Marching Forth!

God is able to redeem the pain of our lives.  Sometimes pain continues after the healing is over.  Our bodies are designed in an amazing fashion, able to adapt and compensate for injuries.  I have many injuries suffered years ago that I still feel every day. During my years working with youth, I racked up all kinds of injuries.  Matt broke my left thumb with a small basketball during a dodge ball game.  My thumb still works, though it looks deformed and has limited movement.  Jason busted something in my right thumb during a football game.  This one is special because I have to adjust it multiple times a day.  I can get three to four cracks at a single time!  Kevin popped something in my right elbow when we were arm wrestling - and yes, it is sore especially after I pitch.  That was the day I retired completely from arm wrestling, a young man's game!  Brian chipped one of my teeth during a inflatable games jousting match, and I to...

When I was a youth, there was a woman at our church who raised foster children.  Let's say they didn't quite fit in with the "churched" kids:  they had tattoos, smoked, and hung out behind the church in the dark.  There were parents who felt very uncomfortable about their lifestyle, that those teens would have an adverse impact upon their children whom they sought to protect from "worldly" influences.  It seemed like many would have been glad for them not to be at church.  I may have been relatively sheltered growing up, but I never understood this view.  Didn't these tattooed smokers need Jesus too? I knew these kids smoked, but that didn't mean I was forced to put a cigarette to my lips.  Listening to the complaints of some parents it would seem their kids would have no choice but conform under such peer-pressure.  I wonder:  was the God they served able to save them from the mouths of lions?  Could their God open the eyes of the bli...

During the high school summer camp, Zach Vestnys, lead pastor from Calvary Chapel Petaluma, talked much about the cost of following Jesus Christ. He explained that if your relationship with Christ has cost you nothing, it is likely worth nothing. There were four questions given to us for a group discussion and I found them thought provoking and a profitable challenge: What has the cost of your Christianity been thus far? What price is God calling you to pay to pursue Him in a deeper relationship? In what ways has your life shown evidence of spiritual transformation? What trials have you gone through that God has used to change you? I challenge you to honestly seek God for the answers of these questions. All men have been created for the glory of God and we naturally cannot obtain this purpose through self-effort or any means through our flesh. Perhaps you fall short of your purpose because you are not willing to pay the price that God demands: denying yourself, taking up your...

One of the things that I always make expressly clear before I take the High School group to camp is that "camp love" is not tolerated. "Camp love" occurs when guys or girls from our group become infatuated with kids from other groups and this mirage tends to distract and detract from what God wants to do and say. Most if not all "camp love" experiences end with disillusionment, sadness, and broken hearts when faced with the reality of how distance taxes a relationship. The euphoria of this kind of physical love is only overshadowed by the heartache of shattered hopes. There are few things as fulfilling to have kids put aside their idols and routines to spend a week seeking God. The kids are always amazed at how God speaks to them at camp! It is interesting that many become preoccupied as early as the day of arrival that they will have to leave and face difficulties at home and manifold temptations. God is not only found at camp, however: the differe...