I always stand amazed when God works to bring lessons in life full circle. He did just that this week.
For the past 8 weeks, I have been reading and discussing with a group of men, “Divine Conspiracy” by Dallas Willard. The book was a huge encouragement to me and everything learned about my faith in Christ over the past 4 years.
We have a tendency to put God in some distant heaven, that we can not experience here on earth. God works how God works. He is the creator of a cosmos bigger than our imagination can know. He constantly works to put the pieces of the cosmos together to do the work of His will.
As I read scripture and discussed Willard’s book, I see God the creator of the Cosmos has been working hard on me these past 4 years, Willard has clarified for me that God does not work at a distance, but from the very space in heaven that surrounds us everyday.
I do not claim to know the will of God, but maybe have a smaller clarification for His plan in my life. It starts Him working to change the intentional actions of my heart into that of a Disciple of Christ. Transforming my attitude and actions to be that of Christ himself. Romans 12: 1-2 and Phil 2:5-11 help us understand the transformation we are to have. Philippians shows us the example of Christ and how he transformed himself so we can have a model to pattern ourselves after so we can live out Romans 12:1-2.
What does this have to do with Church Camp?
For 4 days at Camp we taught 3-5 graders about Jesus and his example of how we are to live as His followers. That we are to be obedient to God’s call of Baptism. We are to become Fishers of men, teaching that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. That through the living water of Christ he will sustain us and we will live forever. In the storms of life Jesus is with us bring us peace, by silencing the storms, and calming the seas. Like Peter we need to trust and have faith that Jesus will be with us as we walk through this world, and will catch us when we fall. And, Jesus’ attitude was that of a servant, and we must take on that same attitude in Love.
These lessons from camp did a better job of summarizing Discipleship, even better than I can after reading Willard. While on this earth we must come to the wisdom of moment by moment living for Jesus. We can not allow the world to drag us into the false misconception that it is ok to put God in the margins of our life, and as Disciples we must see every moment as a opportunity to model Christ to others. Jesus never stopped being God, nor should we stop allowing Him to use us as His instrument to work His Father’s will through us. All for His Father’s glory.
Phil 2:5-11 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death–
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
