Being in Love with the One Who Created Love

You can always tell when someone is in love...their smile, their laugh, everything about them gives evidence that they are absolutely excited and in love. Well, I've been thinking about the concept of being in love with God, the One Who created love and Who is love. It's so incredible to think that He loves us SO much that we cannot even begin to comprehend what God's love really is and means because we are finite and He is infinite. And He wants us to love like He loves and love Him more than anything. That totally makes sense because He loves us more than anything and knows everything--EVERYTHING--about us and still chooses to love us and sent His Son to die for us. But yet sometimes, or rather, oftentimes, after salvation and the excitement of the loved for the Lover who died for us and rose again to give us eternal life, we forget what that love looks like and that excitement and that fully surrendered life to Him for His glory. Where's the excitement? Our excitement needs to look just like we are in love with Him. To say: "Hey! Look! This is my Savior!! MY GOD!! He created everything and He loves me!!! See? That's my God right there! Don't you want to know Him, too? He'll change your life and make it better than anything you could even begin to imagine! His love is better than life!!!" Just some thoughts for everyone, though this is very short, but the greatest commandment according to Jesus is this from Matthew 22:37-40: ". . .Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang the law and prophets."

God's Handiwork in West Virginia

Check out God's handiwork in West Virginia.
Worship Him today.
Isaiah 53:5

P.S.

Wow, God's really been working in my life this weekend! I went to do my devotion today, and it was on the topic of none other than fellowship and what I wrote about yesterday. Go to www.newlifecamp.com and click on high school devotions and go to September 13th to check it out! :-) Have a great week!

Fellowship

Hi ya'll! Sorry it's been so long since we've put out a post.
This Labor Day weekend I had been thinking a lot about fellowship with believers, since I spent the weekend with some of my best friends. I realized that I can go to church, socialize, and not fellowship. Fellowship is when you meet together to worship Christ. When that happens, you don't have to worry about socialization - you automatically figure out who's serious about Christ and who's not. So I encourage you to go to church tomorrow with your focus on worship, and I promise you God will put a like-minded person in your path with whom you can worship. I challenge you to not care what others think, and just open your heart for God to use. For the past three years I was too angry, to afraid to open my heart. And only in the past month or so have I learned why God put me here - so that I can openly show that I am not perfect, that I experience pain, so that others around me can identify with me, and learn from what I am learning. I am to be an example even in my suffering - an example of joy, service, and wholehearted love for my Savior, Jesus Christ. Sure, I get laughed at, mocked, and cursed, but if I continue to make myself vulnerable, God will protect me. I know that sounds kind of backwards, and I'll be honest - it's pretty freaky to humble yourself and allow people to see your weaknesses, but they will eventually appreciate you for it. They'll see you as a real person, not some super-spiritual snob. I tried so hard to be an example in my youth group - not getting in trouble, always bringing my Bible to church, not laughing at crude jokes, but it quickly became a source of pride. And my peers resented me for it. God showed me that He made Himself a sacrifice for those who persecuted Him - why should I do any less for He who gave His life for me?
I encourage you to do as Luke 6:28 says: "Bless those who curse you and pray for those who despitefully use you." Open your heart, love those who are hard to love or don't love you, and allow God to use you. Let Him work His wonders through your life. No matter how painfully and humiliating it will be, because it definitely will, just keep loving. Love Him; love them, because He loved you first. Fellowship - find someone to help you and keep you accountable.
Have a great Sunday!

Back To Normal...or is it?

