Thursday at Mount Lebanon

Our last full day at camp has been a great one already! The morning started off with some biscuits and gravy for breakfast, but focus quickly shifted away from food and silly games as we moved into a time called The Concert of Prayer. The EVC Students met together for a brief devotional on prayer then we moved to meet with one-fourth of the camp for a time of prayer. After a while we could hear a bagpipe playing in the distance, signaling us to come back to the worship center for a time of prayer with the entire camp. Students grouped up in small groups to pray over family, friends, schools, church, and their city. It was a powerful time of prayer and worship.

The day continued with LOTS of Gaga Ball and while another group went to the pool. Every kid is tired and hot and probably a little sore. But one thing is unanimous, they are having a fantastic time.

Pray The Lord continues to work in the hearts of our students. We will be having a very special time together as a group. We will be washing each other's feet and committing to serve one another this next school year.

I can't wait to come home with these students and see how they live for Christ back in Saginaw.

As far as pick up, we should be back around 11:30am for sure. If their are any changes I'll let you know!

Wednesday at Mount Lebanon

This morning we woke up to a mostly cloudy sky. It was a pleasant sight as it provide so relief from the sun that has been beating down all week. We almost got through all of morning recreation before the sun showed up which made for a cool relaxing morning. This was needed as many of our game involved a lot of running! Games like Car Lot, Tank, and Bandana Grab were tons of fun, and every kid participated despite a being tired and a little sore from playing so had all week.

The group of guys had an incredible night last night. Each guy prayed for every girl at the camp by name in a special time of prayer where we asked The Lord to lead them to take steps in biblical manhood. The girls opportunity for a special night together is tonight.

Tomorrow is our last day, we are all very excited about what God is doing here, but know that he has greater plans when we get home.

Tuesday at Mount Lebanon

Alright! We're right in the middle of our second full day at camp. It is amazing to see God working in the lives of the students. There is a lot of joy in who God is and how he has blessed us with brother and sisters in our faith.

I am really impressed with the attitudes of all our students. Very little complaining about the heat and everyone is drinking lots of water. Today we discovered that EVC has a dominant water polo team! We played water polo during rec and every time an EVC team subbed in, you could almost guarantee a point. Other games today were rotation basketball, blind volleyball and a big hit was Gaga Ball. Their begging me to build a Gaga Ball court at EVC. I'll have to talk to Bart about that.

We are having a great time. Wes continues to challenge us to recognize and avoid temptation. Reading from Matthew 4 today as Jesus was tempted in the desert. We were reminded that the enemy wants us to question the identity we have in Jesus. Be praying for our group as we continue to learn what it takes to be who God has called us to be.

More updates coming soon!

Monday at Mount Lebanon

While our first day was Sunday, today really feels like the first day of camp. We have had a fantastic day so far, breakfast started at 7:30. While the girls looked pretty tired, the guys sprung out of bed surprisingly quick. A breakfast of sausage, "eggs", and biscuits and gravy gave us the fuel to get going.

Then we headed to worship. The Justin Cofield Band is doing a fantastic job leading us in worship, and Wes Hamilton's message today was an incredible challenge about temptation that I hope sticks with these students for a long time.

At rec we played games with names like Ninja Warrior, tubicide, and pirate ship. I couldn't be prouder of how our group maintained an attitude of fun and sportsmanship throughout the day. Even as some other churches got a little too competitive.

The verdict is already in, this camp is awesome! While there have been some long lines at the challenge courses and meals, our group is just happy to be together and having a good time.

We are about to head to dinner and I hope to have some more pictures for you all tonight.

And this is what happens when you leave your phone sitting around...thanks Kara and Savannah!

What do you say when your teenager asks you, "Mom? Dad? Where did the Bible come from?"

"Umm...just ask Kyle on Wednesday!" does not have to be your only answer, nor do I want it to be your first answer.

Here's another great article from Morf Magazine. Sign-up for their newsletter here, it's worth it!

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Direct Link to the article

Where Did the Bible Come From?

