Josh Harris Sermons

Every day on the way to and from school, I try to listen to sermons. This week I have listened to three really good Josh Harris sermons. I thought I'd pass on the link so everyone else could listen, too!

Radical Selflessness

Courtship Shmourtship (part 1)
Courtship is a Community Project (part 2)


(Find lots of free, downloadable sermons from Josh Harris and the other pastors at Covenant Life Church at www.covlife.org)

GREAT PRAYER RESOURCE

Matthew Henry's Method for Prayer

Back to School

Here is a great article I found from the girltalk blog:

School days are upon us again.

There will be broken pencils and slow computers, late night study-sessions and pop-quizzes, classmate conflicts, “light bulb” moments, and more than a few tears.

And there will be lots and lots of reading.

But there’s something more certain than all the predictable aspects of the school year:

“Surely [not maybe] goodness and mercy shall follow me all [not some] of the days of my life” (Ps. 23:6, emphasis mine).

"With God these qualities are not merely solid and dependable” explains Derek Kidner, “but vigorous--for 'follow' does not mean here to bring up the rear but to pursue.If you are a Christian, goodness and mercy follow you “always” says Charles Spurgeon: “the black days as well as the bright days. Goodness supplies our needs, and mercy blots out our sins.”

Goodness is shadowing us, in the halls of school or the kitchen table at home, to provide all we need—strength, wisdom, perseverance and patience—to help us glorify God.

And Mercy’s right behind, to pick us up when we fall: bringing pardon for our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ.What a promise to take with us into the first day of school--and all the school days thereafter!

Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound!

Story of God's amazing grace at Camp Westminster:

Senior Session. Middle of the week. What does that mean? Exhaustion. Frustration. All the fun is catching up, at least to me. Tuesday night I'm super excited about going to bed, one more thing to do then I can rest my weary body. Bible study. We had just heard a really good sermon on sharing the Gospel with the world. During the middle of Bible study, one of the campers said, "Umm...I don't think I know exactly what the gospel is. Could some one explain it to me?"
Immediately I did not feel tired at all, and started bouncing on my bed raising my hand saying "oh! I can!" After Bible study, all the girls were going to bed and Savanna and I went outside and sat on a rock. I explained the Gospel to her as simply as I could. Savanna is fourteen years old. Plenty old enough to understand and take responsibility for her sins. I could see the point her eyes lit up and she seemed to really understand what I was saying. She asked me to pray for her, and said she wanted to think about all of this. Then, she went to bed, simple as that. Wednesday comes. Worst day of the whole summer. I don't even know why it was so bad. Everything was just annoying and exhausting that day. Supper was two hours late, a little on the burnt side, and mostly gone by the time I got through the line. At supper, I learned I wasn't the only miserable one. Other counselors were having a super bad day too. Finally, we got to Vespers late, but the sermon was great that night. Really refreshing after a bad day. As soon as it ended, I was ready to go straight to bed. Didn't want to talk to anyone or do anything but sleep. When I got back to the cabin, I learned that Savanna realized that she needed to become a Christian. We, along with the two counselors in my cabin went out to the girls bonfire area. We talked for a while about what it meant to be a Christian and about her family life. That night, under the beautiful stars, she committed her life to Christ.
I tried so hard to get girls interested in the Gospel all the days leading up to that one. Nothing ever seemed to work. The one day (/week) I was tired of trying, frustrated, too tired to care was the day God chose to work. It doesn't matter how good we are at sharing the Gospel. It doesn't matter how much we feel like doing Kingdom work. God is sovereign over salvation and can use even the weakest vessels!
The next morning at staff Bible study, I heard an almost identical story from one of the counselors who I had been complaining with the day before! One of her campers came to Jesus the night before as well.
Here are some of the, extremely appropriate, verses we read in bible study that day:

"Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing I desire on earth besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

(selections from Psalm 73)

What GOD Did!