As I type this, I'm wondering how on earth things will ever be the same now that I'm back home. I just finished my tenth and last week of working at camp , and I honestly don't think things can even begin to be the same. So much has changed...I have changed so much and grown so much. Kids like Hunter still leave an imprint on my mind and hold a place in my heart. I had the opportunity to lead three kids to Christ this summer as well as help two others with assurance of their salvation in Jesus Christ. I can never forget them either. To see how Jesus saves is so much better than to know He saves. Knowing is one thing, but actually believing and trusting in it is another thing entirely. That's the difference between knowledge and faith. Faith is acting on that knowledge. Like...I know God loves me, and I know He saved me. But I had to believe He loved me enough to die for me and believe He could save me and then accept it. Simple things like that make me think more than they used to.
Having worked in the kicthen and having cleaned bathrooms for most of the summer also changes you. Now I wonder how fast I can clean a bathroom here at home as opposed to the ones at camp, and whenever I'm eating a meal, I still have the mindset of: "I have to eat quickly so I can get back to the kitchen and start doing dishes." I learned to humble myself and serve others instead of waiting for them to serve me. I discovered I had developed a "work ethic." I don't know how it happened or when, but I do know if I don't have a job to do, I start to feel bored. Before, I didn't mind sitting around with nothing to do. Trust me...it's not me...it's God working through me and changing me so radically I can't even recognize myself in a lot of ways.
Coming back to reality also means feeling the burdens of what goes on outside of camp. Camp for most who worked there or were campers there, is a refuge. God works mightily there...you can feel Him working and see Him working. Now I must remember that I am going to college in less than a week, and I also must work my way through college. That means I have to learn to be very disciplined and balance work, school, and sleep...while at the same time still having fun and putting God first and not forgetting my friends and family back home in the process.
Sometimes reality is no fun. I got slammed with some reality this morning (er...afternoon...I was exhausted.) after waking up and coming into the kitchen to eat breakfast. The problem still plagues my mind. What would you do if you found out that after all the times of reaching out to someone and trying to love them like Christ loves us and giving to help this person out, that they had abused it and used this genorosity to help their drug habit? You still want to help them, but how can you when the person just seems to be using you...the smile on their face when they come to church in the morning is not for you...but for what you can give them?...what would you do? My family is facing this at this very time. I honestly do not know exactly how I would handle it personally. I know that yes, we need to demonstrate love and let Christ shine through us, but the way to approach it is a sensitive issue that can be difficult. I am reminded that we live in a broken world. The people are broken and in need of a Savior. They think drugs or money or possessions or people will keep them satisfied only to find that at the end of their life it brought nothing but emptiness. So what are we doing to help the problem? The virus is sin...the antidote is Jesus. If they don't know what the antidote is then how can they be saved?
Back to normal means living in this world but not being of it. Back to normal means telling others Jesus came to save them regardless of the consequences. Dare to be the difference this world needs. If you just blend in...as the camp theme for the summer was, then "What's the difference?" Where's the change...it's back to normal for us, but it doesn't mean "be normal." It means radically stand out and be a bright light shining in the darkness of the world. This message is for Christians reading this...it's time to face up to the challenge instead of cowering behind your "Christian" label. You call yourself a child of God...please live like it. I don't have the answer to the hard question of how to help the person I mentioned, but I know God does. We have the answers in God's Word...or God has them and hasn't revealed them yet. So trust Him...the hard questions will come, but He's still God and still in control.

How Great Thou Art!!!

As I was riding home from the last night of Vacation Bible School at my church tonight, we were watching the awesome cloud-to-cloud lightning of a thunderstorm that had just passed over us. It was amazing -- you could see the navy sky with glittering stars, and then there was a huge fluffy-white cloud projecting some amazingly sharp lightning. I started thinking about how John Knowles described the stars in his book Indian Summer as not shiny objects in the sky, but holes poked through a dark covering so you could see tiny glimpses of Heaven’s light through them. And that’s what I meditated on… how God was saying, “Hey, look! Look at what I made! Look at how great I am. You’re only getting a tiny glimpse of how awesome I really am, and you’re still in awe of Me!”
I continued to think about how great my God is, and how it’s so awesome that He is indescribable and fathomless… Our God truly is great. So as I was watching the awesome lightning surrounded by a beautiful cloud and numberless stars, I remembered the words to an old hymn that Stuart K. Hine wrote while, coincidentally (or maybe not), he was caught in a barn during a big thunderstorm. “O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works Thy hands have made, I see the stars; I hear the mighty thunder; Thy power throughout the universe displayed! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee: how great Thou art; how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee: how great Thou art; how great Thou art!”
You may not be in a thunderstorm right now. You may be in a drought praying for rain. Either way, look around you, and you will not have to look long before you find God’s glory displayed in His creation. It’s the same way with your life – you may be in a spiritual, emotional, physical, mental, whatever kind of storm. You may be at peace. But no matter what you’re going through, look for God’s glory, and praise Him for His work.
Have a great weekend! I’m praying for everyone who reads this – that means YOU!

Do you get it?

