So, I said I would try to post updates on camp…obviously that did not stay very consistent. Camp has been…well…crazy. That is an extremely lame description, but I’m a bit tired and cannot think of a more poetic way of putting it. I feel very sporadic at the moment, so excuse my terrible grammar and punctuation. Also, allow me to express my life in a list:

wake up, prepare breakfast, serve breakfast, prepare lunch, serve lunch, clean up, BREAK! (craft shack, ukulele/guitar playing) prepare dinner, serve dinner, clean up, CHAPEL!, devos, bed, rinse and repeat.

Here is what I have learned:
-lettuce and brooms do not work well together
-at miracle camp, it is perfectly fine to yell that you don’t care if the trees all burn and that you eat wolves. (don’t ask.)
-scripture memorization….yes, please.
-it is possible for camp aides to listen to the same skillet song 50 times without getting tired of it…no matter how annoyed the kitchen staff may be.
-Many times, we live up to the expectations placed upon us, despite how inaccurate they often are.
-Knowing about someone and/or God is very different than knowing someone and/or God.
-Junior highers are impressed by even the least impressive of talents.
-I sing like Dorothy from Wizard of Oz (Judy Garland? I’ll take it.) This was according to a junior high camper, of course.
-People can go to church their entire lives and still not know what they believe or why they believe it….and most importantly, they don’t know the Jesus they claim to follow.
-I have also learned how to slice tomatoes and cucumbers like a pro.

Well, the list could go on and on…but, there you have it folks. My camp experience. In a list. I’m an English major and I can’t make myself write a coherent paragraph. Camp does crazy things to you. But crazy things happen. People find God. Lives are changed.

It’s summer! Well, not technically, but close enough! Basically, this means a lot of things are changing, for me anyway. This summer I will be working at Miracle Camp in Lawton, Michigan. I will be on kitchen staff/co-counselor of sorts. I am really excited to see how God works through the summer at camp. I know it is going to be a summer different than any summer I have ever experienced, but that makes me even more excited!

In about twelve hours, I will be on the road to Michigan. I ask that you guys will keep me in your prayers this summer as I do my best to live a life that reflects that of Christ. Pray for patience, perseverance, and for a love that cannot be contained. I will probably stop writing sermon-style blogs (as I like to call them) for the time being. I am going to try to do a weekly update of my time at camp, sharing stories and encouraging tidbits of my week. I want to have documentation of what God will be doing over the summer that others can see and experience. I hope that my posts can be reminders of God’s faithfulness and his unfailing love. I’m ready for an exciting summer! Are you?

PS: If any of you have prayer requests for the summer, leave a comment or message me on facebook and I’ll be sure to go through those!

Today as I was browsing the internet, I was looking at all of the advertisements on the side of the page.  I noticed how many of them had to do with this company or organization having some sort of vital information that we need to know.  Out of curiosity, we click on the advertisement to find the answer.  When the page loads, we find out that we must pay the “low” sum of $19.95 to get this information that we crave.  There are things like “One secret to get rid of that belly fat” or “one secret to keep you young that you would never guess.”  They have this “new” information that they think we should know, but when we want to find out, we have to pay.  If it’s so great and life-changing, wouldn’t these people want to share it freely? Wouldn’t they want to share it with the world?

Sometimes I wonder why people who know the saving power of Jesus Christ are so hesitant to share it with others.  Whether through words or actions, those who know Christ should not be able to keep from proclaiming Him and who He is.  Unfortunately, the opposite usually occurs.  We are like those advertisements.  We have the secret to life, which isn’t a secret at all, and we keep it to ourselves instead of sharing it with the world.  It should be shown in our lives, and we should not be hesitant to talk about Christ.  For “We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.”  We need to be declaring Christ in action and in truth.  Why keep such joyous news to oneself?

In Matthew 7, Christ says “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  If there are people seeking, why would we keep this gift from them?  Be bold.  Share truth.  Share it with everyone.  Love everyone as Christ does.  It is no easy task.  It is a lifestyle of love.  It is the intentional proclamation of truth and love into the lives of others.  Don’t be an advertisement that has a secret it wants to keep.

My close friend and our new blogger on fwil, Jess Gru, has a strange habit of referring to garbage receptacles as rubbish bins instead of trash cans.  It is just one of her many quirks that make her so lovable and fun.  I rarely heard the word rubbish before I met her, but the other day in my quiet time I cam across it in one of my favorite passages of scripture, Philippians 3:7-11.  In this passage, Paul explains how he has come to realize that nothing can ever measure up to the sacrifice of Christ and the hope believers have in Him…everything else is rubbish.

