A Lesson from Buzz Lightyear

Camp Venango for Jesus – July 2011 – Day 4

Good Morning Camper! 

It’s your last day of camp, so read the verse one more time (maybe you have it memorized, and can recite it in your head. If so – Woohoo! Good for you!)

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  John 14:16-17

Do you realize what an awesome God we have? He’s huge – bigger than we can ever imagine – infinitely big.

I am a Toy Story fan and one line in the movie makes me chuckle every time I hear it. Buzz clicks out his wings, stretches his arms, and says, “To infinity and beyond!” Did you laugh? I mean, really, there is no end to infinity, so how is Buzz going to go beyond it? Yeah well, that was before he knew that he was just a toy, a child’s plaything. His realization that he was just a toy was a sad moment in the movie. But when he accepted what he was, he became a better toy (and so much more likeable!).

It’s the same for us. When we realize who and what we are – little people (itsy-bitsy compared to God, as if there is any comparison), and sinners to boot. When we accept our short comings, weaknesses, smallness, and our sins, and acknowledge how great God is – we become better people.

Have you done this? (And it won’t hurt to do it again, today, tomorrow, for the rest of your life.) Thank God for his love and for sending Jesus to die in your place for your sins. Get saved from a life of meaningless toil. Get in touch with the help and power that is in you – the Holy Spirit who is all powerful because he is God.

Then you can live a joy filled powerful life. 

Power. Buzz thought he had great power: a laser beam, a life sustaining helmet, direct contact with Star Command, and the ability to fly. But no, he only had blinking lights and sounds and gimmicks. The best he could do was fall with style. Just like us. In our own power all we can do is light up a very small space on our good days, make some noise, and rarely can we even fall with style. 

But when we put ourselves, the person God made us to be, in His hands, he supplies the power and will use us (YOU and me) for His glory. 

Prayer:

Ah Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

I may have asked you this before, but I come again, knowing you love to have your children call out to you, Abba, Father, Daddy, God. Come into my life fresh and new. And again I thank you and praise you, Father God for all things you’ve created and all things you do, through Jesus your Son, by the Holy Spirit. Amen, amen, amen.

All things from God the Father, through God the Son, by God the Holy Spirit

Camp Venango for Jesus – July 2011 – Day 3

Theme: All things from God the Father, through God the Son, by God the Holy Spirit

Good Morning Camper!

Here’s the verse. Read it again…

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  John 14:16-17

So God made us and gave us everything, and then he sent his Son to die for our sins, and then his Son (Jesus) asks him (GOD) to give us a Counselor, a helper, a Holy Spirit to be with us forever. Think about that. You have the Holy Spirit living in you – something non believers don’t have, can’t have, don’t understand. I mean they just don’t get it. But you, as a follower of Jesus, do!

Romans 5:5 ...God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. The Holy Spirit is sometimes pictured as fire. Can you feel fire burning in your soul? It’s a super fantastic amazing awesome glorious feeling when the fire of heavenly love is burning in your soul! (That’s borrowed from a hymn writer. “…The Holy Spirit came, all glory to His name! The fire of heavenly love is burning in my soul!”

And that's a fire you don't want to put out. In fact, here’s a great goal for the rest of your life: to live as if the Almighty, All powerful God lives in you; because He does if you asked Him to. And if that’s true, that HE lives in you, there will be a noticeable difference in YOU, right? You betcha! 

Isaiah 6:3 tells us that God is holy, holy, holy. Matthew 5:48 says God is perfect. In John 8:12 Jesus calls himself the Light of the world, and in Matthew 5:14 he tells his followers that they are the light of the world. Then, in Acts 2:3,  when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, there were tongues of fire – just like what John the Baptist was talking about when he told the disciples that when Jesus came he would baptize them with the fire of the Holy Spirit!

So, God is holy, Jesus is the light, the Holy Spirit is fire. So there’s your goal. Be perfect like God, full of light like Jesus, and on fire like the Holy Spirit. Any time you feel less than perfect – get more of God in your life! When darkness is overtaking you – get more Light, get more of Jesus in you! If life is dragging you down and you are bored and blah, spark it up! Call on the Holy Spirit, who is with you all the time – and get on fire! 

Hey, it works for me, and it will work for you too.

Prayer:

Dear God,

Come into my heart in a way that makes me long to be like you: holy and perfect, full of light and love, a radiating fire that spreads the Good News. The world needs to know you. The world needs love and light and repentance and a Savior. Stir a fire in me so that I can reach out in love to those who are lost and tell them about you.  I love you God. Amen.

