Campanigans 5!

Wow five campanigans already and it seems that I am getting more and more readers. Who knew my fun musings about camp would attract readers?!? Anyway, I will start tonight's campanigans with an interesting little candy that I found on the Internet.

I am a HUGE fan of gummy bears and I mean, who isn't? The little candies are so simple and delicious! Anyways, as I was surfing facebook I got an ad for a 1/2 pound gummy bear. A HALF POUND GUMMY BEAR!! (http://www.vat19.com/dvds/giant-gummy-bear-on-a-stick.cfm?adid=FBKgummi2) This candy even comes on a stick so one can avoid the sticky mess that could ensue when eating this delectable treat. I so want to get one of these and I will sometime soon! Anyway, I just wanted to let you guys know about the amazing treat that I happened to stumble upon the other day. With that said, it is time to get to my camping shenanigans of the day.

Today was a pretty ordinary day and it consisted of quite a long amount of time devoted to preparing for my Bible Study, Apologetics Track, and Guys Track. There are so many things that need to be done between now and when students come but I am so stinking pumped. I don't know what it is about the opportunity to minister to students but it seems that I am completely wired to do student ministry. For dinner tonight we all hit up Moe's and I got a homewrecker that as the burrito maker said was, "the biggest burrito I've ever seen." I honestly don't know why my burrito is any larger than anyone else's. I got your typical homewrecker except I added black olives. Who knew black olives could add so much girth to a stinking 12" burrito? I guess I think about these too much and if you are reading these on a regular basis and are wondering when in the world I will get to the stuff that has significance then skip to the bottom. I almost always save the super spiritual stuff for the bottom so if you don't feeling like listening to my ramblings just skip to the bottom. Anyway, when we got back we all headed to the office where our last day of Bible Study training took place, and here is where the spiritual stuff begins.

In the last night of Bible Study training we talked about Moses and the 10 Commandments. We broke up into two groups and my group discussed the first four commandments that had to deal with our relationship with God. Honestly, I had never thought through the commandments as much as I did tonight but there is so much to pull out. Our assignment was to put the commandments in modern language and this is what we came up with in slightly different terms:

1. God is # 1 -- There are so many times that we allow God t take a backseat, however, God has to be number one in our lives. God should be the first thing we think about when we wake up and the last thing we think about when we go to bed. Now there's a challenge I know all of you readers out there think about my little blog first thing in the morning (only kidding). However, I know it is a struggle for me to check twitter and facebook right after I wake up and right before I get in bed. Our priorities have to be in the right place!
2. God is our 1st Priority -- Honestly this isn't the way we put it but it still has the same principle behind it. God has to be before all of the junk in our lives. Our idols don't come in the means of golden calves but rather in the form of a girlfriend/boyfriend, job, money, or other such things. However, God needs to take precedence in EVERY situation.
3. Represent His name well -- If I was to go into Chester, Virginia and get in some sort of major trouble, my name would be plastered all over the local and potentially even national news. This would now only bring shame to my name but to my whole family's name. This is what this part of the scripture is like. Many people just think of this solely as using a cuss word or something like that and using God's name in vain. However, as a Christians we have God's name all over us all the time. Every time we do something wrong we are shaming God's name because we carry the name of our creator. Just like I can bring shame on the Walters name, so I can bring shame to God's name through my actions.
4. Rest in Him -- The importance here is NOT in the day. I mean if someone wants to make that argument then I could say right back that Jesus did not have sabbath on Sunday but rather on Saturday. Many people may not like the fact that I don't hold the particular day in high esteem but it seems all too often to me that Sundays are our busiest days. When I was a student in the youth group I was basically at church from morning Sunday school till like 8:30pm. The principle here is that we have to intentionally set aside time to be with God. Also, in the Jewish culture, this time is largely spent building family relationships. We have to take time out for a Sabbath with God and while it may not necessarily be on Sunday we have to have that time.
   

God has really been showing and moving in my life and right now I feel closer to God that I have been in a while. With that said, I need to go to bed because I am exhausted and I will not be displaying the love of God in the morning if I don't go to bed here soon. However I have one last thing to say. Tonight I was listening to the names people used for God in prayer and I realized that I often times use the word father when I talk to God. The reason this phrase is so natural is because I had an amazing relationship with my father and so it makes it easy to picture God as my father. With that said, I want to give a shout out to my dad who has been my inspiration to follow God in ministry and who has raised me to be a biblical man of God and thank you mom for always being there to be a comforting shoulder. I hope tonight's campanigans was not too unorganized or all over the place but give me a break I'm tired.

Union Love,
Jason