Madness in Marietta

It's difficult to put into words what we saw God do this week. We led worship for the RFBC Student Camp at Camp Awanita in Marietta, SC. I've never seen the Holy Spirit move and work in a group of high school students like I witnessed this week. Church kids were getting saved. Kids with no church background were getting saved. Kids were getting right with each other. Kids were getting a passion for their lost friends back home. The Lord was moving so mightily that on the final night of camp, the worship had to be extended for several hours as kids were getting saved and weeping over lost friends.

I've seen God do some pretty insane things over the years, especially on overseas mission trips, but this week I saw something I've never seen before. As we were kicking off the last worship set, one girl on the front row couldn't take it anymore. Totally unprovoked and unsolicited, she literally ran out of the room. I thought maybe she was about to pee in her pants or something. I wasn't sure. It wasn't until later that I found out what had happened. Weeping under conviction, she found Jay Richards, her youth pastor and prayed to receive Christ.

One of the coolest things during the week was to see how God used particular worship songs to connect with students in unique ways. I had this conversation with a friend the other day about worship songs that God seems to use more mightily than others. We both wondered whether a song can be "anointed." I'm not sure, but I do know that there are, no doubt, songs that the Holy Spirit greatly uses to grip people's hearts. Two generations ago, God used "Just As I Am" in Billy Graham crusades all across the world to penetrate the gospel into hearts and elicit a call to repentance. There's no doubt that that song had a huge part to play in Graham's ministry.

Now, I wonder if "Sweetly Broken" could possibly be one of those songs that God is using today in a unique way. I don't mean to sound mystical, but there's definitely something about this song written by Jeremy Riddle, a worship leader from California, that God is using and blessing. As we sang it this week at camp, the Holy Spirit seemed to make the words come alive in our hearts. We were broken over our sin. We were weeping over the thought of Christ crucified in our place. We were all amazed and stunned in His presence.

You can check out Sweetly Broken in the post below.

Thanks so much to all of you who prayed for the Lord to unleash His presence at Camp Awanita this week. He certainly did.

Thanks to Jay Richards and all you guys at RFBC for letting us join you this week. We love you guys.