Knowing Your Faith

Camp Table Rock is located on Table Rock Lake, the cleanest lake I have ever seen. Every afternoon we pack three hours with boating activities, swimming, and cliff jumping. In order to get on a boat however, you have to wake up earlier than everyone else and push your way through a crowd of sweaty teenagers to sign up for a boat. It is total chaos. My favorite thing to do out on the lake is to ride along with my friends in a tubing boat. It gives you such a sense of freedom with the wind blowing through your hair and water splashing up in your face. 

After we signed up for boat activities we ate breakfast, had our one on one time with God and before we knew it service had started. The morning messages this year were about Knowing Your Faith. "Do you really know what you say you believe? Is this your faith or your momma's faith?" The Christian faith is the most intelligent faith in the world because it has sufficient and reliable evidence. Pastor Rick talked about how faith isn't based on feeling or emotion but on fact. That really hit home for me. It is hard to continue to worship a God that you don't feel close to; however, just because you can't feel Him doesn't mean He isn't there. 

We broke up into our small groups to discuss the sermon before breaking up into groups of two for accountability partner time. I must admit, I used to hate having an accountability partner but this year was awesome. I connected to my accountability partner and shared with her stuff that I haven't shared with anyone before. We both opened up to each other and it made for a great week. 

It was already time for lunch and group games came afterwards. The game we played was a field game. I can't recall what the name of it was but someone thew a ball into the air and if your number was called you had to go after it and hit someone with it to get them out. It would have been fun except it was just so hot outside and I could feel my skin burning beneath the sun. 

After group games it was lake time. To get on the dock you have to say a Bible verse that you memorized that morning. This is hard for me; I am horrible at memorization. With the help of my friends I got onto the dock and we went tubing. I tubed for the second time of my life; it was painful and I am still not sure why people love it so much but it did give you an adrenaline rush. 

We got back to the dock without any incidents and floated around in the water for a while before going back to our cabins to shower and get ready for the evening. After dinner there are volleyball and basket ball tournaments. I don't usually participate and it was so hot that the girls in my cabin stayed inside and talked until evening service. 

Each evening service is about a topic that everyone tries to avoid. That night the topic was on rethink truth about sex. Pastor Rick talked about how the media glorifies sex outside of marriage and how we should save ourselves for our spouse. Again, the alters were full after service and when we had cabin devotions everyone had something to share about their struggle. 

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. 

Ephesians 5:3