Summer - 2010 - High Point Camp

Summer - 2010 - High Point Camp
After being home for a little over a month, and finally having time to digest all that happened this summer, I decided it was about time to summarize the most unforgettable summer of my life.

The summer of 2010 was spent at High Point Camp in the countryside of Pennsylvania.
Before the summer ever began, I had really big expectations of this summer. I envisioned all the big things that God was going to do, and, because we serve a really big God, He made big things happen this summer.
I'm not sure I could ever fully explain everything, and if I could it would take the pages of 5 books, so I will try to summarize.

1 Corinthians 13, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal...and now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
This chapter was the very first chapter listed in the campers books this summer. It was a chapter that I've studied hundreds of times and memorized before, but it was very fitting that God would choose such a chapter to be first in our books. It's the chapter I heard the most from my campers this summer. It's what I heard over and over again in services. It's what I heard from the staff all summer. And it's what I heard from God every day. Over and over and over again, I heard the word, "LOVE."
What is the biggest problem in our day and in our Church? I would argue that it is a lack of Biblical Love. Jesus and the Cross, and ultimately, Love are no longer at the center. We have replaced the most vital of things with facts and knowledge. A vibrant relationship based on love has been somehow replaced by basic facts and knowledge. We have forgotten that Jesus left 2 commands, and those were to love as Jesus loved. We have forgotten the incredible love that Jesus showed while He was on this earth. Even this week I have been struck with the picture of Jesus washing Judas' feet. What would drive the King to do that? Love.

Basically, if there was one really big idea that I learned this summer it was this: Jesus wants me to love and serve like Jesus did every single day. Doing this requires daily dying to myself and dying to my own desires so that I can serve and love like Jesus. Serving and loving like Jesus are the hardest things to do because we are such prideful beings, but doing so actually brings us the greatest measure of joy because it is something totally selfless and something that we do fully for the One in whom we find salvation.

This summer we read a book called "Just Do Something"
I'm going to attempt to summarize what it was about.
Ok.
Basically.
The idea of the book was pretty simple. Alot of us talk about "finding the will of God." We want to "go where He wants us to go." We don't want to "miss" His plan for our lives.
If Jesus wants us to go to Florida we don't want to go to Idaho.
But the book basically claims that this is dumb!
We waste so much time "waiting for the will of God" that we become paralyzed to do anything worthwhile.
Essentially, God has given His will to us in His Word.
Sometimes He does tell us what to do and where to go beforehand, but He is under no obligation to do so and He doesn't do this very often.
He doesn't have to tell us His plans beforehand. We are the creatures, He is the Creator.
We can look back and see His leading, but we usually cannot look forward to see what He wants us to do, unless of course it's something He's already revealed in His Word as His will.
God is most concerned with our sanctification. The question is really not: who should I marry? What job should I get? etc.
the question is....who am I to be? How am I to live? And Jesus tells us all of that in His Word.
The end of the matter is to fear God and keep His commandments...and when we do that...we can do anything we want!
As long as we live for Jesus and love Him with our whole hearts, it doesn't matter what our job is or who we marry or where we live!
We need to stop waiting for the "will of God" and "Just Do something" provided the something lines up with His Word.
So whatever you want to do, if it lines up with Scripture, go do it!

Learning all of that was awesome, and very freeing.
I so often look for perfect fulfillment in EVERY situation that I all too often miss out on so many things.

Ok, here's some quotes from some of the speakers.

"Every problem can be traced back to a poor view of God."
"The most beautiful picture in the Bible is adoption, because that is how we are saved, and it cost so high a price. The same is true in our own lives when we adopt a child."
"The crucifiction literally broke His heart...the blood and water that came pouring out were from His heart..."
"GO HARD."
"Following Christ is death to you and it is pure joy."
"You are God's hero on earth and you are called to storm the gates of hell and take back what is God's."
"and the armor bearer killed them...thousands of grown men fled from 2 small boys."
"Rules stink and relationships rule."
"It's EASY to stand in the middle. The majority lives there and it's not right. It's even easier to stay in the middle and go back to doing whatever you want. It requires NO faith to live in the middle."
"One of your biggest problems is that you live in a ME centered generation. You want EVERYTHING, including religion, to be custom tailored to you."
"It's not by trying to be faithful, but by looking to the Faithful One that I find the victory."

T challenged us every day from Philippians, and that was awesome.
He challenged us to live with the Gospel in focus, to live as one unit. To strive together with one goal and one passion. To live all out for Jesus. To keep giving when it feels like we have nothing left to give. To keep serving when we don't want to. He said that there is NO place for complaining, ever, not even when it's 100 degrees. Complaining is never allowed.

