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.