At the beginning of the week we gave each student a white strip of sheet as a reminder of God’s story and a physical symbol of wanting to live within his story (based on a text in Deuteronomy where the people of God are encouraged to tie the words of God on their wrists, etch them into their door frames…). Then we talked about how we bear the image of God - and a large white sheet what placed out - and our small strips represent that we carry the imago dei with us. The night of the conflict these strips have gotten a little dirty due to wearing them through activities. That night we talked about the conflict between God and us - essentially we resist and rebel against the Creator God who longs for relationship with us. We went through the ten commandments and marked how each person has been doing keeping up with God. Each mark represents struggles.

They have had over 24 hours to process the conflict - with the sin in our life, how will we return back to God’s story - relationship with Him. Some of the students struggled with this. We processed as a group, how are we going to resolve the conflict. Answers ranged from across the board: “try harder not to sin,” “God will forgive us,” and more.

Why should God forgive us? How should he respond? He has provided so much and it pleases Him to be our Father and care taker…and we, in our sin, reveal that we think we can do it better.

And so God, in response to the sin/conflict in our life, sent His Son. He came into the world loving sinners and people far from God, he healed the sick, brought life to the dead…and how did they respond? They killed him. How do we respond to Jesus? Our sin reveals that we killed him.

And so while we were sinners, hostile to God, filled with mercy God sent Jesus to offer a way back into God’s story. But, this way back means we would have to face the cross straight on. The cross reveals two things. 1) The Cross reveals the horror of our sin. That the only way our sinfulness could be dealt with was for Jesus to take it upon himself with the torment of the cross. This should break our hearts - our self-centeredness and the death that it caused to God’s own Son should lead to repentance. 2) The cross reveals the unstoppable love of our Father in heaven…that we should have been left out of His story to our own wicked ends…but instead, God put into place a rescue mission to offer a chance to come back to Him.

So, we invited the students, if they have been trying to save themselves, try harder, work out their own salvation or just expect that God would forgive them because he forgives everyone to meet Jesus at the cross - perhaps for the first time. All that was asked was that they place their dirty strips on the cross as a symbol of what their sin cost Jesus and then take communion as a declaration that Jesus is the turning point, the nourishment, the climax of my life.

Then we sang our hearts out to Jesus for being our Marvelous Light, Our King and Savior.

Oh Happy Day!

Whew!

These last 36 hours have felt like three days. The students arrived and it has been non stop ever since. It is so amazing my capacity to forget what Camp is like…or I am just getting old and unable to keep up…no comments about that please =).

So, the theme of camp is “story” and we are talking about the story of God. The first night we looked at story and how most of our life is filled with stories. We watch them on screens and televisions. We listen to them within a song. We read them in books (ok, so not very many students read for fun these days - accept the Harry Potter Books). When we meet people, it is their “story” we are trying to understand: where did you come from, what do you like…etc. God has a story, too. Each good story has elements within it: Plot-Conflict-Climax-Resolution. These are the general titles of our sessions from here on out. And so many people just have a few snippets of the story and assume they know His story…or live confused, apathetic, or in-and-out of God’s story.  So, this week at camp, we are asking God and taking time to step inside of His story - and understand the Plot-Conflict-Climax-Resolution. Because when you understand His story it dramatically changes the way you live yours.

Day 2 started with a morning session - Plot: the “fence” of the story that contains the main idea, characters, and the intended goal. We introduced the three movies we will be using to help us understand these elements. In God’s story - we visited Genesis 1. We read about a Creator, a provider, and someone who uniquely created us in His Image (Imago Dei).  Our culture is always telling us that we need to look prettier, better clothing, insisting that we change our features to replicate the impossible. When we begin to understand Imago Dei and God’s story - when we look in the mirror and say “I hate X about me” in a sense we are saying to God “I don’t like the story you have written”. So, step one into God’s story is understanding that He created us (Psalm 139), that everything he creates is intended for good, and that He loves to provide and care for us.

Day 2p.m. we talked about Conflict. We looked at Genesis 3…where sin enters God’s story. We talked about how God created us and loves us so much - that he intended us for much good. But, we reject His story and set out to write our own. We looked at the 10 commandments and took a personal inventory of how we were doing…and no one made it out innocent…because no one is. When we reject God’s story, that means we have selected separation from God as our modus operandi. We cannot just say, “Oh, I love God” and assume he will just forget about the way we live. Sin=Conflict with God and His story. It puts us at odds with Him and ultimately leads to an eternity without Him.  And so last night the room was “intense” and filled with tension as they left trying to answer the question: how will we get back into His story?

