Canada

Middle of my trip and I don't think I have been so wiped out in my life. The first week went all right, I had a few old campers and at the end one of my campers came to know Christ. The second week was full of struggles. It started with my toiletries bag going missing and my bottle of wellness (if you dont know what that is it is this terrible tasting stuff that helps your immune system) being dumped and my stuff picked through thankfully nothing else went missing and I got my toiletries bag back. Wednesday evening at the beginning of chapel the camp directors pulled all the cabin leaders into the dining hall and told us that the washroom (aka bathroom) had been messed up by a couple of campers and they did not know who had done it so we had to clean up the poop covered bathroom. While I was scrubbing down one of the toilets I started thinking about well everything and I started laughing because more or less that is exactly what happens when Christ comes and cleans the crap out of our lives (literally). The following evening I got the opportunity to talk to one of my campers and she opened up a lot to me (pray for her). Then we settled into bed with a thunderstorm going on outside. I had thought about telling a scary story, but chickened out because I'm a wimp when it comes to that sort of stuff and the thunder was not helping. Right about the time we were falling asleep another counselor came to our cabin and asked to talk to one of the counselors so I went out and she told me that there were tornado warnings and if we heard the bell we would have to make a run for the basement. Kind of freaky. Oh well.

The stuff that holds us together

So today I was watching two different sermons by Louie Gigilio, Indescribable and How Great is our God. If you have not watched them I would encourage you to do so, they are on youtube.com. I warn you it is humbling stuff to think about. Anyways in the middle of the How Great is our God sermon he starts talking about laminin. If you don't know what it is, it is more less the stuff that holds you together. He shows an image of it, and it is the perfect shape of the cross. It's so true though if you think about it the stuff that holds us (those who have put their trust in Christ) together when it seems like life is falling apart. Go watch the videos then marvel at the indescribably great God we serve.

Missions

Matthew 28:19 says to go into all the world and teach the nations. He did not say, "I call you to be a missionary." No He said it to everyone. I was reading on the new this morning that the death toll in China is about 3000, Haiti was in the hundreds of thousands. I can guarantee (that took 4 tries to spell correctly, Mrs. Morris) you that not everyone who died this past year was Christian. Why aren't we being effective, why are we sitting back, twiddling our thumbs thinking, "well maybe tomorrow..." James warns about boasting about tomorrow, as does Proverbs 27:1. The time is now not tomorrow. You don't know what could happen tonight or tomorrow. If you were to die tonight whose fault is it that your unsaved friends do not know about Christ. Maybe you are reading this and thinking, "well I don't have any unsaved friends." Ha! well it sounds like a good idea to go out and make some friends. A few months ago I didn't have any unsaved friends. Guess what I prayed and now I am now working with more unsaved people then I could count. Many of whom are now friends. James 2 states that faith without works is dead. If you claim that Christ changed your life you should be out there proving it.

Freeing captives and light

Has God done a miraculous work and freed you from something? Anything from addiction to depression? If you have seen God work and got you past a "mountain" that was hindering you from God and you have been set free, have you since worked to set other captives free. Whether we admit it or not we have all struggled with some kind of bondage or we are still struggling with bondage, but if we have been set free it only makes sense to go out and set others free by taking Christ to them.

To switch gears a little bit, I was reading in Matthew 5 right after the "blessed be's" (beatitudes) where Jesus talks about us being salt and light. It says that a city on a hill cannot be hidden. When we accept Christ we should be letting his light shine through us and others should see it. The term closet Christian should be an oxymoron. We should be willing to go up on a high hill and let our lights shine. In the words of that church song we all were forced to sing at some point, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine."

Combine the two, let God work, and watch as "mountains are moved"

Freedom?

I need to know this is semi new for me. Has anyone else been quieted for saying something about Christ? At work I was having a jolly good time working the grill and talking with my coworkers which is fine as long as we stay busy. About two weeks ago I was conversing with my coworker who asked about some things in Christianity. I started talking and my boss told me to leave Christ out of McDonalds. I like to work lobby when I am tired because it requires little to no thought, but on a normal day I really don't mind the grill or fryer or whatever because I am something close to conscious. At first the thing with my manager didn't seem like much, but as of late I have discovered that I am working lobby almost everyday, while I dont mind much, I wonder if there is a reason behind it. After all only one person works lobby at a time and there is little to no chance to come in contact with my coworkers. Furthermore, I figured that Christ was not spoken of because it might 'offend' someone, but my coworkers can speak with freedom about drugs, alcohol, sex, and who they screwed over recently with language filthier than the bathrooms I had to clean. Of course when I say something they say either I am being intolerant or else attribute it solely to "religion".

Oh lots of stuff really

Ever gone through one of those periods of time where you just can't seem to explain why you are down? Ever felt so spiritually disconnected you just can't do anything right? Well that is more or less what I just went through. Anyways after starting work on Wed. I came to the realization of a few things.
First: I really don't have time for a spiritual disconnect. I am working at a place were there are few if any people who know Christ. That's my missionary field right now.
Second: If love and living a Christian life were totally dependent on feelings well we'd be a bunch of lousy Christians. Yesterday evening I just asked myself, "if i were totally connected and passionate about God right now, what would I be doing differently." and attempted to fix the issues, not such an easy task.

Now then if you are going through one of those rough spots, ask yourself what you would do differently if in fact you were totally on fire for God and what you can change. Then pray for it.

Classical Craze

After discovering that the first five pages of "Twilight" are written at a 4.2 grade level I decided that that for the next year I am going to read only classic books. This may be crazy for a student who is still in high school (only 2 months left though), but I want to see if it makes a difference. I still can't believe that... 4.2, that means that if required to write at grade level all 5th graders could undoubtedly come up with better. I regret to say that I actually was obsessed with the series a couple years ago.