the new perspective on the cross

Recently i've been hearing this and seeing this problem from a few sources. I believe i first read about it in something Piper wrote, although i can't remember what it was. i'm not even sure that it was Piper, but I digress. It seems that a large focus of the gospel has become telling people that they are worth a lot more than they believe they are because Jesus died for them. The frame of mind goes like this: God is so interested in making you a child of God that he went as far as to send His son to die for you. That is how much you are worth to God. I'm not sure how this thinking came about, but i have to say that I've fallen prey to it. I'm not saying that man isn't important to God, but I don't think that is nearly the most significant thing in the death of Christ.

The most significant thing in the death of Christ is what it tells us of God's hatred of sin. On Saturday morning at camp I spoke on this subject and in preperation I realized that Christ more had to die because of our sin more than because of our worth.

If you read through Isaiah 53, it doesn't speak to the value of man nearly as much as it speaks of God's distaste for sin. "he was wounded for our transgressions. he was crushed for our iniquities." "the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all." Verse 10 drives this point home by saying it pleased the Lord and was His will to crush his son and put Him to grief. the amazing thing about the death of christ is not so much God's love for man, but God's hatred of sin.

Back From Camp

Yesterday afternoon we returned from our camp and we just had a blast up there. The teaching times were great and impactful and we're praying that the decisions that were made stick. We had a blast speeding down the Alpine Slide and Water Slide and we got to go on the go-carts and mini golf. For the record, I beat Leah by 13 strokes and that was with stopping at 5 strokes on all the holes. When we were on the go-carts i kept getting yelled at for driving to aggressively. there was this one 7th grade girl i kept trying to pass but she kept swerving when i'd get next to her, which would then get us stuck up against the wall. I kept trying to pass her and she was just swerving. I finally got next to her and she had one hand on the steering wheel and another holding a camera up to her eyes. She would try to take a picture, then lower the camera and try to get the cart straight again.

we went out on the lake and went banana boating, which is a thing where a boat pulls a large inflatable banana looking thing. the kids love it. Then i took a jet ski out for a little over an hour and took the kids around the lake on it. By the end, I was so freezing because none of the kids wanted to be flipped off the jet ski. I just kept flying across the lake, getting sprayed by water and freezing in the wind. At the end of the time i was on it, i hadn't stretched my legs and they were practically frozen stiff. i couldn't step off the jetski, instead had to roll off onto the dock and lay there for a little bit and try to bend my legs. but the kids had a really good time, and that's whats important.

The teaching times were such a blessing. the kids really responded to the word being preached and came up with specific ways to change their lives. They loved the worship times and the small group times. God was just so good. And Ian and Matt would be interested to know that I did the military skit (minus the classic shin guard guns) they had done at snow camp years ago. The kids really got it and it was just a great illustration to what I was talking about.

we'll have pictures on the website soon, so you can go check that out!