Everything from this summer was a gift from God.
Every victory, every defeat, every hard moment was a gift from the greatest of Givers.
I can never ever say thank You to Jesus enough for this summer.
This summer was something I wouldn't trade for all the money in the world.
The changes in my heart this summer will be with me forever. It's not that I learned anything really new this summer, but it's that God took so much of what I alredy knew and re-enforced it. I saw the Gospel lived out on a day to day basis. For the 7 weeks of camp I saw what it was to live like with Gospel in focus, with Jesus as the center, and that is the way that life is meant to be lived.
Memories of this summer will forever be etched into my brain.
Every crazy meal in the dining hall, every mail call, every service, every cheer, every night in the snack shop, every Friday night basketball game or Kangaroo Court, every game of dodgeball, every walk up the hill to the soccer field or the A-Frames, every morning getting up before campers, begging for the ability to die to myself one more time, every night I had no strength, only to wake up and somehow have energy for another day, every deep conversation, every funny moment, every game, every game of ninja, all the movies we watched, all the drives, all the times getting lost, all of our weekend trips, all the one on one conversations with campers, all of that, will forever be etched in my brain. All of that is what made this summer what it was. I learned that the best days are the days when you spend all of your strength but go to bed content because you are exactly where God wants you.
I learned yet again that my heart is fully set on ministry, and that no matter what I will never be content unless I'm pouring myself into ministry. I also learned that ministry can take many different forms, and ministry is always about people. That's why I can be a missionary in Kansas or Pennsylvania, or Africa, or anywhere, because missions is all about people. The same is true with ministry. You can do ministry wherever God has you.
Everything for the future is coming together just like it should.
My heart is fixed and focused on Jesus.
My passion is ministry and dicipleship.
Love is at the core, love is at the center like it should be.


This summer had alot of hardships, but anything worthwhile is hard. (Out of The Depths by Soverign Grace - Psalm 130) I encountered so many big, difficult problems. There's so much hurt and confusion in the world. But no matter the problem, no matter the size of the wound, no matter how calloused the heart, the solution to everything is the Gospel, the solution is Jesus.
Our goal is counselors and as friends and as brothers and sisters in Christ isn't to try to give a few verses to "fix" a problem, our goal is to share Jesus with people. Our goal is to share the Gospel with people because it is Jesus that changes a persons heart, and that is what changes the external action. You never change the heart by changing the action, you change the heart and the action changes itself.
No matter how much Truth you share with a person, you can never MAKE them believe or change, and that is the HARDEST things in the world. Looking someone in the eyes who KNOWS they need Jesus, but simply won't accept Him is the hardest thing on this earth. So many people want to go to heaven, to avoid hell, but they simply won't give their entire lives to Jesus. They won't give all of their passions and desires to Him. They want a Savior, but that don't want a King to make demands on their life.

This summer was the best summer of my life.
God blessed me so much with this summer.
Every camper, every staff member, every day was a blessing to me.
I failed this summer so many times, but God still used a broken sinner for His glory.
There is no other place I want to spend next summer than High Point.
There is not a day that doesn't go by that I don't think of something from this summer.
My heart is and always will be ministry, and I'm very excited to see where God leads in the days and weeks ahead.
We serve a really big God who deserves all of our lives.
He is not content with half-hearted ministry. He is not content with us giving a little bit of ourselves to Him or with us fitting Him into our lives. He IS our lives. He is to be the center and the core and He is to be the radical focus of our life. Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.
No words could ever fully describe this summer.
Basically, God is really really good.

"Oh taste and see that God is good to us!!"

Isaiah 40:18-31
18 To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
19 The workman molds an image,
The goldsmith overspreads it with gold,
And the silversmith casts silver chains.
20 Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution
Chooses a tree that will not rot;
He seeks for himself a skillful workman
To prepare a carved image that will not totter.
21 Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23 He brings the princes to nothing;
He makes the judges of the earth useless.
24 Scarcely shall they be planted,
Scarcely shall they be sown,
Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth,
When He will also blow on them,
And they will wither,
And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.
25 “ To whom then will you liken Me,
Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high,
And see who has created these things,
Who brings out their host by number;
He calls them all by name,
By the greatness of His might
And the strength of His power;
Not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel:

“ My way is hidden from the LORD,
And my just claim is passed over by my God”?
28 Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
31 But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.