After spending the previous week at my church's High School Camp (more on that later in the post), I am happy to announce my return with Bible Verse Sunday #37. Today's verse is one that we studied in one of our camp sessions. Today's verse, courtesy of biblehub.com, is John 3:17:
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
The ESV Study Bible has this to say on the verse:
"send his Son. John's favorite designation of Jesus is that of the Son "sent" by the Father (see also vv. 34-36; 5:19-26; 6:40; 8:35-36; 14:13; 17:1). There was a familiar concept in Jewish life that the messenger is like the sender himself (Mishnah, Berakoth 5.5; cf. John 13:15, 20). Jesus is the Sent One par excellence (cf. 9:7), and in 20:21-22 he in turn sends his disciples (see note there). Being sent (in the case of both Jesus and his followers) implies that the commission, charge, and message are issued by the sender rather than originating from the one who is sent. This verse refers to Christ's first coming. He will return to judge the world at his second coming (5:17-29)."
Today at church the pastor in the main service talked about the importance of confession, about the different types of guilt, and how we shouldn't be tempted to run up the bill on sinning by abusing God's grace. He spoke about how confession leads to reconciliation. In the High School service, packed to the limit by guest attendees, our guest pastor from Northern Ireland, a guy named Paul Bowman, who was the guy who gave the sermons at camp, came to preach to the Highlands group one last time before going home. Pastor Bowman spoke about the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector, and how even the worst people can repent and be saved.
And now... camp. High School Camp is an event I have never before attended, despite my status as a technical senior. I now say that I am glad to have attended. After a long bus ride down into Oregon, we went to the camp, spending a week there. We attended moving sermons given by Pastor Bowman, worshiped with the band Everfound, played games by day and by night, went to the beach, went to the lake, divided into small groups, played other odd games before session, ate, and slept. I participated in a game of Ultimate Frisbee on Monday with several others, including my good buddy Nathan. My team narrowly lost, I'm afraid, but we put up a good game. As for the rest of the week, we did all of the things that I listed, and then some. This included watching about ten people get baptized, including my friends Stephen and Jeff. There was also a concert by Everfound on Thursday night, which attended, and I am so glad they were handing out ear plugs! On the final day, we the seniors went on a hike on this trail to a picturesque waterfall, and got to see it up close. Davis, Westerling, and some others even stood inside of the water pouring down! We had to climb underneath and past this log to get to it, and then over some rocks, but it was well worth it. While on the hike, we had some great conversation between us. It was easily the best day at camp. And that night, after the final session, many people shared what they thought were the best of funniest moments at camp, and how God has worked in them this week. It was all very emotional. We then came home on the bus on Saturday, arriving at about 6:45 P.M. We were finally home.
During camp, I stayed in a large upper room in the lodge building with several other people, mainly freshmen. My small group's counselors were Larry Maison and Sam Piehler. My favorite thing that happened at camp was getting to know all sorts of people (you know who you are). But honorable mention goes to something we did on Friday evening. We had two guys and a girl put on plastic ponchos and hairnets, and then had twenty other people hold these buckets of ice cream Sunday toppings. They held them on top of their heads, and each bucket had a number on it. The three victims had to choose what numbered bucket they would have dumped on their head. The results were pretty gross- and hilarious. One guy got ketchup and relish dumped on his head, mixed with two buckets of chocolate syrup and then potato chips. The girl had to suffer through maple syrup and various cereals. The last guy got chocolate ice cream dumped all over him. I remember bucket holder number seven went first, and bucket holder number sixteen went last. My buddies Nathan, Davis, and Kristin were all bucket holders, and Kristin was the girl who held bucket number sixteen. All in all, it made for a good laugh from the rest of us at the expense of the victims.
Now, here are some upcoming reviews: Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, The Long Walk, The Old Man and the Sea, Star Wars: Knight Errant, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia, Second Edition, and Batman and Robin Volume 1: Born to Kill.
Also, I am still lobbying for questions for a potential Ask Levi! series, which never materialized after I posted about it a few months ago. Please, ask away in the comments section! I crave things to write about! Speaking of which, I also plan to write future posts on reality television, music, Tintin, Artemis Fowl, comic books, Spider-Man, Comics Alliance, and whatever it is you, dear readers, may request. Please, feel free to ask away about what you would like me to write about!
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