First of all, I'm sorry I didn't get this out until today. I tried to update my blog regularly from Bass Lake but the slow internet connection on my phone wasn't always the most reliable. Now, that I'm sitting outside of Starbucks using free wifi, here it is.
Friday night, we looked at the topic of being true children of God. John 1:12,13 tells us that not everyone who is created by God is a child of God. I know that this isn't a popular thought today but it's true. John tells us that those who receive and believe are given the right to be children of God. Then we switched over to John's first epistle where he refers to Christians as "little children" of God. I asked the students: have you settled for a "relationship with God" that is void of any true relationship with Christ? It is so freeing to grasp and hold on to the truth that we truly are children of God. The intimacy that is offered to us by God through Christ to be his kids liberates us from condemnation, for it is then that we truly embrace that we are loved by God as a father loves a child.
Two students on Friday night admitted that they were wanting true intimacy with Christ instead of settling for what so many people settle for. Oh how I pray that if you're reading this, that you too never settle for the religion of Christianity that is void of the intimacy that Christ paid for us to enjoy with him, because in reality, a Christianity without Christ is a false religion like every other one out there.
Saturday after lunch I had the privilege of baptizing two of our high schoolers in the waters of Bass Lake. This truly is the highlight of Bass Lake every year for me. One of them was a young man who surrendered to Christ at our Wednesday night worship service about three months ago. The other was a young lady who was making it a re-commitment baptism, stating that when she was first baptized that she didn't really understand what she was doing, but now that she has a better grasp of the call to be a true follower/disciple of Christ, she wanted to be baptized. It was AWESOME!!! I never get used to that.
Saturday we looked at our call to be on ONE mission for Christ. Our vision in the next generation ministry at PFB is this: to exalt Jesus as the greatest, one life at a time. How do we know when we are fulfilling this? When everyone in our ministry is worshipping God daily through a life of mission. I challenged them to continue striving to create true community with each other when we get back while we strive to fill the worship center on Wednesday nights with 2,000 next generation worshippers who are truly making a difference for Christ's kingdom on a daily basis.
Thank you for praying for us all week. The students are on their way back to the church while I am on my way to Santa Cruz, CA to speak to about 200 junior high students at Mt. Hermon. Please pray for the students' safety as they travel home from Bass, for the Holy Spirit to continue the unifying work that he began at Bass Lake, and to anoint me for his service at Mt. Hermon this week. Thank you so much.
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