Baptized in the Ocean...

REVOLVE! Student Ministries just returned yesterday from our first annual
Beach Trip. Our travels took us to sunny Panama City Beach, Florida where
we stayed at Laguna Beach Christian Retreat. We had beach side condos with
private balconies overlooking the ocean... What a view!

Each night on our retreat we had worship services, some of which were on the
beach during late evening with the worship song of the relentless tide
laping songs to heaven while we sang songs as well.

Each of the three services were centered around different aspects of
creation. Friday night was "More Than Sand...", then "More Than Sea..."
followed by "More Than Sky..." on Saturday and Sunday evenings respectively.

"Sand" was about Gods constant mindfulness of us from Psalm 139. By using a
calculation of an estimated grains of sand on the beaches of the world and
the number of people on the planet it was determined that God thinks 3.5
complete thoughts of each of us every single second of the day. We
contrasted His mindfulness of us to our mindfulness of Him... we fall
grossly short. The challenge was to make God the center of our attentions
every day.

"Sea" was about Gods relentless faithfulness to us taken from Psalm 104.
The creatures of the ocean look to God for their appointed meals and in
light of Matthew 10:31 how much more valuable are we than sparrows. Gods
faithfulness to us is more constant than the tide of the seas and long after
this world and seas burn and fade God will still be faithful to His people.
The challenge then was to compare our faithfulness and to make it our
pursuit to be faithful to God each and every moment of our lives.

"Sky" was taken from Psalm 8 and also Jeremiah 29:11. We looked at how
expansive the universe is and how little we are and how God is faithfully
mindful of us. His purpose for us is higher than the sky in His Kingdom and
that we are God's idea... He thought us up and invented us. His purpose
will be accomplished in us when we follow after Him and allow Him to guide
our steps.

After the Sunday service there were five who wanted to be baptized as a sign
of their renewed commitment to Christ, so we waded out into the ocean with a
beautiful evening and breeze and were baptized in the ocean. What a
wonderful re-committed statement to a mindful, faithful and purposeful
Creator.

One other neat aspect of the trip was that a worship chorus was born. With
the music talent of Aaron Griffin he set some lyrics I had written during
our journal time to music and we sang it as a worship chorus on Sunday
evening before the baptisms. We plan on using this chorus again on
Wednesday. The teens named the song as well... "More Than...".

God was truly faithful to us in this trip. Thank you Father!