Today I have a story to tell. This summer I've been working at a Christian camp about thirty minutes from where I live. This week was my fourth week there, and it was their first middle school week. Anyway, last week I was a counselor for teen week, which was amazing. But, that's not what I want to talk about now. This week I was on service staff like I will be for pretty much the rest of the summer. Basically, I wash lots of dishes, clean those lovely "washsheds" as they're called, help teach a Bible class, and a bunch of other stuff as well. So I was thinking this week of how much I really missed being a counselor after last week, but also how much I love my job here. It's like a dream come true. I get to serve others like Jesus did. A good way to describe my job is like this: I clean up after people's messes just like Jesus cleaned up my mess when He came and died on the cross to save me from my sins and an eternal horrific punishment in the lake of fire. He came and cleaned up my life, so why shouldn't I be willing to serve others by cleaning up in a small way compared to how He cleaned me up?

But, I'm not done yet. One of the incredible things about this camp is that they do what's called campfire services on Tuesdays and Thursdays where the kids basically can get up and tell how Jesus saved them and/or share how God has worked in their life since then. And it really is incredible. You must accept the fact that Jesus came to die, and also come back to life to save you from your sins. You must also realize that, yes, you have done wrong according to God's standards...you cannot save yourself. Check out Ephesians 2:8-10 and also Romans 10 and you'll see it's by faith in what Jesus did. Yes, you must be saved. From what? Literally, from yourself. No one has done good according to God's standards (Romans 3:23).

Bringing this back around to the campfire Tuesday night of this week, one kid not only testified to having done this and being saved...saved meaning once you trust in what Jesus Christ did for you and accept it and ask Him to forgive you for your sins...He saves you. "For by grace, you are saved through faith..." (Ephesians 2:8) This kid, named Hunter, who wasn't any older than thirteen, got up there and talked about how much God loves us and how much he realized that God loved him. A middle school kid got up there and wept because of how much God loved him. He was weeping because he just said simply, "Jesus came to die for me because He loved me so much, and that's just amazing." I wish I could remember all that he said, because it was truly astounding coming from the lips of someone not even in high school yet. Hunter got it. Do you get it? He got that Jesus came to die for us for one reason only: Because He loves us that much that He didn't want to live without us. Before the kids got up, another one of the counselors, another service staff member, and I did a song called "How Deep the Father's Love for Us." She and I sang, and my fellow service staffer played his violin to accompany us. This song is one of my favorites. Just singing it this time after having sung it so many others and seeing tears in the eyes of many of the campers and counselors just said it all. His love is sooooo deep and great we can't comprehend it. But it has changed us.

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to Glory

Behold the Man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything--
No gifts, no power, no wisdom,
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death, and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom!

(How Deep the Father's Love for Us
Written by: Stuart Townend)

I hope if it hasn't already happened to you and changed you, that you will "get it" and come to Him. For those of you who are saved and on your way to Heaven, do you get it? Do you get what Hunter got? God loves you SO much. Have you ever really thought about what Christ did for you? How much He went through and had to suffer for your sake? It's incredibly incomprehensible, and we can't wrap our minds around it. But still...don't take it for granted. The Son of God cleaned up your mess. His body was ripped apart by Roman soldiers beating him to a pulp with those cat of nine tails whips. He was not even recognized as human after this...then He had a crown of thorns 2-3 inches long (seriously) slammed into his scalp. The blood was already flowing. Next, He was nailed to a cross by his wrists (they considered this the hand in those days...if it really were what we consider the hand, He would have fallen off.) and feet. This not only caused Him to bleed more, it also pierced nerves in his wrists and ankles. Imagine, as I've heard it described before, someone with pliers taking your nerves and just twisting them. It's an excruciating pain that burns and sears through you. Also on the cross, these guys can't breathe normally. A victim on the cross must lift himself up with is feet (already nailed and causing great pain) just to fill his lungs with air. And it must be repeated until the victim is too exhausted and suffocates to death. Usually that's what happens. But Jesus...Jesus it is said in the King James Version, "gave up the ghost." He didn't suffocate. He gave His life up for us. No one took it from Him. He was willing and undeserving of this death. He's the perfect Son of God. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John clearly show all of this although the Bible doesn't give much of the graphic details of the Crucifixion. It beautifully goes over all of that but at the same time, when you truly think about it and know the facts behind it...you realize, "Wow. I'm the one who did wrong, but yet Christ took all that pain and my sins on Himself. And all because He loved me?" It'll blow your mind...just think about it and let God show you this truth. do you get it?