This summer I got to spend 3 weeks at one of my favorite places in the world, it is a place where I have spent a portion of my summer every year since I was about 9. Camp Timberlake in Forsyth, Georgia.
Camp is such an amazing place where the expectancy for God to show up and dramatically change lives is higher than any place I have ever been.
Every summer I get super-charged from the nightly altar calls and I come home excited for school to start.
Returning to camp this year I began thinking.
Our “sanctuary” is a huge metal building clearly divided into 2 halves by a really ugly curtain that spans the width of the building. The first, being a basketball court, has been the site of more dodge-ball casualties than anyone cares to count though it seems that the threat of a ball sized scar to the face has yet to prevent any eager camper from jumping on the court in a frenzy.
The other half is the place of all the real excitement.
There is a stage up front, usually covered with instruments or puppet stages, and to the left and right of it are giant makeshift screens for use with the projector. About 10 feet from the edge of the stage is the shore of the sea of dying metal chairs which hold our butts in discomfort as our hearts are in metamorphoses.
The entire floor is clothed with what you could vaguely call carpet. Really it is a thin brown sheet that used to be carpet and only serves to further the distinction between the halves of the building. I know this carpet better than any spot on the entire camp.
The reason for this is simple. Every summer I spend every night of the week on my face, on that carpet.
It is the place where lives are changed, it is the place that all the good ole Pentecostal worship that everyone expects takes place.
As I was sitting in one of the services this summer I began to reflect on that old beaten carpet.
How many times had I myself had such encounters with God on that very spot?
How many of my sins were forgiven, promises were made and reassurances received on that very carpet?
Then I began thinking what that does to carpet. Thousands upon thousands of people, from almost birth to senior status, have wept for joy or sorrow on that carpet. I have seen people in such attitudes of worship that they would never want to be seen in public because a combination of tears, snot ad sweat have flowed off of them. And onto the carpet.
Despite the gross salt content of this carpet, I love it.
I love that carpet because it is where I continue to find who I am.
In a week I begin my senior year of high school.
A couple of years ago I would have laughed at anybody who said that I would be scared at the up-coming year because back then I had it all figured out. I really thought I knew everything.
Right now I have no idea where my feet will take me when they lead me off the graduation stage.
It seems as though my whole life has been crescendo-ing to this year and I really am excited at the amazing things God has planned for this year and for my life. I have always seen the big picture and now I just don’t know how to get there.
I am learning that I need to take the feeling of that familiar carpet in to unfamiliar territory.
I have learned a lot this summer, and am still learning.
I may not have the emotional encounters with God every day but He will never be too far away. I trust Him, wherever He leads me.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Thoughts on 2 Peter: pt 1
Lately I have been reading 2 Peter and it seems that every line is filled with amazing bits of knowledge that I really don't want to forget and the best way I think through things is to write about them so that is what I am going to do in the next couple blogs.
1:1 Peter describes himself as a slave or servant in some translations. This is usually a term we Christians like to avoid because it really doesn't sound good to us or the outside world.No one wants to be a slave. I can't think of any good connotations of the word slave. This is interesting to me because Peter spends the rest of the letter talking about how awesome the grace and peace of God are. He uses the word slave to emphasize complete surrender of his own desires, it isn't that God is a slave driver but that we should be willing to do whatever a slave would be required to do.
Next Peter reminds the audience that he was one of the original 12. He uses the word apostle which should be noted. Apostle comes the Greek word apostolos and is used numerous times throughout New Testament by Paul. He referred to himself as an apostle even though he wasn't one of those hand-picked by Jesus. In fact he used to kill Christians before he became one himself. Paul used this word in regard to a specific calling to a position in the body of Christ in the same breath of prophets, teachers and evangelists. There has been a lot of debate as to what the actual definition of this term means but we see here that Paul and Peter disagree (once again) in their interpretations.
When Peter says apostle, he is talking about THE apostles. Himself and eleven other men who followed so closely to Jesus they were covered in the dust His sandals kicked up behind Him. They actually saw and experienced the things Paul could only preach about. The 12. They were better than the Justice League, which says a lot. You would think that there would be some sort of arrogance attached to this but check out the next verse.
Peter is writing "to those who have obtained a faith of equal privelage with ours." Peter is saying to these people that even though they never met Jesus or maybe haven't even seen Jesus are on the same level as the guys who were best friends with Him. That is huge. Peter is pulling everybody up to his level, a slave.
1:1 Peter describes himself as a slave or servant in some translations. This is usually a term we Christians like to avoid because it really doesn't sound good to us or the outside world.No one wants to be a slave. I can't think of any good connotations of the word slave. This is interesting to me because Peter spends the rest of the letter talking about how awesome the grace and peace of God are. He uses the word slave to emphasize complete surrender of his own desires, it isn't that God is a slave driver but that we should be willing to do whatever a slave would be required to do.
