Becoming John 3:16 Billboards

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 is one of the most recognized verses in the Bible. Most kids who have set foot in a church know this verse. You see it on bilboards, T-shirts, and at almost any sporting event you can see the sign held up some place in the stands. My prayer is that I can be a John 3:16 billboard. That when people see me I am pointing them toward Jesus. 

 

I have a 5 year old son named Brayden.Brayden sticks out in his classroom, because he is as big as most the 3rd graders. Not only is he huge he is also autistic and kind of talks funny. So he gets a lot of stares and gets made fun of at times. Even adults expect more out of Brayden because he is big. Trips to the store often earns us plenty of stares, looks and people shaking their heads.

But Brayden has some really cool things going for him. He loves Jesus. Jesus calms him and he knows Jesus helps him through hard times. We pray at bedtime and when we don’t Brayden struggles going to sleep. When we pray for him his mind slows down and sleeps almost instantly. We pray in the morning waiting for the bus and we ask Jesus to help him through the day. Brayden is starting to pray on his own. The other day he told his mom that he wanted to pray for the mean kids on the bus and then he did it. It is awesome to see him praying for me his mom and other people. Not when we ask him to, but when he feels led.

Brayden is the most caring and compassionate kid in his school. He is the first to help someone when they are hurt or drop something. He now gets hugs from all the other kids when he walks down the hall. He took a new kid on the bus back to the mean kids and said this is my new friend. He is new and don’t be mean to him. Brayden gets it. Brayden in his own way is living the way Jesus wants us to live. Although Brayden has not accepted Jesus in his heart, that we know of. He knows that he needs Jesus to make it through the day. Brayden knows he can’t do it on his own.  And neither can you or I. I am not a good person without Jesus in my life. He has changed me and he wants to change you.
 

When we accept the gift of Jesus he starts to make changes in our lives and we start to become like him. We should become billboards that point people to Jesus. We should be living John 3:16 signs at sporting events, to our neighbors and in our places of work. We also get to live with Jesus for eternity in heaven.

Circleing Circles

The staff at Camp Living Waters have been doing a study of the book Circle Maker by Batterson. It is a book about praying circles around your biggest dreams and greatest fears. It has been helping expand our thoughts on prayer.

 

We have been praying circles around camp, finances, staffing, building projects, campers, and friends battling cancer. We have seen God's hand at work in all these areas.

 

On the weekend of March 8th we were blessed to be serving the Elders from Banner of Christ UB Church. Saturday afternoon they blessed us by praying circles around ours. They prayed all over camp. It was a huge blessing and encouragement to our staff to see a retreat group taking the time to pray all over camp for the things we had been circling in prayer.  Thank you Banner Elders and thank you God for the answers you have given and those still to come.



Banner of Christ UB Church Elders

 

True Friends

“As soon as he was finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”             1 Samuel 18:1

How many friends do you have on Facebook? One hundred? Two hundred? A thousand? More? Now, think about why they are listed as your friend. Are they actually someone with whom you discuss issues of life, or take advice from? Can you describe those people, including their likes/dislikes, goals in life, struggles they are dealing with? Maybe you can, or maybe you have been sucked into trying to see how many people you can have listed as your “friend”.

It feels good to have lots of “friends”, but if you really needed help, how many of them would be able to come to your aid? There are lots of relationships in our lives. There are relationships that you have no control over, like your family. There are relationships that are not good influences in our lives. And there are relationships that we would be wise to keep. As Christians, we are called to be friendly towards all people, but friends with a few.

True friendships require a lot of work. A lot of time, energy, and investment go into them, so we can’t afford to have tons of friendships. They are carefully cultivated from the ground up. They are the people that we confide in and share our happy, sad, frustrated, and disappointed times with. They are the people we turn to for advice. When we need help, they are there for us.

Read 1 Samuel 18-20. A great Biblical example of one of these friendships is between David and Jonathan. What attributes do you like about David and Jonathan’s relationship? Are there people in your life that are like Jonathan? How many people can you call your true friend? If you can’t think of anyone, maybe you need to answer this question, “Who are your real friends?”

The Light Summons Saul to go All In

The Light

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way,  men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” Acts 9:1-5

Light has an amazing affect on things as it reveals to us the reality of situations. A doctor uses light to look down your throat the same way a dentist looks for cavities using a light or a mechanic looks at an engine. A common saying is that things are “brought to light.” We have to go through something similar with God, having all of our old life brought to the light in order to see where we are falling short.

Saul, later re-named Paul, was a murderer of Christians before he ever came to know Jesus. This passage is the pivotal point, in which, Jesus changes one of the greatest persecutors of that time. Jesus is calling Saul out, revealing his flaws. Meanwhile, Jesus is revealing His own power to the amazement of Saul and his companions. In the same moment, Jesus is beginning to light the way for Saul.

Camp gets very dark after the sun goes down. I’ve found myself nearly on the ground many times when I don’t have a light of some sort to help me along the way. Without a flashlight, I could end up anywhere! This is exactly what Jesus is trying to do for Saul, and you, light the way to life. Will you let Jesus light your way?

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”  John 8:12

Blind!

And he said, “Who are you Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Acts 9:5-9

Light also has another effect on us from time to time. Going from darkness to light suddenly can blind us as our eyes adjust. It can even be a bit painful. When God suddenly reveals His glory to us, it also reveals our short-comings. This is a painful process that we need to go through in order to come closer to Him.

Saul rises to find that he is completely blind! How scary is that?! He hears the voice of Jesus telling him simply to go into the city and wait for directions. It takes a lot of faith on his part to do it because he’s been persecuting the followers of Jesus. Not only is he following orders from the Jesus whom not seconds before he was hating, but is now also blind and has to fully trust that God knows what is best.

We go through a very similar process when we become Christians.  God reveals His glory and we respond by following Him. Then we go through a period where we don’t know how to do something He’s asking us to do. We are, in essence, blind.

The key here is that Saul didn’t just give into woe and become a blind beggar on the streets. He simply trusted and did as he was asked. You see, God is going to ask you to follow Him to places that you may not understand or even see the purpose of. It is your choice to either become a blind beggar or follow God’s lead.

All In

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name?” Acts 9:19-21

So Saul goes into the city and waits for further direction, as Jesus had told him to. A man named Ananias receives a vision telling him to find Saul and lay hands on him for healing. Saul has such a horrible reputation that Ananias is shocked and asks him if this is the same Saul that had been killing Christians. The Lord’s answer in Acts 9:15—16 is really cool here, ‘But the Lord said to him (Ananias), “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”’

Saul had made so many suffer for the name of Jesus and now it was his turn. Now we know that Saul later became Paul who wrote a large portion of the New Testament and suffered in horrible ways for the name of Jesus. The great thing is this; There is such an awesome testimony to God’s power when a man who hates Jesus, comes to Him and gives up his life for Christ.

Even after all that he’d done to kill Christians, he immediately began proclaiming Jesus to the temple! He, of all people, knew that the persecutors were seeking to kill Christians, yet as soon as God’s glory was revealed, and he regained his sight, he went all in. There was no hesitation in Saul, he simply knew what he had to do. Our hope and prayer is that as you begin to follow Him, you’ll go all in for Jesus.