I'm back!

Well, for the moment I am. Hopefully, I will keep this up.

Day 5

Some Scripture:

“Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

“Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.”

-Philippians 2:12-18 (NLT)

Some Reflection:

As we prepare to depart from one another's presence at camp, we do so in appreciation of one another and with a tremendous opportunity before us. We are being commissioned by the Lord of the harvest to go out into the fields of this world and live like brilliant testaments of His brightness. In doing so, we have the potential within ourselves to live successfully faithful Christian lives – not separately as if islands off to ourselves, but in joyous community with one another. You can be a success story for God; I can be a success story for God. You and I together can encourage one another, celebrate with one another, and challenge one another.

As Paul understood it, we need each other – even if for nothing else, to be able to confidently recognize the benefits of our unique investments into one another. I need to see that what I have done for you has not been in vain, and you need to know the same concerning your investment in me.

A successful Christian life, however, is one of uncompromising loyalty to Christ – not one of grumbling and bickering and – God forbid – filthiness, but a life of obedience, a life that reflects Him. Paul boldly affirms that, if you and I are going to live a lives like this, we have a part to play. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” You don't save yourself, for it is only by grace that you have been saved. Nevertheless, as the Church Father said long ago, “The God who made you apart from yourself will not save you apart from yourself.” If you are going to live obediently for God, guess what... only you can do it. But the good news is that, as Paul also affirms, “It is God who works in you both to will and do His good pleasure.” The Christian life is not a life of being off by oneself, left to one's own devices and abilities, trying to please God who is far away. No, the Christian life is a life lived in the power of the ever-near and personally-indwelling Holy Spirit, a life that is also surrounded by and bathed in Christian fellowship and loyalty.

Now, as camp draws to its close and having made our respective marks on one another, it's time to go and make our marks on the world. The world is waiting. Jesus is waiting. You are a unique person, complete with a unique mark to be made. If you don't make it, sadly enough, it will be left unmade. Are you in?

Day 4

Some Scripture:

“A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”

-Luke 6: 43-45 (NLT)

Some Reflection:

There is a song by mewithoutYou called “Bullet to Binary (part 2).” In it, Aaron Weiss says, “We all well know, we’re gonna reap what we sow. We all well know what kind of crops are gonna grow.”

It is no big secret to any of us that when you plant an apple seed, you will not grow anything other than an apple tree, which will then produce... that's right: apples. We are fairly intelligent people who do not expect a tomato plant to just jump up from the plot of ground where we have planted peppers. We also do not expect to look out in our yards and suddenly see rose bushes budding and blooming where no rose bushes were first planted.

Why is it, then, that we expect to see something simply come out of our lives that did not get planted there? Why do we so often think that we will be good people when we do not put anything good into ourselves? It's strange: so many of us think that they will somehow miraculously begin producing fruit in their lives when no seeds are planted. Let's face it: either some of us are just weird or some of us have really fooled ourselves into believing such a thing that is a far cry from reality.

We think we will be good people merely by wishing to be good. All the while knowing that no amount of wishful thinking will grow a tomato plant, why would we even begin to think that it would be any different with the fruit of our lives?

Be honest with yourself. What kind of seeds are you planting in your life? What kind of crops will you grow? Everyone else can see them – it isn't really a secret. Are you planting seeds that are good and will grow into good fruit for everyone to see and enjoy? Or are you planting seeds of evil that will grow into something in which no one wants a part? Will you be happy with the fruit of your life, or will you be embarrassed for others to see what you reap?

To quote another mewithoutYou song, “A glass can only spill what it contains.” Regarding your life, what's in it? You should know; you've played a part in getting it there.

Day 3

Some Scripture:

“Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord.
Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts.
They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths.
You have charged us to keep your commandments carefully.
Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees!
Then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life with your commands.
As I learn your righteous regulations, I will thank you by living as I should!
I will obey your decrees. Please don't give up on me!”

-Psalm 119:1-8 (NLT)

Some Reflection:

Okay, let's face it... If you are really going to “make your mark” in the world, it's time to “man-up” [Sorry, ladies.]. If you really want to be who you were intended to be in Christ, in His Church, and in the world He has both created and given His life to redeem, it's time to get serious, and the most serious response to God's grace is a life of radical faith and unwavering obedience. That's right: faith and obedience. As the old hymn says, “Trust and obey, for there's no other way...”

The odd thing is that obedience to the Lord is not stifling or suffocating; it does not make us less free or less “our own persons”. No, in fact, when you are obedient to Him, it brings joy, for you are being – far more than you might realize – you, who God has intended you to be. Come on, you know what the whole line from the hymn is: “...For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.”

Only a life of joyful obedience is a life that can make an irreplaceably positive mark on the world. Only a life of uncompromising loyalty to God, His will, and His way makes an eternal investment of redeeming importance into the lives of others. Only a life that faithfully follows the Lord, walking in His way, is a life that need not be ashamed, for it alone is an appropriate expression of thankfulness for His goodness and an undeniable reflection of His life and love.

A couple of interesting ideas are presented in the first two verses of this, the lengthiest of all our Old Testament psalms: First, in answer to the question, “Who is the obedient one?” the psalmist boldly answers, “Oh, that's simple... the one who searches for God with all of his heart, with every ounce of the fabric of his being.” Second, in answer to the question, “Well, then, what is the result?” the psalmist shockingly answers, “Oh, a remarkable life of integrity.” You probably know that to have integrity means to be one thing – nothing else, nothing mixed, not an alloy, but a single substance. The barrel of sugar that has a pinch – or for that matter, a single granule – of salt in it does not have integrity, for it is tainted. The result of living in faithful obedience to God, seeking for Him with all of who we are, is that we are whole and put together – not a collection of parts, not a disjointed combination of compartments, but one thing... pure and immovable.

Day 2

Some Scripture:

“ Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

“As God's partner's, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God's kindness and then ignore it. For God says,
'At just the right time, I heard you.
On the day of salvation, I helped you.'

Indeed, the 'right time' is now. Today is the day of salvation.”

-II Corinthians 5:11-6:2 (NLT); quote from Isaiah 49:8

Some Reflection:

Paul here has a whole lot to say, so let's boil it down a bit...

Just as salvation is not just about us, so salvation is not just for us. God desires all to be redeemed and, hence, reconciled to Him, even remade into His image.

That means that, as C. S. Lewis said so bluntly, “You've never met a mere mortal.” In other words, each person – not just you – is uniquely of more value that you can imagine. Consequentially, each person has greater potential to be something either incredibly good and beautiful in Christ or something incredibly terrible and horrendous apart from Him.

Whether you like it or not, God has sent you an invitation, and you must, therefore, accept it or refuse it. He has invited you to be a part of His redemption in the lives of others, and to this invite you must R. S. V. P.

Dennis Kinlaw makes the profound point that God always works through others; no person is saved apart from the influence of another. Are you in, or are you out? If you are in, you are in for the greatest ride of a lifetime, and even if you look like a fool, who really cares? If you are out, I'm so sorry; you really are missing out.