God showed His power in amazing ways--some that I can't even think of words to describe! Here are a FEW examples

God:

• convicted us (me, other staff) through the preaching and teaching of His word and many humbling experiences with campers
• showing us His beautiful creativity through amazing sunrises, sunsets, His creatures, etc...
• filling our hearts with peace through reminding us of His promises through Scripture, songs, a rainbow
• Giving us great joy as we sang great truths at the top of our lungs during Vespers
• Providentially blessing me through relationships with godly brothers and sisters who constantly encourage, build up, convict, and love me
• Provided strength and energy when the heat and exhaustion totally took over
• Carried us through physically and emotionally when we our bodies were done (daily occurance!)
• Rewarded our labors with the joy of hearing kids give testimony at Friday night bonfire as to what they had learned about God
• brought campers to Himself, opening their hearts and saving them (I'll share some specific stories later!)
• restored the health of an ill counselor (I'll share this story later, too!)

Name above all names,

You are Worthy of all praise,

and My heart will sing,

how great,

Is our God!

What I Did

In the first half of summer, I had staff training week and three sessions of camp. At the end of the third session, we had a week off. At the end of that week, all of the staff went back to camp. I went to Honduras. My trip was from July 3-13. My dear friend, Kara, got married on July 11th; it was such a blessing to get to be in Honduras and apart of her beautiful wedding!
As soon as I got back from Honduras, I washed my clothes, then repacked and went to camp the next day. Even though I had a wonderful trip to Honduras, it was really hard to miss one and a half sessions of camp. Going back was great. I was rested and refreshed, and super excited to be back. The sad part was, there was only one and a half sessions of camp left! At the end of camp, we had a staff banquet and bonfire to reflect on the summer and say goodbye. A couple of days after that, Friends of Refugees came to do a camp and use our facilities. Some of the staff stayed for an extra week to help run some activities for them. I had to go home to coach basketball camp for three days, but I did go back for the final days. The day I went back to camp, the staff went out to play broom ball one night. I gracefully managed to get a concussion. That wasn’t much fun, but the worst part was having to sleep and rest while everyone else was out doing camp! I stayed a couple of days, then said my good-byes and came home. Back at home, I once again, unpacked, washed clothes, and then repacked. We left two days after I got home for family vacation in Florida.
Obviously, it was a very busy summer! I’m finally home, unpacked, and getting ready for school to start in a few days!

Where I've Been

Ok, so I obviously have not updated my blog much this summer. I’ll use this post to fill you in on what I’ve actually been doing, where I’ve been.
I spent the summer months (from the end of May to the end of July) working at Camp Westminster in Conyers, GA. Camp Westminster is a Christian summer camp for kids (ages 6 and up). The kids come and stay from a Sunday to Saturday, having lots of opportunities for outdoor activities such as horses, high ropes course, archery, swimming, paintball, etc... The main purpose of Camp Westminster is that “they might see Jesus.” The children participate in bible studies, attend daily Vespers services, and are constantly being pointed to Christ in His creation.
My official role at camp was “wrangler.” It was my job, along with four other wranglers, to daily care for the horses and teach the five activity sessions of horses (basically the kids come every day for an hour and we teach them how to ride). In the evenings and at night, I got to participate in the normal events of camp with my cabin. I personally think wranglers have the most fun at camp, but I’m sure others would argue with that! :-)

Earlier in this year, I began praying about options for my summer. I was looking into working at a Children's Home, or something of that nature. In April, one of my friends contacted me telling me about Camp Westminster. He had worked there last year, and knew that they were desperately in need of a wrangler for the summer. Within a few days I had an interview and within a couple of weeks, I was pulling into camp, ready to start! I was expecting it to be a good summer, but I never could have imagined all that life at camp meant...

I'm back!

Well, I have reached the end (sadly!) of a very busy and super exciting summer. I am currently unpacking (without plans to repack immediately!) and settling back in to life at home. I cannot wait to tell everyone all that God has done and all of the fun that I have had this summer. But, that will have to wait until I put all my clothes away, clean my dusty room, and prepare for the fall semester.

