Back to church!

As you kick off the new school year, let this video inspire you to get back into church! ...Or to sing your way into church on Sunday. 

 

Keep calm and camp on...

Camp has come to an obvious end because it's SO quiet and calm around here. I walked across camp today and all I wanted was to run across the field giving high fives and cheering with all the cabins as they hike across camp. I longed to ride the famous torpedo one more time, go to one more Pow-Wow (...or Pow-Meow, Pow-Cow...you get it), or wave my napkin in the air at meals to 'Wavin' Flag' one last time. 

I guess it's obvious that we miss our campers and our summer staff. I was reminded that as fun as it would be to make camp year round, I would get too comfortable. Jesus calls us to "go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15) I pray as you are back at home, in your schools, on your sports team, as you are a part of band, or whatever it is you do...that your words and actions would be the love of Christ to the world. Jesus is with you wherever you are and wherever you go. It's good to go out into the world and live for Christ. But I can't wait to do this all over again with you next summer...2013 comin' at ya!

Mustard Seeds.

Have you ever seen or held a mustard seed? They are some of the smallest of all, but the really cool thing about them is that they are considered a symbol of faith. 


One day, Jesus was talking to his disciples when one of them turned to him and said, "Lord, increase our faith." Jesus answered and said, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you." Can you imagine what it would be like to have that kind of faith?

I heard a story about a man who read this verse in the Bible and decided to put it to the test. There was a large tree in his front yard, so he went out to that tree and said, "In the morning when I wake up from my sleep, I want you to be gone." That night the man went to bed. When he woke up the next morning, he went to front door, opened it, and looked out into his front yard. "Just as I thought!" the man said. "It's still there."

Well, first of all, the man didn't have mustard seed sized faith, did he? In fact, he didn't have any faith at all. When he told the tree to be moved, he never expected it to happen. In the second place, I think that the man misunderstood what Jesus was trying to teach his disciples.

Jesus was not suggesting that you and I go around trying to move trees just to prove that we have faith. What Jesus was trying to teach his disciples -- and what he wants you and me to learn -- is that it doesn't take a great faith to produce great results. Why? Because the results don't depend on us, they depend on God. If the results depended on the size of our faith, I have no doubt that we would probably go around bragging about our great faith.

Such a good reminder to not ask for a great faith so that we can do great things -- ask for faith the size of a mustard seed so that we can see God do great things! Father, we pray for mustard seed sized faith. 

Help us to believe and never doubt your power! 

If you smell what I'm cookin'

This morning, when he got off the bus, my roommate stepped in a mysterious puddle. The biggest clue he has as to what this was a puddle of was the scent of his shoe afterwards. He never took the time to find out what exactly the puddle was made of because his shoe smelled so bad he decided he didn't care.

Smell tells you a lot about something. Have you ever tried to eat something that smelled terrible? You'll gag, trust me.

There's a cookie shop I go into from time to time that immediately causes salivation in my gums because I can smell the cookie dough baking the second I walk in the door. As I've previously stated, I think that the cookie dough is WAY better tasting than the cookies themselves, so I always ask the person at the counter if I can have a little. Every time I know the answer will be no, because, as they've told me on many occasions, health code prevents them from serving the cookie dough because it contains raw eggs. But I still ask every single time I'm there. It smells that good.

In 2 Corinthians 2:15, The Bible says that we are the aroma of Christ to the world. God makes us the very scent of his son when we know him. He'll use you to spread the fragrance of his love to the world.

Or you can work against him and act like a smelly puddle while you claim to know Jesus. In this scenario, people will never bother to get to know Jesus because they'll associate him with the scent you're casting, just like how my roommate never bothered to found out what was in the puddle he stepped in. Nobody will care. If it smells bad, it probably tastes bad too.

But if you draw near to Christ and live a life of sincere love for him and the people you know, people will constantly ask what's so different about you and how they can get some of whatever it is you have (just like me when I smell cookie dough).

