Chains be broken
Lives be healed
Eyes be opened
Christ is revealed
Last week was senior high summer camp: over 400 high school students and leaders swarmed Myrtle Beach, SC for five days of preaching, teaching, and total life changes. Well, some total life changes.
Leading up to this camp, my what little thought time I had given to the World Race was simply fear. But, as always seems to happen at these camps, God met me exactly where I was and spoke words of truth in my life.
The message of the week was living a life radically following Christ. The speakers walked through God's word, explaining how the call to Christianity had never been a call to safety, security, and the American dream. Our goal is not to have a nice house and 2.5 kids, it's to throw off EVERYTHING and follow after Christ.
Sometime during the week, during worship, I just got this sense of peace. "You know Natalie," the Lord seemed to be saying, "you could be anywhere right now. But nowhere else will give you the fulfillment that can only come from going where I lead you." And it's so true. Telling students how much their Savior loves them fills me with more joy than any college party ever could. Watching God change lives will always overshadow a night of fun. It's exhilarating and inspiring, and it's all from the Lord.
This Race is a little scary. But if it comes down to stepping out on a limb in faith or sitting back and living a complacent, half dead life, then I want to follow in the footsteps of Abraham, Moses and Rahab, "who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."
