Let's Go Camping: Spending Time with our Savior

This week we will have a guest speaker, our own Kayla Miller! She is back from her second year at Word of Life Bible Institute and will be sharing about some of the amazing opportunities she has had over these two years.

Since I won’t be teaching, I thought I’d explain a little about the gifts I like to give to the graduates each year. This past Sunday I awarded 4 of our 5 graduates with an ESV Student Study Bible and the 5^th I gave two books: Knowing God by J.I. Packer and Reason for God by Timothy Keller.

One of my hopes as students graduate our youth ministry, is that they will have a fervent desire to be in the Word of God. When Jesus taught in John 15 that He is the vine and we are the branches, He uses the word “abide.” “Abide” is to dwell with, to set up camp essentially.

I love the terminology because it gives me a picture in my mind of going on a camping trip. Growing up my family went camping all the time. I went on a camping back pack trip with my junior high group. I’ve taken the youth group on camping trips. And some of my best friends and I have gone camping together.

On every trip I’ve been on you can bet that I am with people I love and care about. Each trip provides lots of time for intimate conversations around the fire. Without fail, there are certain events that transpire that will draw us closer and create memories that last a life time: whether it be catching a carp with your bare hands, or the tent ripping under the pressure of the water from the thunderstorm, or singing songs together.

So when I read John 15, I almost hear Jesus saying, “I want to go on a camping trip with you.” But it’s not just a trip, it’s for life. He wants that bonding time, that space away from distraction that allows for our guards to drop and real conversations takes place. It’s what we do with our best friends and it always changes us. We have an awesome opportunity to have that with Jesus.

And so I gift the ESV Student Study Bible because it is an excellent resource to help students go deeper and spend time with Jesus. It takes the notes from the ESV Study Bible, which is one of my favorite resources, and then adds commentary and articles that are helpful for students. I hope that the students will apply what they have learned in youth group and continue them as the read the Bible for themselves.

It’s such a great resource that some students get one before graduation and so I gave the two books mentioned above. Knowing God was a text book I read for the first time in seminary. I wish I had read it earlier. When we begin to understand who God is and how we can more intimately relate to Him, it brings a desire for growth. I found this book so very helpful and would recommend it to you.

And Tim Keller’s book, Reason for God, is excellent source for apologetics (how to defend our faith). Keller shows us how to turn the atheists argument around. He helps us see that the Christian faith is not a “leap of faith” but an “reasonable faith.” We have intellectual reasons to believe what we do; therefore, we must engage the mind as much as we engage the heart.

And so I give these gifts, hoping that they will inspire our students to continue on in this journey of faith, to “come and follow me” as our Savior bids them into a deeper walk. I pray the preserver in the faith, that the stand strong in face of temptation, and that the will be beacons of light in this dark world.