To rally, equip and deploy Bay Area Youth to serve in the Kingdom of God as a Biblically-sharpened and spirit-filled positive influences to win souls for Jesus Christ through transformed lives.

Encounter Bay Camp is a Christian Summer Youth Camp with the purpose of preparing young people for the adversity they will face in their formative years to adulthood. The camp provides an environment to equip the youth with foundational teachings toward a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and to provide them wit a memorable and life-changing experience.

Encounter Bay Camp is a collaborative partnership of local Bay Area Christian churches that seeks to unite Bay Area youth in fellowship with Jesus Christ. The youth between the ages of 12-21 gather for a time of Biblical teachings, powerful praise and worship, and fellowship between like-minded believers in Christ Jesus.

Encounter Bay Camp is a time for young people to experience passionate praise and worship, form lasting friendships through fellowship with others, and learn how to deal with life challenges from a Biblical perspective, and gain spiritual refreshment, renewal and transformation through the Love of the Lord.

Encounter Bay Camp's purpose is to ground the youth in God's Word while inspiring them to live for Jesus Christ. The camp will feature powerful, relevant and entertaining messages that lead the youth to have a meaningful understanding of God in their lives, their relationships with family and friends, and to live lives rooted in faith in Jesus Christ. The camp will also include small group sessions to provide a more interactive setting to discuss what was learned and minister to each other in an atmosphere of prayer and meditation. In addition, workshops dealing with topics such as sexual purity, prayer, worship, family, and the power and influence of the media, will be presented to address specific needs of youth believers.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Look to the Word...Not natural facts

"So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived."-- Numbers 21:9

"Pastor, I know that God is my healer.  But why is this sickness and pain still in my body?"  If you have been looking at your sickness and pain all this while, stop looking at yourself and start looking at Jesus.  Did He or did He not take upon Himself your sickness and pain?

God's Word declares, "Surely our sicknesses he has borne, and our pains -- he has carried them..." (Isaiah 53:4)  Since Jesus has already taken your sickness and pain at the cross, then He cannot "untake" them.  Even if you find it hard to believe that Jesus has paid for your healing, especially when the pain is unbearable, the truth is that it is still paid for.  It is finished work!

God is not saying that your sickness does not exist, nor is He asking you to pretend that it is not there.  He is asking you to look away from the sickness, painful as it may be, and look to the truth that it has already been judged at the cross in the body of His Son.

Once, while still in the wilderness, the children of Israel were bitten by deadly desert serpents.  The serpents were real.  The bites were painful and deadly.  So God told Moses to point the people to the bronze serpent put on a pole -- a picture of the cross.  (John 3:14)  Bronze signifies judgment.  In other words, the serpent -- their problem -- was already judged at the cross.

Those who kept their eyes on the bronze serpent lived.  Those who focused on their wounds died.  So stop looking at your sickness.  Instead, look to the cross and see your sickness already judged in the body of Jesus.  Surely He has borne your sicknesses and carried your pains!  That is the truth of God's Word...And His Word supersedes natrual facts.

My friend, you let natural facts rule or establish God's truths over your problem by what you choose to focus on.  So decide today not to fucus on the facts concerning your problem.  Instead, establish the truth of God's Word and Christ's finished work over your problem -- and live!

God Loves You and I Love You!

Pastor Erwin

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