^7″But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

To truly understand the magnitude of what Christ means to our lives, we must break this down and digest it bit by bit.  Verse 7, the first verse of the passage, is a great place to start.  This verse is saying that we as believers should not be focused on seeking credit or praise for good things, because we deserve nothing in light of Christ’s sacrifice.  He did more on the cross than we could ever hope to do in our entire lives.  No culmination of great deeds, events, or accomplishments could ever dream of coming close to the enormous worth of those hours that our Savior spent on the cross.  Do not forget how great of an event this act was!  This verse is also important when remembering that what we truly deserve is not praise for our “good” deeds, but death for being so utterly sinful and imperfect in the sight of a holy God.  Thankfully, Christ changed that for us in his one act of love and of sacrifice.

The passage continues on to say that not only should we completely forget about seeking credit for our good deeds, but that we should realize that everything that once held value in our earthly lives is nothing when compared to knowing Christ, the one who shed his precious blood on the cross for an undeserving people.  Verses 8 and 9  is where Jess’ favorite word, rubbish, comes into play.  “I consider [all things] rubbish…”  When compared to knowing truly knowing Christ, all other things seem bleak and unimportant.  Are you living each day as if you were bought for a price?  If you have accepted Christ as your savior, you were bought for a price that you could never repay.  Fortunately, you do not have to repay it.  That is the love and mercy of Christ.

Many people think that Christians are people who do good things, more out of obligation than out of actual love, in order to be “good” people.  I have recently talked to several people about what they believe Christianity to be, and they have all stated that it is something akin to living a good life, being a good person, etc.  While this is a noble thing, to live in a respectable manner, it leaves Christianity without its root word…Christ.  Where does He come in to the faith that so many Americans claim, but do not really understand?  Was He just a nice Jewish kid with a hammer who liked hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors and liked to tell us stories to help us be better people?  Or is He what He claimed to be, the Son of God, the perfect sacrifice of love?

When we look at verse 9 of this passage, we see that being a Christian does not mean being perfect, although we are to strive to be like Christ.  Being a follower of Christ, or a Christian, means accepting Him.  It means believing in the fact that sin separates you from God, but that Christ died to make you clean in the eyes of a Holy God.  He died so that you and His Father, could be reunited in love, despite your fallen state.  Jesus was not just a teacher, here to tell humanity that they should live more righteously.  He came to provide righteousness through His blood.

What does this all mean?  It means that we could never work our way back to a righteous standing with God.  Everything we try to do to make ourselves righteous in God’s sight is like throwing dirty rags at His feet.  Only Christ can restore our relationship with God.   So now, not only what we thought was so important is now rubbish, but anything we try to do, without Christ, to gain a correct standing with God is also rubbish.

Christ came to offer us a righteousness apart from the Law.  A righteousness we cannot ever obtain on our own.  Imagine spending your whole life trying to obtain perfection.  You would fail and fail again.  Your life would be one plagued by guilt and the desperate feeling of never being able to reach the goal for which you are striving.  Christ came to save you from that.  Will you take the offer, or will you spend your life wallowing in rubbish?

  I have this strange addiction to old jazz music.  It is only a strange addiction because I was born in 1991…not exactly smack dab in the jazz era.  Despite this, love the music of Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong.  I blame most of my addiction on my dad, who played this music constantly when I was growing up.  One of my favorite songs he would play is “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole.  In this song, Cole sings to the woman with whom he is in love, saying “unforgettable that’s what you are…”  It is a beautiful love song that I will probably always enjoy.

In response to this song, I realized I have always loved the idea of being unforgettable.  Who doesn’t want always remain in someone’s thoughts?  This is especially true when you deeply care for this person as well.  Although this song is one of my favorites, I have never truly known what it means to be unforgettable.  I find that when I meet people, they have a difficult time recognizing me the next time we see each other.  It can be frustrating, or just saddening when people do not remember who you are.  This has happened to me several times recently, and I have come to the conclusion that I am just not very memorable. 

When I really think about it, I can remember people pretty well.  If I do not rmember their name, I at least recognize them or remember bits and pieces of a previous conversation we shared.  This may be why I feel so unimportant and forgettable when people cannot recall ever seeing me before.  This realization made me wonder how Christ must feel when I forget about the ultimate sacrifice he made by dying on the cross for my sins.  How many times throughout my day am I really focused on living my life in light of his sacrifice?  Unfortunately, I realize that I forget Christ much more than other people forget who I am.  If I am frustrated by the fact that I am not remembered from a single conversation, how much more should I remember what Christ did and live in response to his act of love and obedience.

