north florida jr. high camp

This past week (July 18-22nd), I had the opportunity to head on down to Tifton, Georgia to be a part of an amazing week of camp with the North Florida District Jr. High Camp for the Church of the Nazarene.  The entire experience from A to Z was absolutely amazing.  I wasn't too thrilled about going there in the first place, but I am glad that I did.  God's Spirit definitely worked and moved in the lives of students and adults.  My heart hurt for students who were not aloud to attend camp because of the incredible experience that they missed out on.

Here is what I spoke about:

Monday:  As people, we must come before God being real, honest, and with humble and confessional hearts... No masks, no pretending to be someone else. The text focused in Matthew 3 with John the Baptist preparing the people for their encounter with Jesus.  At the end of the service, students were invited to take a piece of yarn and tie it around their wrist as a reminder of the call to humility and to be real before God.  It was a great start to the week and helped to 'set the table' for the remainder of the week.

Tuesday:  Looking mostly in Matthew 5 and 6, the way of Jesus is backwards when compared to our current culture.  The Kingdom of God is the way of the servant, the way of the towel and basin, and the way of the cross.  The most amazing part is that we have been invited by God to be co-workers in helping to bring about God's Kingdom to our world.  Again, a great morning and night looking at God's Word.

Wednesday: If we are to be God's co-workers, something else must happen first... God desires to take up residence in our hearts and begin to clean us from the inside out.  We looked at several gospel texts that addressed heart issues.  By the end of the service, several teens welcomed and embraced Christ into their lives for the first time while several other believers stood up and expressed a desire for God to continue to do a cleansing work in their heart.  We looked at the importance of a prayer like Psalm 139:23-24 that petitions God to continue to expose the sin in our hearts and lives and to lead us in the way of Jesus.  Again, an incredible night of responding to God's calling on our lives.

Thursday: As God's people, we don't sit back and simply enjoy the blessings of the cross and resurrection.  We are called to be a people who go out into the world sharing the message, story, and hope that we have in Christ.  As individuals and as a Church, we are called to be living portraits of Christ.  While many people use words like 'hypocritical,' and 'judgmental,' may we be people who love and serve with humble hearts and live out what we say we believe.  At the end of the evening, students were invited to take a small rag with them as a symbol of their call to be servants.  We also partook in the Lord's Supper together.  Incredible evening.

Friday: We gathered just before leaving to remind us of three essential truths: 1. May our faith never rise and fall based on the emotions we feel... emotions can come and go. 2.  The only way we can live for Christ is by staying connected to a local church... we are created to be in community, worship together, encourage each other, rebuke each other, etc. 3.  May we incorporate a daily rhythm of prayer and scripture into our lives so we may establish deep roots and daily roots in Christ.

Each morning we also had services as well.  The morning services looked at the previous nights message and expanded on it while also incorporating a time of prayer that was appropriate to the message... Maybe I will add those services when I have more time than I do right now :-)

I was and still am so humbled that God uses unworthy instruments to do the Lord's work.