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him." Psalm 28:7

"A missionary is someone who never gets use to the sound of pagan footsteps on their way to a Christless eternity."

I found definition in a book I'm reading (The Missionary Call by David Sills). My prayer is that I will never grow apathetic or deaf to the beat of their footsteps. May the sad steps of unbelievers drive us to share the great love of Christ!

"There is no greater blessing in life than to know that we are right in the middle of the trail that God has marked for our lives and to know that he is providing the strength and endurance to play our part in His plan for the World." -Steve Saint

Obedience

"I may no longer depend on pleasant impulses to bring me before the Lord. I must rather respond to principles I know to be right, whether I feel them to be enjoyable or not." (Jim Elliot)

How great it is to have a stead-fast, unchanging God!

"The fellowship of God is delightful beyond all telling. He communes with His redeemed ones in an easy, uninhibited fellowship that is restful and healing to the soul. He is not sensitive nor selfish nor temperamental. What He is today we shall find Him tomorrow and the next day and the next year. He is not hard to please, though He may be hard to satisfy. He expects of us only what He has Himself first supplied." -A.W. Tozer

"In the midst of change and transformation, we realize that the older we get the more we need somebody bigger than we are to restore what we have lost. In Prince Caspian C.S. Lewis gives us a magnificent illustration of this. Lucy has just come face to face with Aslan:

"Welcome, Child," he said.

"Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger."

"That is because you are older, little one," answered he.

"Not because you are?"

"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."

(Recapture the Wonder, by Ravi Zacharias)

The Wonder of Life

Often times we want to know exactly what will happen in the future--we feel the need to know exactly what will happen in our lives. This worry and fret over the future shows lack of trust in God. He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future. (from the book of Jeremiah) If we really trusted God and completely surrendered everything to Him, would we worry so much about the future?
If we really knew the future, would we be satisified? Knowing what will come could produce fear if we knew the problems and suffering we will face, and it would take away the wonder and joy of life. There would no longer be a wonder and mystery to life.

Christopher Morley wrote a little poem that helps illustrate this point, more eloquently than I could do myself!

I went to the theatre

With the author of a successful play.

He insisted on explaining everything.

Told me what to watch,

The details of direction,

The errors of the property man,

The foibles of the star.

He anticipated all my surprises

And ruined the evening.

Never again!--And mark you,

The greatest Author of all

Made no such mistake!

The Author of our lives keeps things hidden from us. He knows it all--we get the joy of living with the wonder of a child! We know there are good things to come, and can live with excited hope that God will bring them in ways for our good and His glory (if we truly know Him!).

**The book, "Recapture the Wonder" by Ravi Zacharias got me thinking on this...Good read. :)

Outrageous Mercy!

This is a great section of a book I'm reading by William Farley, "Outrageous Mercy: Rediscovering the radical nature of the cross." Be blessed! _________________________________________________
"God’s love is more than a feeling. It is a decision to live for the happiness of another. Some define it as a decision for another’s happiness even at your expense. “Agape love is not primarily an emotion,” writes Paul Billheimer, “but aggressive, benevolent, sacrificial, outgoing goodwill. It is the soul of ethics.” This is how God loves us. He longs for our happiness with all the intensity of divine jealousy and all the power of omnipotence, even while, in our unredeemed state, we are “by nature objects of wrath” (Eph 2:3).

....In summary, the cross displays the glory and wonder of God’s love only to the degree that we see our unworthiness of that love and our inability to give him anything. With all this in mind, J.I Packer wrote:

“It is staggering that God should love sinners; yet it is true. God loves creatures who have become unlovely and (one would have thought) unlovable. There was nothing whatever in the objects of his love to call it forth; nothing in us could attract or prompt it. Love among persons is awakened by something in the beloved, but the love of God is free, spontaneous, unevoked, uncaused. God loves people because he has chosen to love them—as Charles Wesley put it, “he hath loved us, he hath loved us, because he would love” (an echo of Deut. 7:7-8)—and no reason for his love can be given except his own sovereign good pleasure.”"