The Bible instructs me to think on his sacrifice, and to take up my cross daily.  How can I take up my cross when I never remember what Christ did on his cross?  Does this apply to you at all?  Do you get upset when people cannot take the time to remember your name, but forget Christ on a daily basis?  Think about it….I know I am.  I know Christ is “unforgettable…in every way…”   It’s time I start living like he is.

There have been many times in my life where I find myself marveling at God’s creation.  Many of those times have taken place sitting under a blanket of stars while talking with a close friend or two.  The vast, open sky above always reminds me of just how big God is…it also reminds me of how small I am in comparison. On my trip to the Dominican Republic this summer, our group had the opportunity to stay at a resort for the last few days of the trip.  While splashing around in the pool during the day was fun, nights were the best.  The first night, the whole group went to the beach.  We found the darkest, quietest spot we could, plopped down on the cold sand, and sat in silence for quite a while…just breathing in the scent of the ocean and looking at the sky that was sprinkled with dazzling diamonds. It was one of the many times on the Dominican trip that I was “gripped by the greatness of God.”  Seeing the work of His hand on such a breathtakingly large scale left me in complete awe.  It was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen…it is hard to describe in simple words.

One of my other favortie sights is watching the sun rise or set. While on my recent vacation to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, my cousin and I decided to wake up early one morning to watch the sun rise on the beach.  I, not being a morning person, found it hard to motivate myself to wake up at an hour I forgot even existed in the morning.  Once we got to the beach, walked along the shore, and watched the sun peep up over the clouds, I knew it was worth it.  Even in a cloudy morning sky, the rays of sunlight peirced through, revealing a tapestry of blues, purples, and yellows.  I couldn’t help but begin jokingly singing the opening song from The Lion King as the sun began to ascend into the sky, but later,  as I walked along the beach admiring the creation of my God, I began to sing songs of praise to Him.  Seeing something so beautiful and knowing he created it, and that he orchestrates it, made me want to give back to Him what he deserved…my undivided worship.

One thing that struck me in both of these situations is how amazed I am by what God has made.  I often think there can be nothing better than those sights I was able to set my eyes upon, if only for a brief period of time.  The thing is, while God created all of those amazing aspects of nature, not one of them was made in His image.  The craziest part of this whole thing is that we, that’s right, humans, are made in the image of God.  In other words, we belong to him completely.  We are to be like Him.  I don’t know about you, but that seems like an awful lot to live up to!  I mean, I don’t think I am anywhere near as beautiful as a sky full of glistening stars or a sunrise early in the morning, but I am made in the image of my God.  Therefore, I need to be much more beautiful than the stars, the sunrise, or the towering mountains.  I need to shine like a star in this dark world.  So next time you find yourself amazed by God’s creation, step back and realize you are seen as even more precious to God than those captivating scenes in nature…and you have a purpose that is more than you have ever dreamed.

Another thing I think about when I see beautiful landscapes is the fact that no matter how beautiful they may be, nothing can ever measure up to the glory and the splendor of the throne room of God.  I love that God makes these beautiful things and lets us gaze upon them, all the while having this spectacular place we could never even come close to picturing as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6.  Remember the description from my last blog?  Now picture the most beautiful sight you have ever seen.  The throne room is better.  Think of places you dream of visiting because they are known to be beautiful. The throne room is better.  Imagine all the things you ever desired all piled up in one room to which you hold the key.  The throne room is better!  Let that sink in for a little while…see if it changes your perspective on God’s holiness.

Next post will hopefully be next week…I am trying to adjust to college life at the moment, so grant me some mercy prayers are appreciated as well!

A few weeks ago, I returned from a mission trip to the Dominican Republic.  Before I left for the Dominican, I was trying to prepare myself spiritually for what was to come.  Something that struck me right away was that my view of God had become cloudy and small…which explained why it was so easy to make other things the center of my attention and focus.  In order to get myself out of this rut and back on track, I began reading Isaiah 6…every day.  I would just read it over and over again.  If you know anything about Isaiah’s account in Isaiah 6, you know that it is describing the very throne room of God.  Isaiah, whether it was in a dream or a vision or something else, was able to see the throne room of God.  Whoa.  If that doesn’t seem to impress you much…then definitely keep reading.  His account should help you to see God in a new, big way.