…to be continued

Oswald Chambers wrote:

Total Surrender
Mark 10:28 says, “Peter began to say to Him, ‘See we have left all and followed You’ ”

Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is “for My sake and the gospel’s.” (v. 29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, “I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.” Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being made right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all.

We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ‘This is what God has done for me.’ ” Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.

That was from my friend Mike.

Dirt. Seed. Rain. Sun. Growth.

Man or not - dirt is. seeds drop. rain falls. sun shines. and LIFE emerges.

It is raining outside today. As I look at the grass, it seems greener. God’s process for growth has existed since the start of time. In Matthew, Jesus uses the story of a seed to describe how God changes, forms, grows a spiritual human heart.

Heart=Dirt. Seed=Bible. Rain/Sun=Environment. God=Gardener.

How willing are we to trust the Gardener? Do we allow the Gardener the permission to work in our heart?

How receptive are we to the seed? How do we invite the teaching of the Bible into our heart?

How hard do we try and control what only God can do?

God, as a Father who loves us, and a Gardener who can create life out of a dark, dirty heart - break through the hardness of my heart. Push the truth and teachings of the Bible deep within my heart so that as the sun shines and even when the rains and storms come - LIFE/Growth will emerge out of me. I want you to be the Gardener - taking dirt and bringing it to life.

WE ARE THE CHURCH IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Within the last six months my wife and I have readjusted our lives with a new mission to our simple south Toledo neighborhood. I was at a conference before then where some comments were made about living “missionally”. It is a popular buzz word in churches these days - but, the truth of it has changed something in our lives.It is easy to say I care about lost people. It has been easy to pat myself on the back for inviting my neighbors every year to our big services (Christmas, Easter, etc) and think - I am doing my part to “reach the lost”. The reality is - I don’t know many of them. The truth is I am doing little -if anything- to engage them. Living missionally simply means that I see my neighborhood as a place where Jesus wants to reign, be worshiped, and heal human hearts just as much as he does in our auditorium on Sunday morning. In fact, the timing of this rescue seldom takes place on Sunday morning and doesn’t fit into a neat little compartment in my life. It is every day, intentionality of loving those right next door.

Now, don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t like a light bulb switched on. This process is still just that - a process. But, the other day, my wife and I organized and threw a block part for our street. We believe it has been around 35 years since any such event has taken place on Bronx Dr. Recently she emailed her team about the event…I will let you read it for yourself.

My husband (Ben) and I have lived in our home in South Toledo for about 4 1/2 years. Day after day we drive past the same people, sometimes with a wave, but often without so much as a glance. We finally decided that something had to be done, so we threw a block party! We barricaded the street, pulled out a grill, passed out some fliers, and about 40 people actually came! We discovered that many of our neighbors are single-parent households, many are older individuals who can’t get around well, and as far as we could tell, few have a relationship with Jesus. We spent 4 hours eating, playing corn hole, and just connecting with one another. By the time the barricades stopping traffic came down, it was obvious that many barricades that had been preventing relationships with one another had come down as well! Now we have the joy of being able to put names and life stories with faces; we can dream about our next steps in connecting (my daughter, Lydia, is working on some “paintings” that we’ll be delivering to single older folks on the street, and I’m even pulling out the mixer to whip up some cookies!); and we can pray specifically for people who need Jesus.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in your life, and not see the people around you who need to know about Jesus. It’s easy to assume that “mission work” takes place in third world countries. It’s easy to forget that we are supposed to start in our “Jerusalem,” our neighborhood, our school, our workplace! Each day God lays multiple opportunities to impact people right in front of us . May we live in such a way that we take advantage of those opportunities!!!

So this is the beginning. We are praying for other missionally minded couples to join us in our humble south side street to be the Church for the people on Bronx Drive.

TEN MONTHS LATER:

On the outside very little has changed. The collective impact here remains to be seen. it is much like the seeds we plant, and wait for life to break through the surface. It doesn’t have quite the thrill or excitement found within increased attendance. However, the redemptive impact need not be diminished. Just like the seed that shows little signs of life at first, so our work here may be doing more than we see on the surface.

We are connected to a neighborhood organization. We know and use local businesses. We are connecting with people from the neighborhood…and we are still praying for people to come and join us =). Lauren attends story time at a local library. I coach at the local school. We have done a food drive for needy families of Burroughs Elementary. Two guys moved in who are huge ND fans - which means we will have to watch games together this fall. And there are a few more people from the creek within walking distance of our house

This next year we are praying that God help us bring the gospel into conversations with our neighbors. We are waiting and searching for more opportunities to serve and love. Hopefully when my Thesis is done, we will begin a LifeGroup specifically for our neighborhood…and we will see who God brings to our home.

What might God want to do in your neighborhood?