adolescents’ needs

“they need adults who are aware of the power of small deliberate, and consistently authentic applications of relational concern, care, and nuture…our response must begin with an individual student who needs the encouragement and leadership of an adult who genuinely cares…most midadolescents carry with them a list of adults who did not protect or look out for them, whether it was a sunday school teacher who kicked them out of class, a peewee soccer coach who angrily took them out of a game for making a mistake, or a teacher who called on them when they weren’t prepared…the only qualification an adult needs is the willingness and fortitude to authentically care.”
-chap clark, hurt inside the world of today’s teenagers (2004)

god’s love

“all our further inisghts about who and what god is must revolve round this mystery - the mystery of his love.  in a certain sense they can only be repetitions and amplifications of the one statement that ‘god loves.’”
-karl barth

“the goodness, grace, righteousness, faithfulness, wisdom, and patience of god do not take us beyond the thought of divine love but describe different aspects of its reality.”
-wolfhart pannenberg

two loves

“there can only be two basic loves, the love of god unto the forgetfulness of self or the love of self unto the forgetfulness and denial of god.”
-augustine 

this quote reminded me of colossians 3:3 

“for you died, and your life is now hidden with christ in god.”

more kinlaw

“i love my creator more than i love his gifts” (specifically referring to salvation)

-dr. dennis kinlaw

“did you know that jesus is better than salvation?”

-dr. dennis kinlaw

what it’s about…

as i was reading through galatians chapters 2 &3 today i was reminded of this quote from camp this summer.

“it’s about us recognizing that we’re sinners.

it’s about us recognizing that we’re spiritually dead and that we can’t save ourselves, that even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags according to the scriptures.  

it’s about us seeing ourselves clearly and recognizing that we need a savior, that we need to be rescued from our sin and from ourselves.  

it’s about falling on your knees at the feet of the only one who has the power to make dead things live and saying, ‘will you save me?’

that’s christianity.”  

-darin mcwatters, hume san diego 2008

i need words

i need words
thats wide as sky
i need a language as large as
this longing inside

and i need a voice
bigger than mine
i need a song to sing you
that i’ve yet to find

i need you
i need you
i need you
i need you to be here now

by the way, this is a david crowder song, more like a prayer….i was rereading it and thought it could be taken in a lot of skewed ways…just wanted to clarify haha

god, games, and videos

we arrived back to parkcrest yesterday afternoon from point loma nazarene university.  it was a great week of camp for many of the students.  it was a terrific week of camp for me as well.  i learned a lot from what it takes to organize a group trip to how i can better communicate to students.  who knew that mistakes were the best way to learn.  i only pray that god’s hand was in my mistakes.

we played many games at camp, a lot of them in a camp wide competition.  we were all given t-shirts according to our teams.  my team’s shirt color was pink….PERFECT!!! (and i really do mean that.)  my team finished 12th out of 16 teams in the week long competition, but we also had a ton of fun, so that makes us champions (really i’m just trying to find some sort of consalation for coming in the bottom half of the camp haha).  my favorite time of games though was at free time with many of the “parkcrest-ian” students.  we played ultimate frisbee, football (which most of you will call soccer), and just some silly games.  at the end of our game playing we all sat in the middle of the soccer field and just talked, joked, and laughed.  it was great!

there were also several videos made at camp. several of them are on youtube.  my two favorite invovled 3 dancing boys in the dorm room and 3 girls rhyming.  i walked out of a room to see three young men down the hall dancing to our lead counselors ringtone.  my favorite lines in the video come toward the end from tyler, “i’m running out of dance moves….i’m going to back flip off of the wall.” haha, enjoy.  the semi-rapping girls caught me as i was walking out of the cafeteria to diss on my pink-shirt-wearing team.  i don’t get the hand signs at the end but apparently they were “hating” on me. haha

my favorite part of the week though was hearing and seeing how god was moving in students’ lives.  i had several young men approach me to talk to me about their struggles, desires, and lives.  there’s nothing more beautiful than hearing someone talk about falling in love with god.  he’s so worth following and loving.  i thank god for revealing himself to students and to me this week.

it’s interesting being at a camp that’s geared toward high school students.  in the beginning of the week i had the mindset that this was for the students and the students alone, which is true for the most part.  to be honest and transparent, i felt strange worshiping the first night.  i wasn’t sure if i should be as “into the music” since i was a leader.  i remember watching the students raise hands, shout, and jump during our time of musical worship.  everything inside of me wanted to lift hands, jump, and sing as loud as possible.  but i was hesitant due to the fact that i was a “leader” now.  how dumb, right?!?!  by day number two it hit me that this worship was for god, not for the students.  i lost my voice that night of worship.

i viewed the sermons in a similar way this week.  the messages were supposed to give students a solid foundation of what christianity is.  foundations?  please, i’m a leader…i know all of this stuff already.  at least thats the thought that first passed through my mind.  one thing i learned from sports is that fundamentals are never done being refined.  apparently the same lesson from sports can be applied to this situation of fundamental christian teachings. this past week we talked about god, man, sin, grace, the church, and scripture.    i don’t have anyone of those “doctrines” fully understood yet, probably never will.  i thank god for making himself more real to the students AND i this week.

the speaker said something one night that stuck with me.  he said (this isn’t an exact quote) “we need the only one that can make dead things live.”  it was beautiful watching god raise dead things to life this week.  some of the students i talked with had been living in a state of “death” their entire lives.  this week awakened them to “life, and life to the full.” 

i pray that god continues to raise dead things to life in this world!!

no title will get it across better…just read it

“i believe there’s not unity because most christians don’t wake up in the morning thinking to themselves that god actually has something for them to do that day. instead, most christians wake up and think to themselves,

‘i have some things i would like to do today. and i’m going to pray that god helps me. ‘

and so suddenly god becomes the means rather than the end. in fact that’s why a lot of people come to church. they think,

‘i would love to have a happy family, and i think church would help me do that and god would help me get there.’

or

‘i would like my friend to be healthy so i will go to church and maybe god will help that person get better.’

so suddenly god is no longer the end. we don’t think,

‘oh wow we get to have god.’

instead it’s ‘no wait. i can have this family and god will help me achieve to get this family.’ “

-francis chan

good weakness

“when i consider Your generosity, its greatness makes my spirit lose its strength”

-thomas a kemips