All Things from God the Father, Through God the Son, By God the Holy Spirit

^{Day 2 of Camp Venango for Jesus}

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  John 14:16-17

Good morning Camper!

Jesus is God’s Son. Who knew?

·      The devil knew, and he tried to tempt Jesus to sin (Matthew 4:1-11).

·      The demons knew and they howled and cried out in terror (Luke 8:28).

·      The blind man knew. He called out and was healed (Mark 10:46-52).

·      The thief on the cross knew, and he got to go to paradise with Jesus (Luke 23:42).

The Old Testament told that a savior, the Son of God would come to earth – about a zillion years before it happened. (A zillion years is a huge exaggeration.) The New Testament tells about Jesus birth, life, death, and resurrection. Even history books tell about Jesus. But what’s that to you? Nothing until you meet him heart-to-heart and get to know him. And after that, Jesus means everything to you.

Once you have a relationship with Jesus nothing can stop you! Er, well, nothing but sin. Yep it’s still a bit of a problem. All through the Bible there are lists of sins that we need to keep away from, and I don’t know about you, but that’s hard for me. I am constantly reminded that I can’t do it on my own. John tells us in the Bible that he wrote these things down so we would stop sinning, but – here’s the good part – if we do sin, Jesus, God’s Son will defend us to his Father in heaven. He’ll cover for us when we confess our sins. 1^st John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, He is faithful…and will forgive our sins…” How cool is that? The holy, righteous, good, Jesus goes to bat for us not-so-good and sometimes downright rotten people. (You can read more about it in 1^st John 2:1-11.)

But hold on a minute…I hope you know that believing in Jesus isn’t enough. Remember those demons mentioned above? They believed. Oh yeah, and they still believe, and they shudder. They believe in Jesus, but they don’t honor him or obey him. That’s a problem. You don’t want to be like that. Believe in Jesus with all your heart and obey his commands. John 14:15 (right before our theme verses, John 14:16-17) says, “If you love me you will obey my commandments.”

Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

I know you are the Son of God and I believe in you, but I want to do more than believe. I want to know you and obey you. I’m giving myself to you, because you gave your life for me. Please be the Lord of my life and the King of my world every minute of every day. I love you Jesus. Amen.

All Things from God the Father, Through God the Son, By God the Holy Spirit

Day 1 of Camp Venango for Jesus -- July 2011

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  John 14:16-17

Good morning Camper!

Did you read that scripture verse? Do you understand it? Jesus is saying that he is going to ask his dad, father, GOD to give YOU the Holy Spirit. Wait a minute…who is YOU? I mean, who are you? Yeah, I’m talking to you. But Jesus is talking to his disciples, the guys who followed him around, the people who believed in him.

Are you like one of them – a believer and follower of Jesus? If not, let’s get that taken care of…

Here’s what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

·         #1 Know this – God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. If you want the wonderful life he’s got planned for you read on.

·         #2 God is perfect! But the bad news for you is – you’re not. You are a sinner (sorry to sound judgmental, but it just so happens we’re all sinners. Yeah, me too.) What can you do about that?

·         #3 Face it. Admit it. Be sorry for it. Ask God to forgive you. He is so happy to forgive us when we call out to his son, Jesus, who took the punishment for our sins, and died on the cross. Jesus gave his life for your sins! Tell him you’re sorry – and thank Him for dying for you and your sin.

·         #4 Ask Jesus to come into your life…and…and…I’m not telling the rest. The next part is my story, and it’s so cool. It’s so exciting. But you need your own story. Ask Jesus to come into your life and see what happens.

·         #5 If you do that today – tell a friend, tell a camp counselor, tell someone. If you’ve done that before – ditto – tell someone YOUR story!

So, what is it that comes from God? Oh… just…everything: You, me, the world around us. In the beginning God created everything and He called it all good. You can read about that in the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

God created you, cares for you, and loves you. In fact, he lavishes his love on you. 1 John 3:1
says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” God the Father is a great dad. Can you feel the love? If you know him you’ll know his love.

Prayer:

Dear Father God, Dad in heaven,

How can I thank you enough for sending Jesus to die for my sins and for sending a helper, the Holy Spirit? I’ll thank you by loving you, listening to you, obeying your Word. With your help I’ll do my best. Thank you for loving me even though I’m so far from perfect. I can almost hear you say, “I love you.” You say it through all the beauty you created right here along French Creek, through the people here, friends and counselors. And, Heavenly Father I want to say… I love you back! Amen.

