Getting Used to It -- Clint's Column for May

Hello group! Thanks for coming to the blogspot. Keep coming back every once in a while to check it out and be encouraged. And be a part of the action -- sign up on the sheet in the youth room to contribute a column!

We're halfway through the month of May already! Hard to believe. In just a few weeks you all will be out of school and enjoying your summer break. The sidebar has some updates on what is coming our way in June. It should be a great month.

Last weekend, we had 12 teens and 6 adults head to Camp Patmos for our annual work weekend. This time we joined a workforce of many people. Our key verse for the weekend was Colossians 3:23 -- "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." Our group did a great job of working hard at a variety of tasks.

A number of people toiled in the pool during the workday, shoveling out sludge of all sorts throughout the day. The smell was awful!! By the end of the day though, we somehow got a bit used to the stink and the disgusting sights. This made me think of something in the Christian life -- how we can used to the awfulness of sin. Acts and thoughts and words that once seemed disgusting to us can easily become "OK" if we're not careful. The media influences us to think of awful things like premarital sex, drinking, vengefulness, mean words, and the like as if they're OK for us. To be healthy Christians, sin needs to "stink" -- like something we don't want to enjoy or touch.

God's Word tells us that "to fear the Lord is to hate evil" (Proverbs 8:13), and it commands us to "hate what is evil and cling to what is good" (Romans 12:9). Let's keep encouraging each other to desire holiness, and never get comfortable wallowing in the sludge of sin.

Go BSBC Youth'ers! Live for Jesus!!


Clint