Saturday is Coming...

As I mentioned yesterday, I just got back speaking from a camp last week. Dream come true and I hope it doesn't stop with one experience at Covenant Heights.

One of the things that we talked about was passion and how to keep it coming. Since I knew ahead of time that this would be around a campfire I decided to use the fire as my prop. So I talked about how passion is more than an emotion and we can decide what our passion looks like. Often, at camp, we can use emotions to fuel our passion, but this does not last long. After saying this I poured some lighter fluid on the fire and said this was camp. Then I said, Saturday is coming and it looks like this - and that's when the flame died down quickly.

All week long I said Saturday was coming and unless we started putting logs in our fire, (i.e. Bible reading, prayer, consistency in church/youth group/missions/sharing the Gospel with others/etc) then our flame would die out. I talked about this all week in fact - that Saturday was coming.

Well, my Saturday hit me on Friday night. I experienced a very quick letdown and I even faced what seemed to be this rapid depression over the weekend. Saturday always comes...

Be ready for Saturday. Prepare for Saturday. It always sneaks up on us when we aren't ready...

Camp

Last week I had the privilege to speak at Covenant Heights Camp in Estes Park, CO. I have always, since age 13 or so, wanted to speak at a camp but never thought I would have the opportunity. Those speakers were so polished and good, well some not so good, that I didn't think I would ever be in that class. I still don't know that I am but I never thought I'd get the chance at 28 to do a camp. It was amazing!!

If you have never had the opportunity to go to camp as a speaker then you are missing out! Open and flexible schedule every day! Hang out with the campers...when you want to! And then lead campers (7-10th grade in my case) to connect with God in a real and powerful way!

When asked to speak, as random as it was, I knew that a huge part of the camp experience is the music/band. So I asked some friends of mine, the worship band Sanctified, if they wanted to join the adventure and they graciously said yes. They were PHENOMENAL!! Like me it was their first camp as well. We saw God do some amazing things. We saw some campers do some amazing things! And we saw a counselor live out the gospel in the most real and relevant way imaginable!

If nothing else, this experience has renewed my desire for youth ministry, really ministry in general. It reminded me of God's call on my life. It also gave me the opportunity to speak, for real, for the first time in over two years! This experience even made me start thinking about doing more camps and how I might need to let that be known - so it's now written on a blog for the world to see, even though I am fairly confident that no one will read it.

Wow. Over a year. Wow. In any of my past posts did I mention anything about struggling with consistency?

Anyway, I have some great reasons for not blogging for over a year, but now feel that it is time to start it up again.

I've learned a lot in the past year. I learned more about my struggles in life. I've also learned, as much as I wish it wasn't true, that coffee = inspiration for me. I have learned that I know what I love and I love what God has called me to do. And also, that depression comes when I sit around and watch a lot of TV and play a lot of video games (a.k.a. NCAA Football 12 - such a wonderful game)

I have some great things to talk about and so I will do my best to start with those. None of the least would be lessons learned/ing from the Bible, life, coaching, mentorship, and God. If you happen to stumble across this blogsite I hope you are encouraged and continue to read. In fact, give it to a few friends. I definitely write these things for myself, but it so encouraging to know that others are reading as well.

Bible Reading Struggles

My New Year's Resolution is to read the Bible this year. See, I really struggle with daily discipline. Such as exercise, which is why my gut exists, eating habits, personal hygiene, bad joke telling, and my daily devotions/"quiet time." So I decided that this year I would make it a point to read through the Bible. Honestly, I don't even care if I don't get anything out of it. I just want to get in the habit. This was all fine and dandy until I became unemployed and began doing nothing with life. Strangely, when I had the most time to read my Bible, I didn't read it at all - for a month and a half.

So being weeks behind and I have to catch up. This basically means reading Exodus through Numbers in just a few weeks and I've always loved reading about Moses and things he went through. This makes you just lucky enough to get to read some of the things that I think about Moses and lessons we can learn from him. So starting tomorrow will be a mini-series on Moses.

seeking you as a precious zune

If you haven't read yesterday's post make sure you scroll down and read that first so this can make a little more sense to you.

In rewriting a few of these lyrics, let me explain the significance to me anyway.

"You are my strength when I a weak"

God is my strength. In the past I have been beaten down, pushed around, trampled on, and nearly destroyed both emotionally and spiritually. My strengths were stolen and I was left with nothing but weakness. But God was always there for me to lean on. Despite all I've gone through (or what any of you have gone through) God is always there to keep us from completely collapsing. Thank you God for being my strength.

"You are the refuge that I seek"

Similar thought as above. The Bible says that God is our refuge. In the OT certain cities were even set up as refuge cities so that if you needed to get away from accusers, attackers, etc. you could flee to these cities to seek refuge and the city would protect you. God will protect. Crazy thought here - God will protect you even if you are guilty. Welcome to the grace and love that He uses to protect us.

"Seeking You as a precious Zune"

This is the good one. If you aren't familiar a Zune is an mp3 player just like an ipod. I use a Zune because I just kinda like it better. Anyway, weeks ago I lost my Zune and I went CRAZY trying to find it! I searched every inch of my car, every inch of my apartment (except the one inch where I ended up find it a month later.) A few minutes into my search the Holy Spirit "gently" nudged me and reminded of the parable Jesus tells about seeking a treasure. He would do anything to get this treasure. Well, my treasure was my Zune because I listen to music EVERYWHERE that I go. As I frantically went through everything that I own God told me I was to seek Him in the same way.

Now, my desire is to seek God with the same intensity but I'm finding that often times, He doesn't mean as much to me as my Zune did that day.

my all in all

I was just kinda hangin with God a bit when He reminded me of an old school song (at least old school for me) called All in All. Here are the verses to that song.

You are my strength when I am weak

You are the portion (treasure? I can't remember) that I seek

You are my all in all

Seeking you as a precious jewel

Lord to give up I'd be a fool

You are my all in all

Jesus, Lamb of God

Worthy is Your name

Jesus, Lamb of God

Worthy is Your name

Good song, good lyrics. But I can make em better!

You are my strength when I am weak

You are the refuge that I seek

Seeking you as a precious Zune

Lord to give up I'd be a fool.

Stop in tomorrow to read the method to my madness behind these lyric changes

Lessons to Learn from Moses pt 1

In my Bible reading I have been reading quite a bit about Moses lately. Truth is, he is one of my favorite biblical characters because of the all of the leadership dealings he had. For one to lead over a million complainers into the desert for 40 years, one is going to have to know something about leadership and certainly learn a lot about leadership. Periodically, I'm gonna go ahead and share some of the important leadership lessons that I learn from Moses. This is the first one.

Intimacy

In Exodus 34 Moses is coming down from Mount Sinai. As he descended from the summit Aaron and others noticed that his face was shining. Moses was literally radiant from his time with God. He was shining so brightly and frequently that Moses had to wear a veil over himself so others could look at him and be around him. Moses would continue to spend time with God and he would continue to send off light from his body. So what can we learn about this? An important step in leadership is intimacy with God.

If we do not spend time with God then let's not bother leading. This is when pastors/leaders/businessmen, etc. run into their first problems: they begin to rely on themselves. We must know God's will and plan and submit ourselves to him. Our thoughts, our actions, our lives, and our time must be devoted to God.

I don't know about you but more than anything, I want to be intimate with God. That starts by simply spending time with Him.