Choices....

This is Summer's Best Week!  It is a summer camp for teens from churches throughout the state of Illinois and from Indiana (even one from Wisconsin).  I have been directing this camp for 25 years and going to camp for an additional 10 years through Junior High, High School and College. 

The picture to the left is from Geneva Center Conference Center in Rochester, Indiana,  where I attended as a teen.  I have many fond memories of that camp...its where I fell in love for the first time, where I forged forever friendships that I still have, and most importantly, where I became a Christian and now know I will spend eternity in Heaven!  I will never forget that boy, I will never forget those memories, I will never forget those friendships!  I love that I am called into this ministry to teens.  I rarely forget those students who have come to this camp over the past years.  No one can take those memories away from me.  No one can take my faith away from me either.

The path shown at this camp is the path to two different cabins....the guys cabins and the girls.  It was where many camp couples said their good nights....it was also very, very dark at night.  There were no street lights, no city lights and the not much of the star light could through the thick canopy of trees.  Needless to say, there was much screaming in the dark from being scared of what lurked in the darkness.  Sometimes what lurked were friends trying to scare the snot out of you.  It usually worked. 

In life there are many things that lurk in the darkness of life that are even more dangerous than that of a dark path at camp.  As I start out on this, my 25th year of camp directing these teens, I pray for them.  I pray that God will reveal Himself to them in a real way.  That the teens will see that there is NO WAY for them to be good enough to earn their way into heaven.  It is a gift.  I pray that they will also see that there is NO WAY to lose the gift of Heaven and fellowship with a real living God NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO!!  That is the beauty of GRACE.  You can't earn it, you certainly don't deserve it.  It is a priceless gift from a flawless Savior who gave the ultimate sacrifice because he LOVES ME AND YOU!! 

I am praying for these students.  Our theme this year is REVOLUTION GENERATION.  This generation has the power to change their schools, neighborhoods, families, town, country and world!  Let's empower them with the strong WORD OF GOD!   What about you?  If you were to die tonight and stand before God and He said to you, why should I let you into heaven, what would you say?  If you say cuz you were pretty good, I guarantee its not good enough...