Isaiah begins describing the throne room of God right from the get-go in chapter six.  It is almost as if there is a sense of urgency…Isaiah cannot wait to tell his account of the throne room.  He begins by saying that he saw the Lord, high and exalted.  Those last words are very important.  If we want to have a bigger view of God, we need to see Him as being “high and exalted.”  He isn’t just this God I can shove in my pocket until I really need Him again…He is HIGH and EXALTED.  Why is He high and exalted? We’ll ask the seraphim in the next paragraph.  The other interesting part about this is that Isaiah mentions that the train of God’s robe fills the whole temple.  The train of a robe signifies the honor of the person.  God’s robe is filling the entire temple.  Think about that while we move on to the seraphim…

The seraphim are angels that dwell in the throne room of God and do whatever He desires them to do.  They are extremely reverent.  They have six wings that have different purposes.  Two are used for flying around to do the will of the Sovereign.  Another pair is used to cover their feet as a sign of respect.  Feet are unclean, and they do not want them to be exposed in the presence of God.  The last two are for covering their eyes.  Our God is so incredibly holy that no one can look upon Him and live. This is why they cover their faces…in order that they may not see the face of the Holy one. This brings me to my next point about the seraphim. Not only do they readily, eagerly, and fearfully serve Him, but they also have another very important job.  Their other job is to declare His holiness without ceasing.  All day and all night, throughout eternity, the seraphim say the following:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

One thing that caught my interest was the fact that they say the word “holy” three times.  In James MacDonalds book “Gripped by the Greatness of God” he explains that in Hebrew words were repeated for emphasis.  He uses the example of a pit.  If someone fell into a really deep pit they would say “pit, pit.”  The fact that “holy” is repeated three times in a row shows just how holy God truly is.  Let’s take a minute to define the word holy.  Holy means to be set apart, to be different.  Another definition of holy is inspiring fear or awe.  So, let’s think about this for a moment.  If God thinks it’s necessary to have seraphim that declare his holiness without ceasing, how holy can He be?  It’s crazy to think about.  God is so holy, so transcendently seperate, that no man or angel or any other creature can look upon his face and live.

Once we understand God’s holiness and how amazing he truly is, we must decide how to respond.  Isaiah’s response is exactly how one should react when they see God’s holiness.  He is instantly so aware of his own filth and sin he is absolutely overcome.  He yells the following in response to seeing God’s holiness:

“Woe to me! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips,
and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

The vision God gave Isaiah all but destroyed him!  In the presence of absolute perfection, Isaiah was suddenly and terribly aware of his own sin.  I’m sure there were many, many things going through Isaiah’s mind during this amazing, life-changing moment.  He had to be thinking something along the lines of, “This perfect, holy God is the God that loves me?  This is the God I have opposed through my sin and selfish desires?!  What have I been doing with my life?”  Isaiah’s reaction shows that he understands God’s holiness.  The question now is, do you understand God’s holiness?  Does it make you want to change your life?  Does it strike fear in your heart?  Is it a fear that makes you want to drop to your knees? If not, go over this passage again and again. Imagine yourself in Isaiah’s shoes.  Read it until you understand the power and the holiness of the God you claim.

Remember that understanding Gods holiness is important for several reasons:

1. It helps us understand the depth of our sin

2. It helps us understand Christ’s great sacrifice

3. It makes us realize our need for a savior

God’s holiness is terrifying.  While it is important to remember that God is merciful and loving, we must never forget his holiness.  After all, the angels declare God’s holiness without ceasing…not His love and mercy.  There is a quote from C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia where one of the children is asking about Aslan.  I think it applies very well to our God as well.  It is somehting like this:

“Is he safe?”   “Of course he is not safe! But, he is good.”

Remember…our God is not a safe God.  He is far too holy to be safe.  However, He is good. Everything about Him is good.  Get to know God for who He really is and wait for your life to be transformed.

-Katie

PS: Tune in next week for another blog concerning God’s holiness

My friend Michelle is an excellent ballroom dancer. On Monday nights, she hosts a neighbors and friends ballroom dance lesson in her garage. This past Monday was the first lesson I was able to attend, although there have been many. It goes without saying that I was a tad bit behind. Several of my friends had been attending these lessons for several weeks and were well versed in the steps, while I was left stumbling and tripping. However, I found it much easier to do dances like the cha-cha and the rumba when I had another dancer leading me. In ballroom dancing, the male leads the woman in the dance steps. A touch, a look, or a movement can signal a new step approaching. It is the female’s job to follow the lead in order to be a successful dance couple. I could see the ease in my steps when I had someone leading me. It was less of me dancing alone, trying to figure out which step is next…it was more of me depending on the lead to tell me where to go and what to do next.