All Things from God the Father, Through God the Son, By God the Holy Spirit

Day 1 of Camp Venango for Jesus

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  John 14:16-17

Good morning Camper!

Did you read that scripture verse? Do you understand it? Jesus is saying that he is going to ask his dad, father, GOD to give YOU the Holy Spirit. Wait a minute…who is YOU? I mean, who are you? Yeah, I’m talking to you. But Jesus is talking to his disciples, the guys who followed him around, the people who believed in him.

Are you like one of them – a believer and follower of Jesus? If not, let’s get that taken care of…

Here’s what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

·         #1 Know this – God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. If you want the wonderful life he’s got planned for you read on.

·         #2 God is perfect! But the bad news for you is – you’re not. You are a sinner (sorry to sound judgmental, but it just so happens we’re all sinners. Yeah, me too.) What can you do about that?

·         #3 Face it. Admit it. Be sorry for it. Ask God to forgive you. He is so happy to forgive us when we call out to his son, Jesus, who took the punishment for our sins, and died on the cross. Jesus gave his life for your sins! Tell him you’re sorry – and thank Him for dying for you and your sin.

·         #4 Ask Jesus to come into your life…and…and…I’m not telling the rest. The next part is my story, and it’s so cool. It’s so exciting. But you need your own story. Ask Jesus to come into your life and see what happens.

·         #5 If you do that today – tell a friend, tell a camp counselor, tell someone. If you’ve done that before – ditto – tell someone YOUR story!

So, what is it that comes from God? Oh… just…everything: You, me, the world around us. In the beginning God created everything and He called it all good. You can read about that in the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

God created you, cares for you, and loves you. In fact, he lavishes his love on you. 1 John 3:1
says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” God the Father is a great dad. Can you feel the love? If you know him you’ll know his love.

Prayer:

Dear Father God, Dad in heaven,

How can I thank you enough for sending Jesus to die for my sins and for sending a helper, the Holy Spirit? I’ll thank you by loving you, listening to you, obeying your Word. With your help I’ll do my best. Thank you for loving me even though I’m so far from perfect. I can almost hear you say, “I love you.” You say it through all the beauty you created right here along French Creek, through the people here, friends and counselors. And, Heavenly Father I want to say… I love you back! Amen.

French Creek

Almost Heaven

Real Life, Real God, Real Hope

That was the theme of our Alliance Women's Retreat this year. The keynote speaker was Shelli Prindle of Hope and Passion Ministry. Shelli is exuberant to say the least, passionate about Jesus and living life to the fullest while anticipating the new heavens and new earth. She is a math and science geek -- facts and figures astound and scripture pours from her lips. No notes, no prompts, just the message God has made her passionate about spewing forth -- along with spit when she'd get really wound up. And what's not to get wound up about when for this...

a Muddled Conscience -- God gives us Immeasurable Mercy
for Mistaken Fears -- God gives us Infinite Power
for a Mundane Existence -- God gives us Indisputable Passion
and for Myopic Vision -- God gives us an Indescribable Heaven

To hear her attempt to describe that indescribable heaven just makes me think...I can't wait to go there. But wait I will. And while I wait, while I endure the difficult things of this world, I'll revel in the amazing things that God has given, from the grass under my feet to the sky and stars above -- all the proof I need of his existence.

How to Write Devotionals for Teens

First, establish your theme. If you've been assigned a theme, make sure you understand that theme. Find out what scripture says about your theme by reading everything pertinent in the Bible in several different versions. You probably don't need this reminder but...for heaven's sake, do not take verses out of context. That would be a very bad example to set for kids.

Then, break your theme into manageable daily bits. Narrow your focus and develop one point per daily devotion.

Devotionals should be kept short, they are not Doctoral dissertations or Masters theses. These readings are generally quick meaningful pieces that include scripture, an anecdote, and an explanation that expounds on the scripture, tying it in with the anecdote. The ending may offer an appropriate quote and a suggested prayer.

Finally, because we're talking about writing for teens, you've got to know kids. Spend time with young people. Know what they love and what they don't like, how they talk, and what and who is hip in their world today. Use that information sparingly; don't over do it. Unless you are still a teenager yourself, don't try to be one. You probably aren't cool enough to pull that off. Just try to speak the language enough to get kids reading. Let them know that you can relate with them on their level without writing down to them. They'll respect you for being a grown up who cares about them and the Word of God.

I would love to take time to give you more tips, but I've got some devotionals to write. Come back later and check on my progress. I'll work my way through my upcoming camp devos right here.