For those who grew up in Christian homes, we all have that sunday school compartment in our heads, which is usually all the biblical knowledge that we have accumulated over all these years of going to church. But very often, this knowledge is separate from the way we live our lives and a lot of it, we dont fully understand! for me, i finally managed to take some out of this compartment through this camp (:

I thank God for impressing on my heart that i was once DEAD. so dead that i might as well have been lying in a coffin. there was no way that i could have ever been able to do anything, much less bring myself to life. But this Holy Spirit has done the awesome miracle of resurrecting me!

We often think about the Holy Spirit in the sense of the church which is "led by the Spirit", as in the charismatic church. All those things that they do: eg, speaking in tongues, faith healing, slain by the Spirit. Im not saying whether these are right or wrong, because they are not indications that the Spirit is at work, neither are they indications that the devil is at work! But we often look as these miracles, and marvel at the work of the Spirit. But what we should be marvelling at is how the Spirit has done the greatest miracle ever imaginable: He has revived me! (:

He has also given me a new heart at the point of my conversion! "A new heart" is synonymous to "being born again", which was used in John 3 when Nicodemus was asking Jesus how to enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus could have well been insulted when Jesus said that he needed to be born again, because it was almost as if Jesus was saying that he had to be an entirely new person! - aka. completely changing your entire self. haha its almost funny but its true! But the Holy Spirit has done the deed of giving us new hearts and new desires!

I was brought up thinking that i was justified by faith in Jesus, but after that, i would have to work to be sanctified and to please God. But this camp showed me 2 flaws in the above statement. We are sanctified at the point of conversion because we are given new hearts and new desires. And nothing we can do can make God love us any more or any less! We are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus!! I stand amazed (`:

True conversion leads to desires to get rid of sin, but not because we want to prove ourselves to God, to others, or even ourselves. It is not about getting rid of your desires for worldly things, but rather discovering an all surpassing desire that we have for Christ which causes all other desires to pale in comparison! Sin promises satisfaction, but does not deliver, while everything that God promises, He delivers!

I bought a book by Tim Chester called "You can change", and it has been a very convicting read so far! i am starting to understand what having a new heart and full atonement means (yes we have heard it oh-so-many-times in sunday school, but what would my life look like if i were really convicted of these facts?)

Maybe i'll talk more about camp in another post at another time cos this one is getting lengthy, but i am praying for true and lasting change! i'm awesomely thankful for how EVERYTHING has been done IN CHRIST ALONE. its so amazing and sooooo liberating! I know that I WILL change, and that i CAN change because and only because of the Holy Spirit's work in my life (:

At the foot of the cross

where grace and suffering meet

You have shown me Your love

through the judgement You received

At the foot of the cross

Where I am made complete

You have given me life

through the death You bore for me