Great Questions!!!

WOW—this has been a busy week so far…but a fun one!!! I am the “camp speaker” at our summer youth camp at Lake Lanier Island in Atlanta, GA & so I have been driving down there every night to speak and driving back. (Which isn’t a bad thing!!! I discovered a Brusters Ice Cream Shop not far from the camp—so I have been “suffering for Jesus” by stopping every evening and having a scoop or two of birthday cake ice cream…quite possibly the best ice cream I have ever had. If you have not had this ice cream then you need to go get some as soon as possible. Trust me…I am an expert on this! A young lady named Karla in our office recommended this to me & now I can’t stop eating it…it is awesome!)

The high schoolers are down there this week (I think there are around 45 students total.) The middle school went down last week. (I think there were around 120 students.) Props to our youth staff…Sammy, Dustin, Chris, and LB…they have done an incredible job and putting together a top notch camp…and the kids are having a blast.

I wanted the atmosphere of my speaking to be different…and so I did something that I love to do when speaking to youth groups. I did a short talk on Monday night and then I had them take out a piece of paper and told them they could write down any question they wanted to ask me about God, Jesus, the Bible, dating…I told them nothing was off limits. These guys and gals wrote down their questions and handed them in. I mixed them up so I would not know who wrote what…

I must say that I am impressed with our youth group—they asked some great questions! The number one question asked by them is, “How can I have a closer walk with God?” Isn’t that awesome? How about you—have you ever wondered that? Let me give my standard answer…it works for me and I believe it will work for you.

(Don’t worry…I am not going to try to dictate what a closer walk with God looks like…I am trying to discover that for myself.)

I always tell people, “Find out what causes you to fall in love with Jesus and do it a lot.” With some people it is reading the Bible…that’s what it is with me…I love to read the Bible…there are times when I feel as if God is speaking directly to me from His Word.

For others it might be prayer…you can feel the presence of God & Him rocking your world when you pray. This isn’t me…I can’t pay attention for long periods of time. Many times my prayer times will go like this, “God, thank you for today…wow—the carpet is dirty…” I seriously used to think that I was not spiritual because I can not pray for long periods of time…until I discovered that we are not all wired the same spiritually…and that is ok!

(Please do not misunderstand…I do pray…it is just that I pray a lot throughout the day and my prayer times in the mornings are not always very long.)

For some of you it might be singing…if that is it then do it a lot. Get in your car today—go for a drive and sing your heart out. (Please be aware that people in cars next to you will stare…this is ok!!!)

I had a lady once that she told me she felt the closest to God when she went shopping. Uh, I am not sure about this one…I haven’t been able to find a Biblical reference for it. I guess she prays a lot when she shops, “God, should I buy this…”

My challenge today—whatever brings you the closest to God—do it…no one has ever been worse off because of more God time!