Next Peter reminds the audience that he was one of the original 12. He uses the word apostle which should be noted. Apostle comes the Greek word apostolos and is used numerous times throughout New Testament by Paul. He referred to himself as an apostle even though he wasn't one of those hand-picked by Jesus. In fact he used to kill Christians before he became one himself. Paul used this word in regard to a specific calling to a position in the body of Christ in the same breath of prophets, teachers and evangelists. There has been a lot of debate as to what the actual definition of this term means but we see here that Paul and Peter disagree (once again) in their interpretations.
When Peter says apostle, he is talking about THE apostles. Himself and eleven other men who followed so closely to Jesus they were covered in the dust His sandals kicked up behind Him. They actually saw and experienced the things Paul could only preach about. The 12. They were better than the Justice League, which says a lot. You would think that there would be some sort of arrogance attached to this but check out the next verse.
Peter is writing "to those who have obtained a faith of equal privelage with ours." Peter is saying to these people that even though they never met Jesus or maybe haven't even seen Jesus are on the same level as the guys who were best friends with Him. That is huge. Peter is pulling everybody up to his level, a slave.
Where are you valuable?
Very little of my childhood could be described as normal. I spent the first 6 years of my life at the Florida United Methodist Childrens Home where my parents worked and lived 6 out of every 9 days; growing up around teenage girls, most of which had been sexually and physically abused. Don't get me wrong I have nothing to complain about regarding my childhood, I am so grateful for how I have been raised- I'm just saying it isn't normal. Because in my eyes I was different than my peers, I didn't feel valuable. The problem with a pursuit of normalcy is it is impossible, which I realized very quickly. When I would fail drastically at being normal I would feel worthless. Then I made a discovery. I found that being the weird one in the group was just as good as being like everyone else. I found my worth in my weirdness.
As I got older I discovered I was really good at being a Christian. I could quote more scripture than anybody and I impressed a lot of adults with my "spiritual maturity." I found my worth in that I could be super-Christian, always ready with some profound nugget of wisdom.
Then God showed me the story of Job in a way I have never seen before.
It seems to be a rule that you cannot speak about Job without giving a message on perseverance or faithfulness. I am going to break that rule.
The first thing I notice is that Job 1:3 says that Job was the greatest man in the area, not the richest as one would expect after reading the list of all his possessions in the prior verses. His claim to fame was not in his wealth.
He was righteous.
Everyone knew Job as the righteous one, always ready with some profound nugget of Jewish law.
Everyone knew he was righteous, except for Satan. I don't really understand this famous confrontation between God and Satan but what I got out of it was that Satan didn't know Job. That, to me is the first clue that Job's righteousness was reputation only and not authentic because if Satan doesn't know your name then you aren't a threat to him which means you are doing nothing for the kingdom of God-that is just a side note.
When all Job had was taken away, Job instantly went in to martyr-mode gathering the city to come have pity on me. No he didn't sin, sinning would have discredited his reputation. Instead he held onto his "righteousness" to the point of almost accusing God of injustice because Job could not face the fact that he wasn't as holy as God.
Job and I relied solely on our reputation as Godly people for our worth. We were doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons.
It has been only up until very recently that I have discovered my true worth- how valuable I am to God. It doesn't matter how good of a Christian I am because He loves me the same. He loves me the same if I leave the Church and turn my back on Him. There is nothing I can do to earn His love, because I already have all of it.
So what now? If God loves us regardless why bother living any certain way? Why bother changing what we do?
There is a story I have heard that probably isn't true about a village that probably doesn't exist.
In this village lived a man with 2 daughters, one of which was the most beautiful woman in the the land and lets just say the other was definitely not. Every man in the village tried their hand at being her suitor, and the father was offered many expensive dowries for her hand in marriage. One man offered to pay the father 5 of his fattest cows in exchange for betrothal to the sought after woman.
Now a wise man was walking through the village looking for a wife when he came to the father and said "I will give you ten of my fattest cows for your daughter." The father thought to himself "What a blessing! I get double the dowry for the same daughter" and immediately agreed to the exchange. The wise man, however, was referring to the other daughter. Everyone in the village thought the man was a fool- paying so much for such an ugly wife that her father would have given away had he had the chance.
Fast forward a couple years.
We see the same wise man, happy at home married to a beautiful and faithful woman.
The same woman rejected by the village had started taking care of and beautifying herself. What changed?
She knew she was valuable to her husband.
She knew the price he paid for her.
People want to be everything they can for the one who shows them their value.
She was worth 10 cows to this man, if I remember correctly we are promised the cattle on a thousand hills.
So what's the problem?
