Satan is defeated, but he is no idiot...
We had a great close to camp. Worship that I "tweeted" about was filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit...the message from Brad Bell was simple and to the point...our old life is still at home, waiting for us, and those same old habbits will be pursuing us...we have to be ready...With new lives in Christ we haven't arrived at the end of our journey, it's only just beginning...we are to FOLLOW CHRIST...time to turn away from many things...
From there it was off to Victory Circle...an outdoor amphitheatre known as "The Greek" cuz it kind of looks like something well, Greek. We had some more acoustic worship and then students asked to share, in 3 words, what God had done in their lives. What had he shown them? The responses were genuine, and felt. If you've ever thought you couldn't talk to your friends about Jesus, how about narrowing it down to 3 words and starting from there. I've just seen it from teens, you can do it...
After they dismissed the ladies, Brad came one more time to challenge the guys to three things based on "weak-sauce sissy Adam" in the Garden: 1) Reject Passivity 2) Accept Responsibility 3) Lead courageously ...
Finally it was back to the dorms...where we started packing and then met one more time as a group of guys from Horizons (one of my favorite things about what we've done this year)...
I challenged each of the guys to write down one specific action they would take before church on Sunday as a result of this week...responses simply gave me goosebumps..can't wait to hear about it on Sunday!
and then, on a personal note...the rug was pulled from under me...one of my former kids, a 23 year old young man I love and have knows since he was 7 or 8, absolutely tore into me for all the ways I've failed him and his family. He posted it all over my facebook, which I deleted, but they'd been up for an hour or so...decided it was probably best to block everyone from posting at this point, I don't want to block him as a friend, as I still care for him and want the chance to respond. Tried to deal with it for a while, knowing that it was absolutely Satan's timing to attack me, but still needed to talk w/ Liz. So with lots of tears, I called her at 1:30am or so. Instant cheer up as Caleb actually answered the phone! And Liz was the support I knew she'd be.
I'm so far from a perfect man, but I love these kids dearly. Whether it was this week, or this young man from many years ago. It hurts to know that maybe I could/should have done more to stay in touch when he was graduated and then moved away. I'm not a good "follow-up" person, as many of you know. I'm a fairly good "responder", to a crisis, a need, a text, an email, you get the idea. But if I don't respond right away, I often/usually forget to follow-up. And that's a big part of what this fiasco is about. Pray for my young friend, and that hopefully he and I can have a Matthew 18 moment as I go to him in love, but so far he isn't really responding to me.
But now I just can't sleep. I haven't packed yet, we've got so much to do to be out of here in 5 hours...packing and leaving dorm before breakast at 8:00am. We've got our Tradition of the last day (can't say because it's a secret from the first timers)..then it's off to the beach where we'll be having a number of baptisms! Hopefully heading home by 11:00am or so. I'll write one more hopefully by Saturday afternoon.
I will still say...awesome week!!
GOD RULZ!
TN
Friday, June 25, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
So much to say, and I don't know where to start...
I was gonna talk about all the "awesome" rec we had today, including a bunch of our kids in the great Kajabi-Can-Can
I was gonna talk about the "amazing" time at the beach and riding waves
I was gonna post pictures of the whole day...
I was gonna talk about how much I was anticipating what the Lord would do tonight at the evening chapel...Tuesday night's meeting...typically known as "Decision Night"
But as I sit here in absolute awe of God, with tears streaming down my face, I am humbled and blessed to say that none of what I planned to talk about compares to the love and mercy of God through his Son, and my Savior Jesus Christ!
"Awesome" is getting to pray with a young man whose one of the first ones to get out of his chair and go sit on the steps of the stage by himself as he's balling and weeping with the understanding of how much God loves him.
"Amazing" is seeing a young lady that I've prayed for well over 1,000 times (not an exaggeration) in the 6 years I've known her be completely broken for the first time in a long time, and maybe ever...
The best picture I can give you is whatever vision God puts in your head right now, as you read this, as you imagine what it must have looked like to see dozens, hundreds, of young people sitting on the floor in front of and all around the stage; some laughing with a joy of Christ that they can't explain, some weeping with a sense of purpose, forgiveness, brokenness, healing, and love from a DADDY (Abba Father) for the very first time, or maybe the deepest they've ever felt it....
