Each morning at large group we started out with a dance to get everyone awake. It was pretty fantastic. The first one was to Istanbul (Not Constantinople)by They Might Be Giants, then there was 500 Miles by the Proclaimers, Walk the Dinosaur, and Star Trekkin'. The last night at camp was a mini-dance party, with all those songs plus Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down. There wasn't a dance for this song, but Sweet Caroline quickly became the theme of camp. Tim played it while we were walking in for large group one night, and after that it was being sung all over camp. You could at any point sing out "Sweet Caroline..." and be answered with "bah bah bahhhh."
The afternoon game on Tuesday was a crazy match of Capture the Flag; I got a little beat up but our team did awesome. That night's activity was a giant slip'n'slide.
The teaching Tuesday evening was based on I John 1:5-10: "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." The emphasis was on practicing the truth: what does that mean and what does it look like? Pastor Welzien then went back to Genesis 1-3. This coincided with Dan's seminar teaching from the morning on creation. Those first few chapters are necessary to explain our plight and purpose. He also emphasized that God is reality, and we need to recognize what He says about us. I thought that perspective was so convicting: what better source to search for what humanity is about than what the Author of life gave us? How often do I try to muddle through on my own instead of running to God's Word?
Then we looked at Ephesians 2:1ff, (go read it!) and Ephesians 4:17-18 which states "Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart." The application was to have teachable hearts, and to question ourselves if we were really serious about walking uprightly, participating in spiritual warfare, having a prayer life.
To close, we looked at Romans 1:18ff (read it!). V. 25 especially, which says "they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." is a challenge not to put our own abilities, ideas, philosophies, above what God Himself has given to us in His Word. God give us the truth; why would we give it back? One of the last thoughts I wrote down from what Pastor Welzien said was that God's word is always there for us to refresh ourselves with. It's what keeps us walking in His light.
The seminar my small group went to Wednesday morning was led by the OPC missionaries to Haiti, a family with 4 kids, talking about how they were called to Haiti, what they gave up to go there, what they gained in going, the challenges of their ministry there, and how God is at work in the church. The previous OP missionary to Haiti died in a motorcycle accident and there was an article about his ministry in the magazine the OPC publishes. They each read the article and individually they felt the call to go, and decided if at the next GA (I think... it might have just been a presbytery meeting) someone asked him specifically to go to Haiti, they would say yes. Someone did. They went. During the seminar we saw some videos of what life and ministry is like for them in Haiti. It was a neat opportunity to get a better glimpse of what the OPC is doing around the globe in His name.
The next day's seminar, taught by my hubby, was on loving Christ and the Church and the importance of observing the Sabbath in attending church. The main texts for this were Ephesians 2 and Hebrews 12,emphasizing that we are saved into the kingdom and family of God, to be a part of His church. Ignoring corporate life is to ignore what we are saved to. The means of grace given to us, the preaching of the word and the sacraments, are only legitimately available in the church.
Coming up: spiritual warfare.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
RYC, part 2
I’ve been trying to think of a way to describe the atmosphere of camp. The best way I can put it is it’s like a family reunion where everyone is excited to see each other, except in my case I was meeting almost everyone for the first time. And the gem about that is, it IS family. I got to meet brothers and sisters I didn’t know I had. Some of you know about my family drama, and this week was like a pat on the head from God and a reminder that my family in Him is bigger and more loving than I can even comprehend. So humbling.
So, part of the fun was a trip down memory lane about old Contemporary Christian bands I hadn’t given thought to for over a decade. This was in part brought about because the worship leader had us singing the chorus of “In The Light” as recorded by DCTalk, which I believe is a cover of Charlie Peacock. (Not that that last bit matters, I just feel proud of myself for knowing it. I like obscure facts; I can’t help it.) It took me back to trips to Lakeland, with my friends and I piling into the van, driven by my dad, who very graciously without fail agreed to take us to whatever show was in town, and we would go to Steak and Shake first, then go stake out our place in the crowd for the general admission seats. William likes to harass me about my CCM collection. There are so many memories linked to those bands though, and now new ones from new friends at RYC.
William and I have a long running joke that there is always a Roebke you don’t know about popping up (also you shouldn’t get water on them or feed them after midnight, and if you know that cultural reference, you are awesome.) And guess what? There was a new-to-me Roebke at camp.
My last entry had a summary of the first night’s teaching. The first morning had us looking at John 3:16-21 which says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
And Hebrews 1:1-3 and 11:1-3 which state “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” and “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
One of the points that stood out to me from Pastor Welzien’s preaching is the falsity of the phrase “blind faith” which people use to criticize Christianity. Our faith is not blind; it is built on God’s word, and our hearts and minds are illuminated by the Creator of the universe. Also, in the John passage, the idea that the light came into the world and it was judgment jumped out to me. The world already stands condemned, and when Christ came, He brought the way of salvation, His light to lead us from darkness, but it was also a seal of doom for those that hold on to the dark. Pastor Welzien took us to the original sin of Adam and Eve, where Satan plants seeds of doubt and then direct contradiction against God’s Word. That’s where this all started; not believing God means what He says. Then Adam and Eve tried to cover their own sin with fig leaves which was the start of humanity inventing religion and morality to try to bridge the gap and take ourselves up to God, which is impossible. When the fig leaves didn’t work, they then cowered in the darkness, trying to hide from God, which is also impossible.
