Chief Camp Counselor

In my weekly Spot On The Lake blog, I posted about an All Abilities Camp that the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is hosting at the end of April.  I had the pleasure of meeting Jason Myers this week.  Jason leads the Broad River FCA in northeast Georgia and is the person in charge of initiating and executing the camp.  Jason served for many years as a teacher and a coach at Prince Avenue Christian School in Athens.  He coached baseball, basketball and softball while he was there.  In 2018, he joined FCA and continues his work there today.  Jason doesn't talk about it much, but he is battling with a health condition called Ataxia.  Ataxia is a degenerative disease of the nervous system that affects coordination and speech.   Jason has not let his condition slow him down.  In fact, he would say that the condition has pushed him to bigger and better things, and he praises God for every day that he is able to help build God's kingdom here on earth.  Jason is an inspiration to the other FCA leaders, the students he impacts and to everyone he comes in contact with - including me.  Thank you Jason for modeling a life that looks like Jesus.

The Watcher

I found an interesting blog written by a mom reporting an interaction with her 6 year old daughter.  After church, the mom's daughter took her 1 year old sister to play on the fenced playground while her mom and dad talked with friends within eyeshot.  After a period of time, the mom offered to hold the one year old so the six year old could play on her own.  The six year old responded, "It's ok mom.  I love watching her.  It's fun for me. I'm the shepherd, and she's my little sheep."  This was an obvious reference to the bible story that she had learned in church, but the statement, "I love watching her" struck a chord with the mom.  We have heard that Jesus loves us thousands of times, but the fact that Jesus loves watching us shines a whole new light on our relationship.   It can be very comforting to know Jesus is there - and also frightening that He is also watching us when we aren't acting like we should.  It is beautiful that children can sometimes describe the truth so clearly.  Maybe that's why Jesus directed us to become like little children.   I hope you can see God and His creation through the eyes of a child today.  For the full original post, click here.

Cece and Whit

I was looking for some good worship music this morning and came across "The Goodness of God".  The song was written by Jenn Johnson of Bethel Music about 4 years ago, but was recently covered by CeCe Winans.  Cece has 15 Grammy's, more than any other Christian artist, and she shows why in her cover of this great song.   I also saw this morning that Cece was best friends with Whitney Houston.   I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when they were singing together.  I guess this is the next best thing.   All praise to God for gifting Cece with immense talent, and to Cece for using that talent for His glory.

Work It Out

The second chapter of James has one of the most highly debated verses of the bible.  Verse 24 says, "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."  Catholics have traditionally believed that faith is just the starting point in justification.  There are quite a few rules and regs that need to be followed to maintain that status.  Most Protestants believe that all that is required for salvation is belief and repentance, and James seems to contradict that with this verse.  But by examining the context in the rest of Chapter 2, I believe James is actually making a different point.   A "true faith" in Jesus will naturally be followed by an attempt to live like Him.  If this doesn't happen, then it is reasonable that one might question whether that faith is a true faith (living faith).  That being said, we all remain sinners and will never live completely like Jesus until we meet him face to face.  I believe He wants me to try harder to live like Him, and for Him, every day - every minute - every second.  I want to do that today.

Movie Night

The last two weeks, I posted about the revival going on at Asbury College.  It may or may not be a coincidence that last Friday, "Jesus Revolution" opened in movie theaters around the country.  I read about it and was nervous that it might resemble some of the cheesy religious movies that had come before, but Tuesday night, Caroline and I took a chance and went to see it.  The movie is about the true story of the Jesus movement led by Chuck Smith that started in California in the 1970's.  Hippies that were used to getting high on drugs found a new high in knowing Jesus, and thousands of people came to know Him through Chuck's ministry.  The journey wasn't all roses, which for me, added to the believability and made the movie more interesting.   I will warn you that there are several tear-jerk moments which made the story special for me.  I hope you take a chance to see it.   If so, let me know what you think.