The anticipation that I was so excited about all day, while I believe was a genuine sense of God giving my heart a sneak preview, was so far short of what HE did tonight. At the end of our speaker's (Brad Bell, thank you for praying for him!) message, he gave students an opportunity to stand up, and come forward for those that wanted to place their faith and trust in Christ for the very first time. Not an easy thing for teens to do, but they came. Including at least 3 of our own students! As counselors we'd been asked to come up on the stage and sit with our kids that were making those decisions...and as I did, I lowered my head and began to pray for the two guys I was sitting with, with my arms around them. After a bit, the speaker started talking to Christians, those that were like the seeds in the parable of the sower, the ones that had committed their lives to Christ, but were getting choked out by weeds, bearing no fruit. And so I began to pray for our students, which made up the majority of the 60 that came with us. And I could never have anticipated what my eyes saw when I opened them. Our church has been taking up the first 6 rows or so of one of the 4 sections in the chapel for each meeting. When I looked up at the section, "anticipating" a few empty seats, what I saw was a bunch of EMPTY SEATS! Most of our students were sitting on the floor in front of the stage! Parents, your prayers for your kids are being heard, and answered by our Daddy! I encourage each of you to listen to your students as they talk about what God is doing in their lives.
Go to sleep tonight with the knowledge that God is working, there is a HUGE party in Heaven tonight, and we still have 3 more days of camp for God to stay at it!!
Good night...no....GREAT NIGHT!
I can't believe what I get to do for a living...
God Rulz!
I was gonna talk about all the "awesome" rec we had today, including a bunch of our kids in the great Kajabi-Can-Can
I was gonna talk about the "amazing" time at the beach and riding waves
I was gonna post pictures of the whole day...
I was gonna talk about how much I was anticipating what the Lord would do tonight at the evening chapel...Tuesday night's meeting...typically known as "Decision Night"
But as I sit here in absolute awe of God, with tears streaming down my face, I am humbled and blessed to say that none of what I planned to talk about compares to the love and mercy of God through his Son, and my Savior Jesus Christ!
"Awesome" is getting to pray with a young man whose one of the first ones to get out of his chair and go sit on the steps of the stage by himself as he's balling and weeping with the understanding of how much God loves him.
"Amazing" is seeing a young lady that I've prayed for well over 1,000 times (not an exaggeration) in the 6 years I've known her be completely broken for the first time in a long time, and maybe ever...
The best picture I can give you is whatever vision God puts in your head right now, as you read this, as you imagine what it must have looked like to see dozens, hundreds, of young people sitting on the floor in front of and all around the stage; some laughing with a joy of Christ that they can't explain, some weeping with a sense of purpose, forgiveness, brokenness, healing, and love from a DADDY (Abba Father) for the very first time, or maybe the deepest they've ever felt it....
The anticipation that I was so excited about all day, while I believe was a genuine sense of God giving my heart a sneak preview, was so far short of what HE did tonight. At the end of our speaker's (Brad Bell, thank you for praying for him!) message, he gave students an opportunity to stand up, and come forward for those that wanted to place their faith and trust in Christ for the very first time. Not an easy thing for teens to do, but they came. Including at least 3 of our own students! As counselors we'd been asked to come up on the stage and sit with our kids that were making those decisions...and as I did, I lowered my head and began to pray for the two guys I was sitting with, with my arms around them. After a bit, the speaker started talking to Christians, those that were like the seeds in the parable of the sower, the ones that had committed their lives to Christ, but were getting choked out by weeds, bearing no fruit. And so I began to pray for our students, which made up the majority of the 60 that came with us. And I could never have anticipated what my eyes saw when I opened them. Our church has been taking up the first 6 rows or so of one of the 4 sections in the chapel for each meeting. When I looked up at the section, "anticipating" a few empty seats, what I saw was a bunch of EMPTY SEATS! Most of our students were sitting on the floor in front of the stage! Parents, your prayers for your kids are being heard, and answered by our Daddy! I encourage each of you to listen to your students as they talk about what God is doing in their lives.
Go to sleep tonight with the knowledge that God is working, there is a HUGE party in Heaven tonight, and we still have 3 more days of camp for God to stay at it!!
Good night...no....GREAT NIGHT!
I can't believe what I get to do for a living...
God Rulz!
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