By: Excerpted from “The Church From Age to Age

We know the Bible was inspired by God and written down over thousands of years. It is His living and active Word to us and at the same time, preserves the history, wisdom, prophecy, poetry, songs, stories and prayers of His people from the creation of the world to visions of its end.
But how did it get from ancient scrolls and hand-written letters to the neatly organized books, chapters and verses we know today? Why do some denominations’ Bibles have more books? Who decided what should be in it and what should not? What reasons did they have for choosing what they did to be included? 
The following excerpt from “The Church from Age-to-Age,” a book by Concordia Publishing House, helps us answer a few of these common Church history questions.
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A precise and definitive delimitation of the canon of Scripture – the determination of what belonged to it and what did not – did not occur until the 16^th century, the time of the Reformation. The bulk of the New Testament books had been agreed upon already by and around AD 200, but uncertainty about a few of the epistles and about the Book of Revelation remained for some time. By the 6^th century, most Christian churches used the same New Testament as we do today. The Old Testament in Greek was very naturally taken over from the Greek synagogue at the start of the Church’s mission among the Greek-speaking population. This version of the Old Testament, as well as the Latin translations based on it, included books which were not in the Hebrew (and later in the Protestant) canon: the apocryphal books. In the 16^th century, the Protestant reformers ruled that only the books from the Hebrew Scriptures belonged to the canonical Old Testament. The Counter-Reformation Council of Trent ruled that the Apocrypha belong to the canon and that they are binding for doctrine.

Three bases were used to determine whether a book should be included in the New Testament: its apostolicity, its orthodoxy and its universal acceptance by Christian churches for use in public worship. Apostolicity meant that a book has to have direct or indirect apostolic origin in order to qualify for the New Testament. This was an important reason why the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Revelation of John, among others, had a hard time getting into the canon, for their apostolic origin was questioned by many. However, also the orthodoxy of these books had been questioned since Hebrews stated that there was no forgiveness for a voluntary falling away from the faith (10:26-31) and yet the Church admitted renegades to repentance. Revelation seemed to teach bewildering things about the return of Christ to the earth (Revelation 20:1-10).
It is interesting to note that inspiration was not among the criteria that decided the canonicity of a book. Of course, a book had to be inspired by God to be included in the Bible. Yet there were many other books that were considered inspired by God in a general sense but were not in the canon. They were thought useful for private reading and edification, but were not considered “canonical.” A book belonged to the canon if it was used in public worship and for determining the Church’s doctrine. The word canon means a yardstick, or a ruler, in Greek. The canon of Scripture was to serve as a yardstick of the Church’s teaching. Thus, Scripture had to have a delimited scope, while inspired literature could be unlimited. A canonical book could not have a private character, but it had to be universally known and recognized by all Christians. Since Scripture served as an authoritative basis for distinguishing between true and false teaching, its contents had to have a public character.

The Bible could be interpreted by at least three different methods: the literal, the typological and the allegorical. The last two were especially used for the Old Testament, to show its abiding relevance. Typology saw various Old Testament events and figures, such as the liberation from Egypt, the Passover and Moses, as types or figures of man’s deliverance and life in Christ, which they foreshadowed. Allegory saw symbolic spiritual significance in the seemingly mundane or dated details of biblical events and laws. The allegorical interpretation flourished especially in the theological school of Alexandria, where it had already been applied to the Old Testament and to Greek myths before the Christian era. Both the typological and allegorical interpretations were already occasionally present in the New Testament, as in 1 Corinthians 10:1-6 and 9:8-11. The literal, historical interpretation was cultivated in the school of Antioch.

Since Scripture lends itself in many places to varied interpretations, it was felt that the Church could not use only Scripture. This is why the Church’s basic and universal creedal tradition and its formation in the ecumenical councils served as a guide to interpreting Scripture where it appeared obscure, ambiguous or as containing contradictions. Thus the Church’s living tradition of faith and worship was regarded as checking a possibly imbalanced, provincial, arbitrary or subjective interpretation of the Church’s holy Scriptures.
By “tradition,” we mean the heritage of faith and worship passed on from one generation to another, which creates the link binding all generations into an organic, spiritual unity and giving the community its identity. Such a tradition in the Ancient Church was never set over and against Scripture, but was seen as identical with the faith of the Scriptures themselves. As we have seen, it was also not set against development. But growth in theology had to be harmonized with the ancient heritage.
  
Excerpted from “The Church From Age to Age,” published by Concordia Publishing House. Copyright 2011. Purchase the hard copy or ebook versions here. 

Overcoming Fear

This was published in this week's Morf Magazine Newsletter. Morf is a great resource of parents and leaders of teens. Check it out at http://morfmagazine.com/

From http://morfmagazine.com/article/overcoming-fear

Excerpted from “The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer” (Fortress Press, 2012)

In January 1933, shortly before Hitler came to power, Bonhoeffer preached this sermon at a vespers service on the evening of the second Sunday after Epiphany. It was a time of great tension in Berlin, and of widespread fear. The Hindenburg government was tottering, indeed was about to go under, and with it Germany’s fragile first republic, created at Weimar after World War I. There was fear of Communism — the “Red Tide from the East” — and other extremist movements, and danger from open fighting in the streets. In the midst of this storm, Bonhoeffer was no more certain of the future than anyone else, but he was sure that followers of Christ should know where to turn. 

