Camp Question #1

High school students across Illinois joined for 2008 Discipleship Camp. They were asked to submit questions and a panel would try to answer them. We ran out of time, and I agreed to carry on the conversation through my blog. Thus, Camp Question post will show up from time to time.

Why does it seem like God has left us in the worst of times?

I agree today's world seems like the "worst of times." However, I wasn't alive during the major world wars, the crusades, or the Old Testament slaughterings.

I agree our moral decline continues to spiral downward.

I agree there are crazy natural disasters that seem pretty eerie of God trying to get our attention.

That said, I don't think "He has left us" anywhere. Yes, times are bad (like they have been throughout history), but God is still active in our lives.

I think of a recovering meth addict that experiences God's presence, I know of people struggling with depression that gives God credit for their ability to make it through the day, and I know of people who have been healed, have been given specific direction for their lives, and have been set free from being strongly offended by a dear friend.

God is not a clock-maker that creates a piece of work, then sits back and allows it to do its work. God is active. God cares. God is very involved.

Although it sometimes seems God has left the building, his Word promises us that He will never leave us nor forsake us, and that He is ever-present, and that He is faithful.

Please feel free to join the discussion...

Tough Question

TIMESONLINE: As a Russian jet bombed fields around his village, Djimali Avago, a Georgian farmer, asked me: “Why won’t America and Nato help us? If they won’t help us now, why did we help them in Iraq?”

your thoughts?

love it? hate it?

I love this commercial. Wait... I hate it. No.. I love it.... but the message behind it... hmmmm

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Fishing time

Fishing time
Originally uploaded by travis spencer

Grandpa took my boys fishing.

I wrote the cover story

I wrote the cover story for K! Magazine this month.
It's a four-page cover story spread nestled between articles by Jim Wideman and Reggie Joiner.


Check out his great children/family ministry magazine.
It's the best on the market, in my opinion!
Check it out here

I met Madison last week

Our family went out to eat the last night we were in Florida. The last restaurant of a vacation is very important to me. What will be my final vacation eating memory? Should I repeat a great place so I know I won't be disappointed. Should I go with a cheap place to save money? Should I pick a unique local place, but risk ending on a bad meal..... All these thoughts go through my head when choosing a restaurant on vacation...especially the last day.

We chose the Old Key Lime House. It was great the best place we ate all week.

We had a great waitress. She immediately connected to our boys. We struck up conversation. We found out we use to live in the same city (Springfield, MO). She attended a church our friends' go to. Small world....

But now she is in South Florida. She moved in with a friend. She knows no one. She said she wasn't very happy. She's only lived there for two weeks.

I knew this was a God moment. You just know when someone brings someone across your path. So we continued to talk to her. We finally asked if she found a church. My hunch is that church was not on her list of priorities.

I recommended a church that was in the area. We have heard great things about it. (I've never attended, but I hope word-of-mouth-reputation was accurate.)

I truly pray Madison finds a church, gets more connected to God than she has ever been, and that she discovers God's will for her life.

I think she was a little lost in her journey. Maybe God used my family as a flashlight into a new direction.

Got any good road trip games?

Got any good road trip games?
Originally uploaded by travis spencer