It's Been Good.

I left Pennsylvania on Friday night (actually Saturday morning :D) at 1 AM and pulled into Indiana around 11:15 AM. Other than seeing 10 dead dear on the road with its insides not on the inside, there were no traffic mishaps. The teenagers slept most of the time (yay!) and it was only when we were a 1/2 hour from my brother's that they started to get antsy. I had done most of the driving with only an hour nap, so I crashed in the afternoon for a pick-me-up nap. But that left me feeingl rested and refreshed for the evening. Fairhaven Baptist Church recently built a gym, so we went over to the church to play some volleyball and to run off some excess energy.

The preaching on Sunday in both services was excellent, especially the night service. Bro. Whitaker (the principal of the school) preached about the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Consider this:

• Sin looses its cover when you put it next to the Holy Spirit.
• All sin is wicked; can any sin be tolerated then?
• Sin is wrong because God is holy.
• Sin originated in the wicked heart of Satan.
• Sin is exceeding sinful because it is destroying everything around us.
• Sin isn't partly "ok"; it is all poison.
• Christians aren't intent at routing out sin because it doesn't seem that bad.
• There is a roaring lion behind each sin.
• I color code my sin.
• Every sin is exceeding sinful.
• There is no credit in trying to get rid of sin; it has to go.

That message nailed me right to the wall. God is so good about convicting me of sin that I had to write home and apologize to someone back at church for something I did to them. But the conviction hasn't stopped there. I was talking to my sweet sister-in-law and she was talking about an issue that broke her heart. As I listened, I realized that I'm very guilty of undermining or questioning authority. I caught myself doing it this week to my friend as she tried to determine if her teenagers were going to go shopping with us. I caught myself questioning why the kids here should go to school on Friday after they are kept up until 3 AM Thursday night. And as I thought about it, I caught myself questioning authority from back home. It is subtle but deceptive.

It has been so good to spend time in God's Word and not have to worry about getting to school on time. It has been so good to sit around talking about sin and dealing with it. It has been so good to hear the preaching and to pray for the teens here at this camp. I know only a handful of kids out of 250, but God knows each of their hearts. I don't need to know them to pray for them. Teenagers are teenagers, no matter where you go. Last night as I sat in the car with my brothers and nephews waiting for my sister-in-law, I noticed a guy and a girl standing outside "just talking". I made a comment about that and my brother said, "How do you know they are not brother and sister?" Well, because brother and sister act differently and these two were not acting that way. It was the classic "We're-just-friends-who-happen-to-spend-alot-of-time-together" act. Sure enough, one of the pastors here sauntered over to them and broke it up. Yes, teens are teens and they do the same things no matter what youth group they're from.

It has been good and I'm looking forward to the preaching today and tomorrow. God can do anything, but the question is do I believe that he can?