesus.com  just two days latter. I know without any doubt that I am following the road the my lord Jesus Christ has chosen for me.

I pray that I may have the strength and wisdom to represent GOD in the manner he has chosen for me. I learned one valuable lesson, if we want to receive the blessings the lord has promised us, we need to commit ourselves fully and unconditionally to Jesus Christ.

If we would all just listen truly with our hearts to here Jesus we would live a much easier life.

I am glad I am!

God Bless

LEE Bailey, Jr.