Week 1

In an hour i will start camp meetings, shortly followed by the first flood of campers into pine cove. Im sitting at Starbucks of course being filled by the Spirit for an intense week of loving on 8th and 9th graders. This last week of orientation, while slow at times, has been a time of growth and learning. My understanding of suffering for the Lord has deepened and this is the thing i am most exited about going into this week, that i may be pushed to a point of exhaustion, lack of patience, lack of love, and complacency, that in my utter weakness and inability to do anything good, I will turn to Christ and be overcome by the power of the Spirit. I just read the story of David and Goliath. Cliche for going into a week of facing the monster of adolescent teens, i know. But the power and assurance of God's character runs like fire through the veins of David, surrounds him with a potency of confidence completely of God and not in his own ability. Goliath is a "champion" of men, of his own physical strength and ability in battle. He is no weak warrior of Gath to be tossed about by those who rely partially on God as the nation of Israel did, but a wall of impenetrable confidence in himself. David is a champion of weakness. He is weak in himself having little more then stones and a sling but he comes with a tenacity in the strength of the God of Israel. See what he says to Goliath...I love it!

"You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but i come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and i will strike you down and cut off your head. And i will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands."

David is a warrior of weakness because he knows God is a fierce opponent who will not have his name defiled! The battle is the Lord's and i am lacking strength!

Father, i ask you, the one who gives to those not lacking faith, that you would break me down to the point of suffering for your name that in my weakness i may be moldable by your Spirit and given strength that is unquestionably other than myself, and i will then see your strength and not my own. Remind me that the battle is the Yours, and i will run forward with a fire in my soul ready to do whatever you have asked because i know you are a destroyer of iniquity and a lover of the broken down. Holy, Holy, Holy are you unchangeable King of lilies, chipmunks, and the souls of immortal men on knees of reverence.

Pray for me!!!