RYC, part 5

I started out this series thinking I would recap the week chronologically but that didn’t happen; I got ahead of myself talking about the seminars. For those keeping track at home, I’m planning on at least 3 more entries. I’ve been putting off my recap of and response to the last seminar because it affected me the most in my current circumstances and what God has been showing me about Himself lately. The seminar message actually coincided with my last non-camp entry (Life Lessons). I want to do it justice so it may take some time before I feel I’ve adequately covered it. And I want to dedicate an entry to highlighting the purely fun times too. But for today, it’s back to Wednesday night at camp and the large group message. It’ll take another entry at least to finish up the large group teaching.

Moving from the broad message in Genesis of God separating the light from the darkness to how that is accomplished in Christ to how that manifests in our lives, we again went to different passages from all over the Bible. Pastor Welzien started in John 12, verses 44-50 which say “And Jesus cried out and said, ‘Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.’”

Jesus came so people don’t have to remain in darkness; they/we already stand in judgment and darkness and must be saved to escape. To drive home the point of how much we transgress, we looked at the list of blessing and curses in Deuteronomy 28. The Law has been broken by every person except Christ. The Law has been kept perfectly by only One who deserves the blessings listed, yet Christ took the curse of Law-breaking on Himself and gave us the blessings only He deserved!
We also looked back to Exodus, at the plagues listed in chapter 10 which include total darkness over Egypt but not where the Israelites live, and then in chapter 12, where the only salvation is offered in the sacrifice of the spotless lamb. In Chapter 14, verses 19 and following, the presence of God is manifested in the pillar of fire/pillar of cloud, and in this passage, moves to separate the Israelites from the forces of Egypt. Egypt is cast into darkness by God, while Israel is in light. All these chapters have such a clear picture foreshadowing what Christ would do for His people to save them from darkness.

Mark 15:33ff talks about the darkness that fell over the land as Jesus was being crucified. Darkness is clearly symbolic of judgment throughout the Old Testament and reiterated in the New Testament, and here shows the judgment of God moving on to Jesus. Matthew 8:12 talks about the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, the judgment of being cast out from God’s blessings. The book of Jude speaks in poetical, vivid terms of those that are rejecters of the truth, and in particular verse 13, which speaks of them as “wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.” Jesus is the light and our way out of it.

That last verse really stood out to me and in our small group discussion that night my group had a good talk about that thought. I’m going to venture to say that everyone I know has been left out by someone or a group of people at some point in their lives, and universally, it’s a horrible feeling. It’s hurtful, embarrassing, shaming, and it’s what hell is. Being left out of God’s family, and His blessings… forever.
Coming up: Delighting in obedience.

RYC, part 4

The morning large group lesson on Wednesday morning was on spiritual warfare. The main text was 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Pastor Welzien went through some of the names/descriptions of Satan from the Bible: a roaring lion seeking to devour, a fierce dragon, Destruction, the Destroyer, the prince of the power of the air, the god of this world. Even so, we’re not sentenced to live in the darkness. Satan is a deceiver and a blinder, but Christ is our light.

Galatians 3:10 and 13-14 states “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’… Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

The righteous live by faith, only because of the work that Jesus Christ accomplished. It is the only way to overcome.

2 Corinthians 6:2 states “For he says,
‘In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Today is the day. What side are you on?

Coming up: Escaping the darkness.