Good morning everyone! We have made it thru opening day and 1 full day of camp, and it is amazing how quickly the Lord can move in a persons heart. The magic of camp is not the music, the cool counselors, or even the super cool activities, even though those are all great. It is stripping yourself away from your everyday life. You take yourself out of your normal, which allows God to really come out of the shadows of our plans and desires. This is why we are sold out to bringing students here, because it is the best opportunity to get their focus on the Lord.
As I mentioned earlier, yesterday’s theme was moving “beyond your position”. We focused on our separation from God as sinners and how to bridge that separation. To move from separation from God to connection with God we need to exchange our lives for Jesus Christ’s life, meaning we must start making decisions to seek His will and not our will. The Camp Pastor, John Nix, said some really challenging things last night about how we ‘play church’ too often today.
He gave an analogy of the flu shot. When you get a flu shot you need to get just enough of the flu to build up an immunity, but not enough to actually get the flu. Today, alot of our churches are filled with people who are doing this, we want just enough Jesus to get immunity from Hell, please our parents, be a ‘good person’, feel good about ourselves, etc. After worship, we have a church discussion time each night. And last night was an amazing time for us as a youth family. Our students identified several ways we all try to get ‘just enough’ Jesus in our lives, and why they think they do it. Often we are just trying to get by. We had a time of confession, letting those that wanted to share with us what they are really struggling with now and how they need accountability. Some of these things included spending time in the Word (a problem for alot of us), trusting God to provide, understanding and responding positively to authority in our lives (especially with parents), putting on a show for others, being selfish, etc. It was a great stepping stone for us as a group to get real with each other. Please pray for more of this authentic sharing, not just here but from now on!
Today the them is “beyond your performance”. We are going to be looking at how we are justified. Justification is being made right through faith. I think this will resonate with our students a lot because I think it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to earn justification through being religious, especially if you have been raised in the church. I will share more about this tomorrow morning.
Tonight after worship we have “Stage Night” which is like a talent show or variety show. I am not sure if any of our students have decided to sign up, but I will keep you updated on it. The Boat race is tomorrow afternoon, for those of you who just cant wait to see how our ‘youth built’ boat fairs on the open water!
Remember you can check out ‘the beyond effect’ at www.thebeyondeffect.org and see how students are taking the challenge to use their everyday passions for God’s glory. Our students are hearing about this each day, so hopefully it is sinking in and marinating in their hearts.
Well, I think thats all for now. I will post pictures later tonight of the happenings today. We have students participating in Fitness, Waterfront activities, pool games, percussion, field games and climbing. So I am going to try to get my camera to as many of those places as possible!
*** I told you guys you could buy pictures at shutterfly.com but here are the actual instructions if you are interested:
1. Go to www.crossingscamps.org and click on the "At Camp" box in the middle of the page
2. Choose Jonathan Creek
3. You can look at pictures, email a camper, and alot more. Enjoy!
- Remember, we will be compiling all of our pictures onto a cd when we get back.
Happy Wednesday!
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