If we know what the price paid for us was why aren't we who we were created to be?
I don't think we believe it.
We sing about how much He loves us, and the price He paid for us but do we believe it?
Every person who has ever walked this planet has lived and died for what they believe in. You live life to the level you believe in it. Great people don't die for what they believe in, great people believe in something great to begin with. If you believe you are valuable, you will know that God absolutely wants the best for you and that He has the power to do so.
I am beginning to think the search for worth is the root of all of our problems.
If you don't believe Jesus loves you, you will try to find that love elsewhere.
Relationships.
Social status.
Masculinity.
The reason we keep slipping back into the same old stuff is because we feel the same old stuff is where our value is.
We find value in being the bad kid, or being the one who can't commit, or the one who won't accomplish anything or the one who annoys everyone around them.
This is a real hard lesson to learn. As I was giving this message I saw in the audience heads nodding and mouths yawning and I immediately started measuring my worth by how well I could give a sermon. God doesn't care, He just loves me.
As I got older I discovered I was really good at being a Christian. I could quote more scripture than anybody and I impressed a lot of adults with my "spiritual maturity." I found my worth in that I could be super-Christian, always ready with some profound nugget of wisdom.
Then God showed me the story of Job in a way I have never seen before.
It seems to be a rule that you cannot speak about Job without giving a message on perseverance or faithfulness. I am going to break that rule.
The first thing I notice is that Job 1:3 says that Job was the greatest man in the area, not the richest as one would expect after reading the list of all his possessions in the prior verses. His claim to fame was not in his wealth.
He was righteous.
Everyone knew Job as the righteous one, always ready with some profound nugget of Jewish law.
Everyone knew he was righteous, except for Satan. I don't really understand this famous confrontation between God and Satan but what I got out of it was that Satan didn't know Job. That, to me is the first clue that Job's righteousness was reputation only and not authentic because if Satan doesn't know your name then you aren't a threat to him which means you are doing nothing for the kingdom of God-that is just a side note.
When all Job had was taken away, Job instantly went in to martyr-mode gathering the city to come have pity on me. No he didn't sin, sinning would have discredited his reputation. Instead he held onto his "righteousness" to the point of almost accusing God of injustice because Job could not face the fact that he wasn't as holy as God.
Job and I relied solely on our reputation as Godly people for our worth. We were doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons.
It has been only up until very recently that I have discovered my true worth- how valuable I am to God. It doesn't matter how good of a Christian I am because He loves me the same. He loves me the same if I leave the Church and turn my back on Him. There is nothing I can do to earn His love, because I already have all of it.
So what now? If God loves us regardless why bother living any certain way? Why bother changing what we do?
There is a story I have heard that probably isn't true about a village that probably doesn't exist.
In this village lived a man with 2 daughters, one of which was the most beautiful woman in the the land and lets just say the other was definitely not. Every man in the village tried their hand at being her suitor, and the father was offered many expensive dowries for her hand in marriage. One man offered to pay the father 5 of his fattest cows in exchange for betrothal to the sought after woman.
Now a wise man was walking through the village looking for a wife when he came to the father and said "I will give you ten of my fattest cows for your daughter." The father thought to himself "What a blessing! I get double the dowry for the same daughter" and immediately agreed to the exchange. The wise man, however, was referring to the other daughter. Everyone in the village thought the man was a fool- paying so much for such an ugly wife that her father would have given away had he had the chance.
Fast forward a couple years.
We see the same wise man, happy at home married to a beautiful and faithful woman.
The same woman rejected by the village had started taking care of and beautifying herself. What changed?
She knew she was valuable to her husband.
She knew the price he paid for her.
People want to be everything they can for the one who shows them their value.
She was worth 10 cows to this man, if I remember correctly we are promised the cattle on a thousand hills.
So what's the problem?
If we know what the price paid for us was why aren't we who we were created to be?
I don't think we believe it.
We sing about how much He loves us, and the price He paid for us but do we believe it?
Every person who has ever walked this planet has lived and died for what they believe in. You live life to the level you believe in it. Great people don't die for what they believe in, great people believe in something great to begin with. If you believe you are valuable, you will know that God absolutely wants the best for you and that He has the power to do so.
I am beginning to think the search for worth is the root of all of our problems.
If you don't believe Jesus loves you, you will try to find that love elsewhere.
Relationships.
Social status.
Masculinity.
The reason we keep slipping back into the same old stuff is because we feel the same old stuff is where our value is.
We find value in being the bad kid, or being the one who can't commit, or the one who won't accomplish anything or the one who annoys everyone around them.
This is a real hard lesson to learn. As I was giving this message I saw in the audience heads nodding and mouths yawning and I immediately started measuring my worth by how well I could give a sermon. God doesn't care, He just loves me.
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