I have spent the greater part of the week with a bunch of teenagers from the RDU area at a camp down here in SC. It's been great. One of the guys I met is from the Brier Creek area who came up to me and said, "You dont' know me but I want to thank you and your church for winning my boss to Christ. He started coming to your church and became a Christian there about a month ago. He was my 2nd shift manager, and he used to make us work until 10:00 at night. Now that he's a Christian he lets us all go home at 9 so he can get home in time to read his Bible." That's pretty awesome. People coming to Christ and making the work place a better environment… Thank God, Summit Church, for how He is using you. We don't deserve an ounce of it.
As to the week… we've had a lot of students believe the Gospel and surrender to Christ, which I never get tired of seeing. I spent the first 4 talks going through exactly what it means to be separated from God and what Christ has done for us and how it changes us. I used to take for granted that people in church just "knew" and "understood" that stuff. Not anymore. I spend most of time describing what the Gospel is and what it means. So many people in our churches have no real grasp on Christ's radical Gospel, the Gospel that says that we are accepted not by what we do but by what Christ has done… And even for those who already know the Gospel and are saved, there is nothing that increases their love of God, their hatred of sin, and confidence for the future like dwelling on the Gospel.
Anyway, for those of you at our church… pray for me this week, please. I agree to do these things because God has gifted me to speak with teenagers, and I am praying that when my daughters are teenagers God will anoint and send someone to speak to them to complement what I have taught them at home. And pray for all of our own teenagers these next few weeks, who will be at a similar camp, that they will really encounter Christ. The teenage years are the time that most significant decisions of this nature are made. I am grateful Jason Gaston, our student pastor, lives and breathes winning these guys to Christ. He needs a PRAYING church behind him.
Here's a great article about our church being recognized as one of the top giving to missions churches in the nation. Praise God, Summit!
Praise God for His work in the lives of these students. I have been lifting you up this week J.D. and trust that God is doing great things!
Good word JD. Thanks for this!
kb
Hey J.D.! I came up to you this morning and thanked you for coming but decided to check out your website too. Thanks again so much for coming to speak. God uses you in astonishing ways and I have never seen Him use someone like He did you this past week. I was encouraged, challenged, and blessed, and God spoke to me through you and opened my eyes to parts of Scripture like Gethsemane I will never see the same again.
His,
Erin