Matthew 8:23–27: And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

The overcoming of fear — that is what we are proclaiming here. The Bible, the Gospel, Christ, the Church, the faith — all are one great battle cry against fear in the lives of human beings. Fear is, somehow or other, the archenemy itself. It crouches in people’s hearts. It hollows out their insides, until their resistance and strength are spent and they suddenly break down. Fear secretly gnaws and eats away at all the ties that bind a person to God and to others, and when in a time of need that person reaches for those ties and clings to them, they break and the individual sinks back into himself or herself, helpless and despairing, while hell rejoices.

Now fear leers that person in the face, saying: Here we are all by ourselves, you and I, now I’m showing you my true face. And anyone who has seen naked fear revealed, who has been its victim in terrifying loneliness — fear of an important decision; fear of a heavy stroke of fate, losing one’s job, an illness; fear of a vice that one can no longer resist, to which one is enslaved; fear of disgrace; fear of another person; fear of dying — that person knows that fear is only one of the faces of evil itself, one form by which the world, at enmity with God, grasps for someone. Nothing can make a human being so conscious of the reality of powers opposed to God in our lives as this loneliness, this helplessness, this fog spreading over everything, this sense that there is no way out, and this raving impulse to get oneself out of this hell of hopelessness.

But the human being doesn’t have to be afraid; we should not be afraid! That is what makes humans different from all other creatures. In the midst of every situation where there is no way out, where nothing is clear, where it is our fault, we know that there is hope, and this hope is called: Thy will be done, yes, thy will is being done. “This world must fall, God stands above all, his thoughts unswayed, his Word unstayed, His will forever our ground and hope.”

Do you ask: How do you know? Then we name the name of the One who makes the evil inside us recoil, who makes fear and anxiety themselves tremble with fear and puts them to flight. We name the One who overcame fear and led it captive in the victory procession, who nailed it to the cross and committed it to oblivion; we name the One who is the shout of victory of humankind redeemed from the fear of death — Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Living One. He alone is Lord over fear; it knows Him as its master; it gives way to Him alone. So look to Christ when you are afraid, think of Christ, keep Him before your eyes, call upon Christ and pray to Him, believe that He is with you now, helping you . . . Then fear will grow pale and fade away, and you will be free, through your faith in our strong and living Savior, Jesus Christ.

From the Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, edited by Isabel Best copyright © 2012 Fortress Press. Reproduced by permission of Augsburg Fortress Publishers.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a German pastor and theologian whose striking theological journey and public witness against the Nazi regime led to worldwide fame after his death in 1945. He authored many classic books, including “The Cost of Discipleship” and “Life Together.”

Camp 2012: Day 3

While we are currently in day 4 of camp, I would like to give an update on how day 3 went.

Day 3 was just lots of fun. I really feel like a lot of the students are coming together really well. For both groups (Middle School and High School, Yellow and Green) the students had "Soaked" recreation. That means it was water day. Student Life had several unique games planned for water day, but what it all eventually came down to was find a way to dump water on the head of all your friends. That was what really made this event so much fun, just running around and goofing off. I got some good video of the high schoolers participating in "Soaked" that I hope to share with you.

Worship last night was just wonderful and very intentional. The who focus was one two things. One, be courageous in your faith; and two, extend God's love and mercy to the world. Like Eagles View Church, Student Life partner's with Compassion International. Last night they gave students an opportunity to sponsor a child who is living in poverty. Students in our group were encouraged to call their parents before they made a commitment, and now because of our group three children will now be fed, receive an education, and hear the gospel. How awesome is that?!

We ended the night hanging out as a church group. This was a laid back time and it was a lot of fun! I've been going through all the students and giving them nicknames based on Disney Cartoon characters. It has been fun, and all the students have been really involved in helping come up with everyone's nicknames.

Just so you can join in on the fun, here are a couple examples...

Luke Howell - Kronk (Emperor's New Groove)
Garrison Kuykendall - Thumper (Bambi)
Audrey Peacock - Ariel (Little Mermaid)
Micah Millsap - Young Simba (Lion King)
Cara Miller - Belle (Beauty and the Beast)
Ethan Henson - King Louis (The Jungle Book)

And many more! You'll have to ask them what their nicknames are. Hopefully I can finish nicknaming all of them today...

Tomorrow we come home, hopefully I will be able to post a Day 4 recap late tonight so that you can hear about all the exciting things God does this evening. I can't wait!