Great Commission Camps

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I love this movie quote

"I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." -Eric Liddell

This quote from the movie "Chariots of Fire" always lifts my heart.

From Art Helping People See God

When I was looking for the little story I posted with Seth's little drawing I "Goodsearched" my way to a great blog posting on art. It was very good reading so I decided to make a link to it as well as post one quote that stood out.

The stakes are high, but art that illuminates the path to God is essential in a polluted age where souls are gasping for the fresh spiritual air. So I end with Annie Dillard advising writers. “Assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?”

Follow link to Dick Staub's Art Helping People See God article by clicking here.

God illustrated

This picture drawn by Seth reminds me of the following little story...

A kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s artwork. As she came to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.” The teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.” Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, “They will in a minute.”

Word of the Day

"It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity." -Frederic D. Huntington

"For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" Philippians 3:18-20

A couple cute stories

Selah

The other day I was telling Selah that she was really beautiful. I told her, "Selah, I think God is making you more beautiful and beautiful each day." She smiled her little shy smile and I continued, "I think that the most important thing though is for God to make you more beautiful on the inside, with gentleness, and kindness. That's what I mean about God making you beautiful on the inside" Selah interrupts me and says, "Yes but not on the backside"

Seth

I am trying to trick Seth around the kitchen table by asking him, "Seth how many monkeys did Moses take in the ark." He looks at me with a quizzical look on his face. "What do you mean Mami? Do you mean to say Noah?" "Ahh, Seth I was trying to trick you, but you are a smarty pants :)"

When a t-shirt is all wrong

I remember walking in the cafeteria in Jr. High and reading a t-shirt that aid "Life is a playground and the person with the biggest toys wins"

I hope the young boy wearing that shirt has figured out that the message on his old t-shirt is absolutely wrong.

1st. Life is not a play ground

A message I heard on the radio not long ago has stuck with me. The preacher said that many times we live and expect our life to be like a playground while in all reality this world is more like a war-zone.

The Bible remids us to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-18). It also says "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (I Peter 5:8).

I think in all reality if we were able to see the spiritual dimension of our world we would see the battlefield. Ephesians 6:12 reads "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Yesterday as I was sitting across a young girl at the pregnancy center she was sharing very personal things from her life. This young 18 year old girl has already been through so much. My heart ached for her. I saw her hurts, her wounds. We see pictures and hear stories of our soldiers who are wounded in battled some returning home maimed and broken. As I sat there listening, through my spiritual eyes I could have seen a young mamied and broken girl but through it all, I saw a young girl whom God has been drawing to Himself to heal her from her wounds.

"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

Praise God that in Jesus we can find healing and so much more.

Now, although I know that I have been healed from the wounds I have received from the enemy, from living in a sinful world, and just from following my sinful desires I still bear the scars. Some scars are small and some scars run deep like the scars of Frodo Baggins on Lord of the Rings.

Aside from our life not being a playground, a person with the most toys wins what?

Mark 8:36 clearly states that there is more to life than the stuff of this world when it says, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"

Therefore, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will" (Romans 12:2).