Encouragement at Camp – And a Brand New Moses Series!!!

These are the 60+ amazing kids and dozen teen staff God sent to camp.

Each chapel service begins with praise songs. The college students who play in the band are very talented.

One of the girl cabins being goofy before chapel. (Can you pick out my daughter, Gabriella?)

The teen counselors are funny. They dress up crazy for games with the campers!

This is really cool. They had a GIGANTIC version of Jenga. Fun! :)

I got to take some time to play ball in the lake with my Golden Retriever. We BOTH had fun with that!

A night-time campfire service. What a wonderful way to close out a super week at camp. Kids shared testimonies of how Jesus changed their lives, we sang praise songs, and I got to teach a Bible lesson one last time. Hallelujah!

This is what the painting looked like when the campfire service was over. This was an evangelistic message on Heaven. The kids learned that everything was perfect in the beginning. Adam brought sin and death into the world by disobeying God. Sin is paid for with death, and only a perfect sacrifice will do. Jesus is that Perfect Sacrifice! He gives us eternal life when we repent and believe the gospel. The best news ever!

On the drive home from camp, I got to stop at one of my favorite churches and preach at two different kids services. What a blessing! There's nothing better than being used by Jesus, and Jesus loves reaching kids. Praise God!

Part 1 of 5 in 'The Gospel Through the Life of Moses.' The Hebrews in Egypt grew in number, so out of fear, Pharaoh subjected them to harsh slavery. He even ordered that the male Hebrew newborns be slaughtered. God saw this and had a plan. A Hebrew woman had a baby boy, and in faith, to protect his life, put him in a basket in the Nile River. God protect the baby from the treacheries of the Nile and guided the child to the daughter of Pharaoh. God made sure that Pharaoh's daughter loved the baby, rather than turning the Hebrew child over to be slaughtered. She named him Moses. Moses grew up with all the luxuries of living in Pharaoh's palace. When he grew up, Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, so Moses killed the Egyptian. Now he was guilty of murder, was sentenced to death by Pharaoh, and had to flee, living in hiding and obscurity as a shepherd. Many years later, as a much older man, God Himself called Moses to rescue God's people. God appeared in a burning bush whose leaves and branches miraculously were not consumed. Instead of the brash young man who killed the Egyptian all those years ago, Moses was humble, even scared. He came up with excuses why he wasn't the right person. But when God calls you, he provides for you and is patient with you. God revealed to Moses that His name is 'I Am That I Am,' meaning that He is 'The Eternal One.' God is holy, perfect, righteous. But He's kind too, even working it out that Aaron would come and help Moses and speak for him, since Moses' speech was not very good. Together Moses and Aaron were heading back to Egypt to command Pharaoh, the most powerful man on earth, to let God's people go. We'll find out how that goes in the next lesson...

Part 2 of 5 in 'The Gospel Through the Life of Moses.' Egypt was not an Atheist Country. They believed in many many gods (lower-case 'g' because they were false gods.) When Moses and Aaron commanded Pharaoh to let God's people go, the Pharaoh said he didn't know this 'God of the Hebrews' and wasn't going to let his workforce go free. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God represented by Moses is the TRUE AND LIVING GOD. Saying no to God has serious consequences. Each time Pharaoh said 'no' to God, he not only hardened his heart, but brought about a disastrous plague. The plagues were more than a punishment or show of power. They were a slap in the face of the many Egyptian false gods. The Egyptians worshipped the Nile as a river god, and God turned the river into blood. They worshipped Heqet, a god depicted as a frog, so God littered the land with frogs. They worshipped gods of agriculture, so God sent locusts and hail and flies to destroy the crops. They worshipped gods of cattle, so God destroyed the cattle. They worshipped the sun, so God sent darkness. Finally, the biggest false god was Pharaoh himself. They worshipped Pharaoh as a god, and God slaughtered the firstborn, including Pharaoh's son. As a false god, Pharaoh was impotent to raise his son from the dead. In great contrast, the True and Living Good of Israel raised His Son from the dead! In order to avoid the plague of death, the Israelites were instructed to kill a lamb without blemish. If they put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their home, then death would 'Pass Over' them. Those who had true faith in God demonstrated their faith by obeying, disobeying the lamb, and spilling the blood. The innocent lamb is a picture of the final lamb who one day would come to spill His blood for His people who respond in faith. This first Passover is a shadow and foretelling of the True Passover Lamb Jesus Christ.

