#camp2011

God truly moved at summer camp this year. A lot of things stood out to me, so I'll probably have several camp posts, but here's one thing that really hit me.

Wade said something that struck me. If it doesn't hit you the way it hit me, you're gonna think this is really dumb because it's so simple, but it's so profound. Wade was preaching about the reality of hell, and he said that life isn't fair and God isn't fair because if God was fair, we would all be in hell. You know, I've heard the Gospel all my life. I've even heard it put similarly before, but I guess it's been a while since I've truly remembered that I don't deserve what Jesus did for me on the cross. After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, we were all destined for hell. Romans 5:10 says that we were enemies of God, but we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son. Before we accept God's gift of salvation, we are literally God's enemies. However, even in the midst of our sin, God loved us so much that he sent his Son Jesus to earth to live as a human and die a sinner's death, bearing the weight of every sin committed--past, present, and future. He didn't have to do that. If God was fair, we would all be in hell. We deserve hell. Everyone has sinned against the God who is perfection, who cannot be in the presence of sin. That God chose to save us. I think that word "save" is overused, and we forget it's gravity. God SAVED us, RESCUED us, from eternal separation from him, from eternal torture in hell. He didn't have to do it, but he did. I don't know about you, but that makes me want to live for him. That makes me want to tell other people that someone loved them enough to die for them even when they were His enemies. I hope that the Gospel means something more to you now than it did before you read this, and I pray that this unconditional love will compel you to action.

"Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." -1 John 3:18