Hard to believe its been over a month since I last posted. A lot has happened since then including our family vacation to California (friends, family, Disneyland, the beach, San Diego Zoo and the Mission at San Juan Capistrano). It was a wonderful trip. I followed that up by serving as a counselor at Open Door Fellowship Church’s Jr. High Camp. I spent a week sleeping in a tent with six 7th and 8th Grade boys, running around the woods, climbing in caves, jumping in creeks, teaching wilderness survival and killing a rattlesnake (too small to cook up). A personal highlight was being there with my daughter Rachel, and celebrating her 12th birthday during the week. I’m a blessed man.

Beyond all of that, God spoke powerfully and sweetly to me during the week. The theme of the camp was “Further Up and Farther In.” Nicole Hunter is Open Door’s Jr. High Director. She has an incredible heart for Jr. Higher’s and is gifted to teach them God’s truth and grace. The first night, in her opening talk to the camp, she told us that Jesus is inviting us to come “further up and father in.” She made the statement that it doesn’t matter if you haven’t started to journey with Jesus yet, been following him for 4 months, or 40 years, He’s inviting you to come “further up and father in” with Him.

In that unexpected moment, I knew my Savior and Lord was speaking directly to me. I have been following Jesus for 40 years. My grandparents brought me to Bethany Bible Church in 1971 when I was 3 years old, and Jesus began inviting me into His life. I responded at the age of 4, first trusting in Him, his death for the forgiveness of my sins and in His resurrection for eternal life. And what a journey it has been so far!

The rest of the week was a precious time of serving, playing and hearing His voice. Now I have to say that when I went to camp I did not feel particularly tired or disconnected from God. I didn’t go looking to be refreshed or hear from Him in a special way. So hearing Him just renew His invitation to me was a surprise. And I didn’t come home with some great revelation to do something different or accomplish something new. It was simply Jesus reminding me that He is infinite and that His love is incomprehensible. That is to say, that the life that Jesus invites us into is His. He just wants me to keep walking with Him in faith, loving Him with my whole heart, mind, soul and strength.

When I got home I reopened an old book, The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. In it, Tozer makes this crazy statement:

To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love.

I believe this what God was reminding me of during my week in the woods. I have been following Jesus for 40 years. Not perfectly by any means, and with a couple of years as a young man where I actively tried to go another direction. He wouldn’t let me go. But those 40 years are just the beginning of the rest of the time He gives me here on this earth, and then on into eternity. Where as the last verse of “Amazing Grace” states:

When we’ve been ten thousand years, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise then when we first begun!

So I give thanks to God for Nicole for using her to speak mightily to a bunch of Jr. Higher’s, and to me. I now encourage you to hear His voice. Jesus is inviting you to come “further up and father in.”

Shane+