You're actions will show that you understand how much God loves you. And then people will be like this:

Sea Shells

At any given time, I would rather be at the beach than where I am. Even awesome times would only be more awesome on the beach. I've made several road trips to Galveston, which a lot people tell me is a gross beach that isn't worth the drive, but I go anyways because a gross beach is still better than no beach in my opinion.

Maybe heaven is like the beach. I don't know. Maybe it's like the mountains. Maybe it's like Saturn. I have no idea. Here's what I do know, though. Heaven is not the beach. It's not the mountains. It's not anywhere on Earth or in the universe (sorry, Saturn). 

We get confused about two things about heaven. 

1. That it's comparable to things we know now.

2. That all the cool things to do there will make us happy.

What heaven truly is is our home. It's where we were meant to be. The world we live in is a shell of a home for us. Even the coolest parts couldn't satisfy us forever.

I used to think that in heaven Pokemon would be real. I know someone who once told me that he thinks heaven has a guy doing five back flips on a dirt bike over a Coke machine. Maybe those things exist in heaven, but if they do, I don't think we'll care. The true sweetness of heaven will be finally being able to be around God. Think of it like when someone who's really special to you is around (maybe your grandma, maybe your big brother). You have such a great time just from being around them. They don't even have to do anything, they just have to be there. Being in heaven with God will be like that, but magnified roughly five gajillion times. We'll be complete at last. 

Get hype. He loves you.

Schmergen Dergen Blurgen Blu

"Finkle dinkle doo, romper bomper stomper boo."
-Abraham Lincoln.

The above quotation is the opening sentence of the Gettysburg Address translated into gibberish.

Do you speak gibberish? Of course you do! Everyone does. If you don't know how, all you have to do is make up words and say them. It's the best language ever. Try it, it's fun! I once spoke gibberish for three straight hours.

Gibberish is wonderful, but it often suffers as a means of communication due to the fact that nobody can understand what anyone is saying. Everyone has their own distinctive dialect, and very few words translate directly. Though it is fun, gibberish is one of the most useless forms of speaking.

Speaking in gibberish is kind of like living a life without love. In 1 Corinthians 13:1 it says that being able to speak in every language (that includes languages of men and angels, even gibberish) is like being a loud, annoying cymbal without love. It makes everything you say and do useless and futile, because you've missed the point of life.

God put us on earth for two reasons. Simply to love him and love people. Everything else is meaningless, but sometimes other things seem like they matter more. Check in on yourself from time to time and make sure you're not forgetting how much love matters.

I would like to close with a message from one of our most well respected professors in Gibberish Linguistics, The Swedish Chef.

Memories, oh the memories

When I was a camper at Sky Ranch, I always came on the Fourth of July week. My dad knew how to party on The Fourth, as our garage had a cardboard box that was designated as a stockpiling spot for sparklers and Roman Candles, so if I were going to pass up an opportunity to light my own fireworks in the backyard and eat pizza with my brothers, it would have to be for something significantly more awesome.

And Sky Ranch always delivered. I think the fireworks at camp are amongst the best in the world. As loyal friend of Mickey, I fear it may hurt him if he ever reads this, but I'm going to type it anyways. I liked the fireworks at Sky Ranch better than the fireworks at Disney World. Something about how close we were to them, it felt so personal and special. A unique privilege that only us Cabin 9 boys were entitled to.

My first firework show at camp was on July 4th, 2001. I was eleven years old when we laid our towels out on the grass by lake and watched was technicolor explosions in the twilight illuminated Skywaii. A girl with braces sat beside me and my brother sat behind me. I'll never forget the glory I tasted in that panoramic view of God's creation. 

I'm sure that everyone reading this has a similar recollection, a time when Sky Ranch felt like home. A moment that God gave to you to keep in your pocket forever, frozen in your mind to be revisited once and a while. These moments are elusive, sometimes they're few and far and between. Sometimes the time between them is like an endless desert. 

Well get exSKYted. Because summer's coming, and God is going to write new stories in your life through and about Sky Ranch. The happy days are here again.