I couldn’t help but see the parallel between ballroom dancing and the Christian faith. Okay, so maybe I’m stretching this a bit, but stick with me. Consider yourself, if you are a Christian, to be the female dancer (I know this is a stretch for you, guys, but please try J ). Now, imagine that God is the lead. Instead of a touch, a look, or a gesture of the hand to signal his will for your life, He gives you his words, his love, and his amazing grace. He is leading you through life. If you, as the follower, decide that you want to take over and try to do your own moves, you will stumble and fall. I learned this the hard way when I was learning to follow a lead in dancing. There were times when the lead would be trying to tell me to go into a step, but I wouldn’t pay attention to what he was trying to convey. Instead, I would try to do the move that I thought would be good to do next. This always ended up in me tripping over my partner’s feet or looking utterly ridiculous. It is the same way with God. If I try to do what I think is best, while ignoring God’s hints as to what I should do, I will fail. And this kind of failure won’t be just tripping over someone’s feet. It will be more like going through an unnecessary life struggle because I tried to do things my way instead of God’s way.

So, I leave you with this: take your place as the follower and let God be your lead. When you are tempted to go off and do your own moves, realize that God is the one you are following, and if you do not obey him, you will stumble and fall. It is inevitable. Let Him be your guide, and he will “guide you on paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

-Katie

Hello everyone…I am sorry that my last post was in (I hate to admit this) February.  The problem is, or was, I should say, that I was so dry spiritually the last few months.  Dry as the desert.  Christians go through little things called “dry spells”, and that is definitely how I would describe my life lately.  It wasn’t as if I wasn’t learning things about God’s word or participating in chuch activities, because I was.  My heart just wasn’t in it.  One thing that really effected my faith was how little I would open my Bible.  Being a senior, my last few months have been so busy, and the times I should have been focusing on God, I was too worried about selfish things.  This effected my whole life.  I wasn’t as happy, as loving, or as gracious. 

Recently, I remembered that my life is about so much more than me.  In fact, my life wasn’t created for me, but for God.  I think this realization has led me to come back to my Father, who has been patiently waiting for me to return.  His voice has been calling the whole time, I just have been so preocupied with the wrong things I wasn’t able to hear.

In case you are wondering where I’m going with all of this, I just wanted to explain to you why I have not been blogging.  When I’m not feeding myself, I can’t feed anyone else either.  I hope that as I come back to the right priorities in life, I will have new and exciting things to share with all of you.  I must say, it’s nice to be back! 

Katie

PS: If any of you have any questions for me or anything you would like me to help you with, e-mail me at katelynnccassel@cedarville.edu  hope to hear from you!

Life is not easy.  If you are anything like me, you find it hard to manage all of the activities you are involved in, work, and school work.  Sometimes, my busy schedule burns me out so much, I don’t even know how I can handle it for much longer.  As horrible of a reality that situation is in my own life, there are people out there who are suffering in ways I cannot even imagine.  There are children dying from cancer, families mourning over the loss of a loved one, and people all over the world being abused and neglected.  When I think about people in these unfortunate circumstances, it makes me realize how small my problems are compared to theirs.  Most of all, it makes me wonder why God would allow these terrible things to happen.

   Why does God allow innocent people to suffer?  Why does it seem as if people are pushed to the limit, both emotionally and physically, everyday.  Why doesn’t God make things easier for us…especially for those who pray earnestly to him?  Is it because we are at the hands of a merciless God?  By no means!  I think if we would take the time to realize how merciful God has already been to us, we would stop asking for so much. 

  Although this is true, that does not really answer the question.  The truth is, God delights in our weakness.  Now, don’t take this the wrong way, as many people do.  This simply means that God likes us when we are broken because then we can trust in him for everything.  Sometimes, God has to take us through a rough patch in life so that his glory and might can be revealed.  A good example of this is in John 9:1-7.  In this passage, there is a  blind man.  Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus if the man or his parents had sinned.  Jesus replied that the man was born blind so that God’s work could be displayed in his life.  Soon after that, Jesus healed the blind man and he could see.  God made this man blind, so that Jesus could heal him.  The man relied on Jesus to help him.  God wants  us to rely on him in our problems as well.  He love us so much, and it hurts him to see us hurt, but he does it for our own good.

  Now that we know why God has us go through suffering, what should our response be?  Well, in James chapter one it says: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you become mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  Joy?  How are we supposed to be cheerful when family members are dying, or we are facing a situation that seems impossible to overcome?  Well, joy is not defined as cheer.  Joy is the deep sense of well-being that you have when you know God is in control of everything.  If you know that God is in control, you should have a calm assurance that what he is doing is right.  This leads to perseverance, which leads to a deeper understanding and love of God.

  When you are faced with trouble, pray that God will help you through the situation, not that the situationwill magically change.  One of my favorite quotes is this: “Don’t ask God for an easier path, ask him for stronger shoes.”  Think about it.  Pray about it.  Be joyful in the midst of fear, pain, and suffering.