Correlated to believing what God says was the first seminar of the week for my group, which was on creation and dinosaurs, taught by Dan Burns. He took us on a trip through scripture looking at the words for different animals in Genesis, and the descriptions of the Leviathan and Behemoth, which showed that at the time of the writings, there were big ol’ creatures that were well-known culturally. Also very interesting was the use of the English word “cattle” in some places which in Hebrew doesn’t actually mean “cattle;” it’s more like a word for a big beast that has no obvious correlation in English. Dan had a fossil collection from digs he’d been on, and some of the more memorable ones were dinosaur poop and dinosaur skin. The fossil record points to a single catastrophic event, and he mentioned that the dinosaur skin fossils really send evolutionary theorists into a tizzy because it can’t exist if the time periods that they hold to are real. (My paraphrase. Dan said it much more eloquently than that.) He also threw down the challenge that if Genesis 1-3 isn’t real, if Adam and Even aren’t real, and the Garden isn’t real, then what’s the point? It was really refreshing to hear such a strong reminder that you can’t pick and choose, randomly deciding certain things are poetry and not literal and certain things are to fit whatever earthly filter you are putting on the Word of God.
On a completely different tack: RYC is known for messy games. I was a little concerned about them, and wasn’t sure about playing, but jumped in anyway. The first messy game was like Steal the Bacon, except the bacon was a watermelon coated in Crisco, places on a tarp covered in water and slime. SO MUCH FLIPPIN FUN! After the game it was much easier to talk to people; nothing breaks down walls like sliding all over the ground scrabbling for lard-covered melon.
Coming up: Teachable hearts, loving Christ and the Church, and assorted fun times.
So, part of the fun was a trip down memory lane about old Contemporary Christian bands I hadn’t given thought to for over a decade. This was in part brought about because the worship leader had us singing the chorus of “In The Light” as recorded by DCTalk, which I believe is a cover of Charlie Peacock. (Not that that last bit matters, I just feel proud of myself for knowing it. I like obscure facts; I can’t help it.) It took me back to trips to Lakeland, with my friends and I piling into the van, driven by my dad, who very graciously without fail agreed to take us to whatever show was in town, and we would go to Steak and Shake first, then go stake out our place in the crowd for the general admission seats. William likes to harass me about my CCM collection. There are so many memories linked to those bands though, and now new ones from new friends at RYC.
William and I have a long running joke that there is always a Roebke you don’t know about popping up (also you shouldn’t get water on them or feed them after midnight, and if you know that cultural reference, you are awesome.) And guess what? There was a new-to-me Roebke at camp.
My last entry had a summary of the first night’s teaching. The first morning had us looking at John 3:16-21 which says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
And Hebrews 1:1-3 and 11:1-3 which state “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” and “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
One of the points that stood out to me from Pastor Welzien’s preaching is the falsity of the phrase “blind faith” which people use to criticize Christianity. Our faith is not blind; it is built on God’s word, and our hearts and minds are illuminated by the Creator of the universe. Also, in the John passage, the idea that the light came into the world and it was judgment jumped out to me. The world already stands condemned, and when Christ came, He brought the way of salvation, His light to lead us from darkness, but it was also a seal of doom for those that hold on to the dark. Pastor Welzien took us to the original sin of Adam and Eve, where Satan plants seeds of doubt and then direct contradiction against God’s Word. That’s where this all started; not believing God means what He says. Then Adam and Eve tried to cover their own sin with fig leaves which was the start of humanity inventing religion and morality to try to bridge the gap and take ourselves up to God, which is impossible. When the fig leaves didn’t work, they then cowered in the darkness, trying to hide from God, which is also impossible.
Correlated to believing what God says was the first seminar of the week for my group, which was on creation and dinosaurs, taught by Dan Burns. He took us on a trip through scripture looking at the words for different animals in Genesis, and the descriptions of the Leviathan and Behemoth, which showed that at the time of the writings, there were big ol’ creatures that were well-known culturally. Also very interesting was the use of the English word “cattle” in some places which in Hebrew doesn’t actually mean “cattle;” it’s more like a word for a big beast that has no obvious correlation in English. Dan had a fossil collection from digs he’d been on, and some of the more memorable ones were dinosaur poop and dinosaur skin. The fossil record points to a single catastrophic event, and he mentioned that the dinosaur skin fossils really send evolutionary theorists into a tizzy because it can’t exist if the time periods that they hold to are real. (My paraphrase. Dan said it much more eloquently than that.) He also threw down the challenge that if Genesis 1-3 isn’t real, if Adam and Even aren’t real, and the Garden isn’t real, then what’s the point? It was really refreshing to hear such a strong reminder that you can’t pick and choose, randomly deciding certain things are poetry and not literal and certain things are to fit whatever earthly filter you are putting on the Word of God.