Part 3 of 5 in 'The Gospel Through the Life of Moses.' Despite Pharaoh's hard heart, he eventually let the Hebrew slaves free. We call this 'The Exodus,' add the second book of the Bible gets its name from this amazing event. Over 2 million people left, and the Egyptians even gave them valuables just to be rid of them. This Exodus was a supernatural work of God, aka miracle. How would the people know where to go? God specially lead them with a cloud during the day and fire during the night. Another miracle. When your heart is repeatedly hardened, it's easy for it to keep getting hardened, and that's what happened to Pharaoh. He changed his mind and ordered his army to wipe them out. The Hebrews were an easy target for the Egyptian army because they were trapped against the Red Sea with nowhere to escape. The people were terrified! Despite their lack of faith, God moved the pillar of fire and placed it between the Hebrews and the Egyptians. Another miracle. Not by the power of Moses, but by the power of God, b the sea literally split and there was dry ground. Another miracle. When the Hebrews were safely on the other side, the pillar of fire disappeared and the Egyptian army foolishly went after them. While they were in the sea, God put back the water and drowned the Egyptians. Another miracle. God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, not even His enemies, so neither should we. This is a terrible event. You and I are sinners just like the Egyptians. They got from God what we all deserve. We NEVER EVER EVER want what we deserve. We want Grace (what we don't deserve.) Despite seeing so many miracles, the Hebrews immediately began complaining and showing a lack of faith. Moses even feared that the people would stone him to death. But God is good. Despite the office of faith of the people, God rained bread from Heaven, sent quail for meat, and even produced water from a rock. So many miracles! God is powerful!!!

Part 4 of 5 in 'The Gospel Through the Life of Moses.' God lead the Hebrews to Mount Sinai, but only Moses and Aaron could go up. There is an aspect to God's character that we don't often think about, and that is His holiness. That God is holy means that He is perfect, clean, righteous, set apart, different from us and His Creation. In our natural state we can't even be in God's holy presence without being destroyed. God had a barrier setup around the mountain and any human or animal that crossed it would die. God's shedding holy presence was seen dramatically with a thick cloud around the mountain and fire coming from the top of the mountain. Because God is holy and we are all sinners, we are separated from God. No amount of 'good deeds' can cross the great gulf between God and man. Because of our many sins, every man deserves eternity in the Lake of Fire. Is it hopeless for man? Did Good provide a solution so that sinful man could be with a Holy God? Yes! Because of God's great love and mercy and kindness, He has generously provide a way for sinful man to not only be in the Holy God's presence, but to be adopted into the family of God and have God be our Father. We can be seen by God as if we're righteous! We'll find out God's way for that to happen... In the next lesson.

Part 5 of 5 in 'The Gospel Through the Life of Moses.' Last time we learned about God's holiness and how that's bad news for us because we're not holy. God gave us the Ten Commandments through Moses, not as a checklist to prove how holy we are, but as a mirror to expose how dirty we are. We've all broken God's Law. If we're trying to get to God by the Law, we'll fail every time. How does a sinful human reach a Holy God? We can't. But because of God's great love, the Holy God has reached out to us! Jesus is God. He took on flesh, lived a perfect holy life, and died as a substitute for unholy people. He commands everyone everywhere to repent and believe the gospel, that He died for our sins and rose from the dead. He is alive today and is coming back soon. When we turn from our sins and trust in Jesus, we become Born Again. We literally are adopted into God's family, not because we followed God's Law, but because Jesus followed God's Law. That's called 'grace,' when you get what you don't deserve. We'll never make it to God by the Law. Only by the grace of God.