A strong Foundation

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have--Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 13:11

I went to church this morning in Sugarland, TX at Sugar Creek Baptist Church. It's the huge, gospel-centered, loving church that I am currently interning at for this summer. God had definitely blessed me with this opportunity to serve with men and women who want to serve, at every age! When I first got here and saw all of the different races and ages, all worshiping God together, I had a powerful culture shock. 

Before the main service I went to a bible study with Roswell that I had been attending for just a few weeks. It held all ages and race together for discussion on major topics of the gospel, which was lead by Don, the Missions Pastor. Towards the middle of the study, he asked us all this question: "Do you have a time where you were just in awe of God?" 

And for some reason, that very moment, I had one of those moments. Where I stopped listening, and I remembered a crucial time in my walk, where I knew God, and claimed that I believed in Jesus, but I did not read my bible much. This moment was almost exactly a year ago, in the most life changing camp I had ever attended in my life. 

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It was after our small groups split up into "guy time" and "girl time." In our group was myself, B-Coop, Austin, our counselor, Andy, and our ministry team guy, Neal. We all sat down and began talking, and what at first seemed like a quiet and awkward time evolved into our hearts trying to figure out what God had in store for our lives as freshmen at Texas Tech University. We shared testimonies, stories, and confessed sin to one another. I could say that that was truly my first time experiencing this with people my age or even close to it.

It came to my turn to speak, and I really did not know where to start. I got to the camp on the first day thinking to myself, "None of these people are like me" or "How can they relate to things I have gone through" and my favorite, "There's like no black people here at all." -So glad I don't think like that anymore!- but, I felt comfortable enough to talk about my life at home and everything with it. And thus, here is why I sat in Awe of God's beauty and affirmed in my heart how "real" He is. I started mumbling, talking, then out came my heart. I started going on about how I've always knew God was real and how He puts us through things so we could grow stronger and have more faith in Him. As I looked up during my out pour, I saw Andy and Neal's faces as they were listening and they opened their bibles and began to flip the pages like madmen. I asked  them, "What's wrong?" (I was not very familiar with the bible at this stage of my life, but I always had a feeling on what God's heart really wanted.) They were looked at each other and told me,"You basically recited like two or three scriptures." I was surprised, but they were astonished! They were saying things like, "this is so sick!" and "God is truly amazing!"

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When I remembered that moment this morning, I could not help but almost leave the room and worship the creator of the universe. Instead I just sat in my chair, almost as if I was in a daze. "Wow, God used that moment to really show me He is God." Back then I didn't know those verses almost at all, now I have the majority of verses dealing with trials and joy, memorized. It is so good to know, that even when I did not know His word well back then, that He still used me to recite it---how crazy is that? It was only a glimpse of what He had in store for my life.

Enough with that wonderful moment, at least for now. After I snapped out of it I thought about how God used the camp, Foundation Retreat, to basically light a fire to my heart, for Him. The name is exactly what it did for me, laid a "foundation", one that will never shatter or give out, Jesus Christ.  

We love because He first loved us.-1 John 4:19 ESV

This is the most vital lesson that I learned from Foundation. It was not from the awesome sermons by John Randalls, or the wonderful music by Davids Plea. It was from the guys and girls that worked the camp. These people did not know me, were not like me, and did not know my heart at all but, because of Christ's love for them, they showed me love! And were intentional about it! I had never seen this from a group of young adults- ever, especially being born in New Orleans. They were for real about their relationships- and if you know my testimony- you'd realize that seeing random people show love to me was a crucial stage for my walk, which would ultimately set me on fire. So the greatest Foundation was laid in my life, Jesus Christ, along with the greatest commandment with it, which I strive for; Christ's love.

Now I'm a counselor for the camp, along with some of the most loving people I know. Only because I want to be a vessel for that one kid who knew God, but didn't KNOW God. I am praying for them now, and praying for the staff and that our hearts are filled with God's love. Because that love is the gospel, and the gospel changed my life.

P.S. Red