On a completely different tack: RYC is known for messy games. I was a little concerned about them, and wasn’t sure about playing, but jumped in anyway. The first messy game was like Steal the Bacon, except the bacon was a watermelon coated in Crisco, places on a tarp covered in water and slime. SO MUCH FLIPPIN FUN! After the game it was much easier to talk to people; nothing breaks down walls like sliding all over the ground scrabbling for lard-covered melon.
Coming up: Teachable hearts, loving Christ and the Church, and assorted fun times.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
RYC, part 1
Before RYC (my denomination’s church camp for middle and high school that meets just outside of central Florida) I had some trepidation because it was turning into a huge ordeal for us to go, or at least that’s what it felt like, and it was going to be the longest I’ve ever been away from my son. It crossed my mind a time or two to just not go. Boy am I glad I didn’t let that thought take root.
One of my favorite moments out of all the amazing things that went on happened the first night, and I knew this was where I was supposed to be that week. It was time for our first evening large group, with worship songs led by Danny Iverson and preaching by Pastor Bill Welzien. We finished singing a song and Danny started to lead us in “Be Thou My Vision”. The slide with the lyrics wasn’t up yet but it didn’t matter because everyone knew it by heart. For the first verse, everyone sang it without the words up and sang it loud. There were less than 100 people in the room but it sounded like several hundred voices lifted up in worship of our God and Savior. It was so moving, and I kept thinking as we sang how much Satan must hate it and of our Father listening, smiling, at His children. I will never forget that moment.
The preaching came next. The theme for camp was Breaching the Darkness and all the messages in our morning and evening large group sessions were on this idea, starting with Genesis 1 where God separates the light and the darkness. Pastor Welzien took us from there all through the scriptures on how that is God’s purpose throughout time, until the final judgment, and what it means to be in the light, and at many examples of light and dark imagery in the Bible. He pointed out that the scripture doesn’t give time to trying to give proofs that God exists; it’s assumed to be self-evident, and you either accept it or you don’t, and it remains the truth regardless.
In preparation for instruction from God’s Word, he took us to Psalm 32:8-9, which says “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.”
Proverbs 30:1-4 which says
“The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.
The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out. Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know!”
And lastly Psalm 33:4-9 “For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.”
The challenge was to recognize that God is God, and He is orderly, careful, wise, personal, deliberate, and good. What He makes is good, what He says is good, what He does is good, and by rejecting His word we choose to remain stupid and in the dark.
After that we looked at Psalm 119:104-105 and 130 which say, “Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path… The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” And then Proverbs 4:18 which says “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” The contrast to that is the wicked, who are in deep darkness. The next morning we went to the New Testament, in John 3, and Christ entering the world to bring judgment, but I will write about that in another entry. Coming soon: fig leaves, dinosaur skin, and CCM. Oh, and Crisco. Stay tuned!
One of my favorite moments out of all the amazing things that went on happened the first night, and I knew this was where I was supposed to be that week. It was time for our first evening large group, with worship songs led by Danny Iverson and preaching by Pastor Bill Welzien. We finished singing a song and Danny started to lead us in “Be Thou My Vision”. The slide with the lyrics wasn’t up yet but it didn’t matter because everyone knew it by heart. For the first verse, everyone sang it without the words up and sang it loud. There were less than 100 people in the room but it sounded like several hundred voices lifted up in worship of our God and Savior. It was so moving, and I kept thinking as we sang how much Satan must hate it and of our Father listening, smiling, at His children. I will never forget that moment.
The preaching came next. The theme for camp was Breaching the Darkness and all the messages in our morning and evening large group sessions were on this idea, starting with Genesis 1 where God separates the light and the darkness. Pastor Welzien took us from there all through the scriptures on how that is God’s purpose throughout time, until the final judgment, and what it means to be in the light, and at many examples of light and dark imagery in the Bible. He pointed out that the scripture doesn’t give time to trying to give proofs that God exists; it’s assumed to be self-evident, and you either accept it or you don’t, and it remains the truth regardless.
In preparation for instruction from God’s Word, he took us to Psalm 32:8-9, which says “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.”
Proverbs 30:1-4 which says
“The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.
The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out. Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know!”
And lastly Psalm 33:4-9 “For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.”
The challenge was to recognize that God is God, and He is orderly, careful, wise, personal, deliberate, and good. What He makes is good, what He says is good, what He does is good, and by rejecting His word we choose to remain stupid and in the dark.
After that we looked at Psalm 119:104-105 and 130 which say, “Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path… The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” And then Proverbs 4:18 which says “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” The contrast to that is the wicked, who are in deep darkness. The next morning we went to the New Testament, in John 3, and Christ entering the world to bring judgment, but I will write about that in another entry. Coming soon: fig leaves, dinosaur skin, and CCM. Oh, and Crisco. Stay tuned!
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