Endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ

This has been an incredible week here at the camp. The high school youth group from Crossroads Christian Church in Grand Prairie, TX has been here. They were scheduled to go to Mexico for their spring break missions trip, but had to go somewhere else because of all the violence going on down there.

They ended up here because, I believe, God is blessing this camp. As we talked to their group leader, Matt Cameron, we all saw that God had his leading on the group coming to MBC.

One of the major projects that they did was to extend the basketball court - a project that needed to happen for our camper's safety on the BB Court, but was just not going to happen because we didn't have anyone willing to do it. When we first talked to Matt and showed him around the camp, he wanted to know if there was concrete work to be done!

Matt and his group were willing, and they worked hard on the basketball court and many other things.

Let me try to list the things that they did:

• Painted five retreat center rooms
• Extended the concrete all the way around the basketball court
• Painted the entire inside of the Mark Dorm (Left side)
• Cleaned windows and blinds in Mark and Luke
• Completed the framing for the Retreat Center basement laundry room & meeting room
• Cleaned up the burn piles at both entrances
• Moved the pile of broken cement rocks from behind the Retreat Center
• Painted the bathroom shower area of Mark dorm (right side)
• Raked up massive piles of leaves and burned them
• Cleared out areas of the camp that had downed trees and limbs
• Hauled piles upon piles of tree limbs out to the south property
  
• Finished clearing the white pine trail
• Raked leaves around 7 shelters and cleared brush around them
• Moved rocks and cut logs from area in front of Penny's house
• Cleaned the MPB kitchen
• Painted the ball shed & constructed shelves for balls.
• And several other "here and there" things

I am thrilled that this group has chosen to spend their time and energy and money on MBC. I figure that they accomplished almost 1,000 man-hours (and woman-hours!) of work. At just minimum wage, that is worth well over $7,000 worth of work.

I kept mighty busy running around trying to keep them all going. I enjoyed hanging out with Charles, who desperately wanted to chop down a tree. I gave him my axe, and he got after it. I encouraged him that, just as an axe needs to be sharpened in order to be an effective tool, his spiritual life was important to keep "sharp" through the study of the Word and through fellowship with believers. I hope and pray that he will remember the lesson.

I am pretty tired, but I feel like this was a desperately needed boost to getting us toward where we need to be for this summer. Now is the time to endure, and finish the work of preparation. I keep praying that God would lead 2000 campers to come to us this summer. I want the camp to be ready for every single one.

On the third day (Wednesday), I encouraged the group I was working with on the trail clearing that they were doing a great job, but they needed to continue and endure until the end of their time working. I reminded them of the Scripture in 2 Timothy 2 that says to "Endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Many of these young adults were delightful, diligent, and almost cheery about the hard work they were doing. I didn't want to slack off or give in to weariness, because they were being such a good example to me. What better reasons are there to do hard work than to glorify God and to keep up with diligent young people who are working their rears off to glorify God?

Next week, I am off to our Church's youth group missions trip to American Indian Christian Mission in Show Low, Arizona. I pray that I can be as diligent and faithful as the Crossroads Christian people were.

The Theology of Fear

I was actually able to go to Glendale this morning for church. Jeff did a great sermon today about fear, based on this verse:

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28

So this is a timely message, with so much fear running amuck in people's hearts and minds. The economy creates fear - the woeful government creates fear, what doesn't in this day and age? I fear for my children's future - not that they have to have lots of money and stuff, but they are going to become adults in a very ungodly world that is bordering on the national socialism that created so much fear in so many parts of the world in the last century.

I was interested in one of Jeff's key points, that one way to fear God and God alone is to give your reputation to God. Allow Him to be bigger and more awe-inspiring than those around you. Jenette has a book that she has been reading called "When People are Big and God is Small." (By Ed Welch, if I remember right.) I haven't read much of the book, but I love the title. I know I have spent a lot of my waking hours thinking about how to impress people and how to keep up with those around me. I have feared people more than I have feared God. Or, at least, I at times have entrusted myself more to the judgment of others rather than the judgment of God.

Through Christ, God judges me as righteous - His precious child. "Whom then shall I fear?" asks the song.

I made some notes to myself as I listened to the sermon. When I give God my reputation, I need to not only give over my fear of what others think about me, but I also need to give over my fear of offending people when I do what is right. It seems kind of stupid to be worried about offending people by doing what is right, but I worry about that. In fact, I think I fear people worrying about me more than I fear what they think about me.

I need to do what is right - live by the conviction that I am following God to the best of my ability. I need to project nothing to others but humble submission to God. I have occasionally had criticism for some of the decisions that I have made for our family. But not only do I not have to explain myself to anyone, I don't have have to fear their offense.

I gave up a long time ago trying to be "cool" enough to fit "in" to any kind of group. I need to finish that by giving up trying to walk on eggshells around those who are easily offended.

So, just to open a can of worms here, there are many (at least some) who think that we are dumber than a bag of hammers to have eight children - and not just to have eight children, but to not actively practice birth control. I have my story on that, but I will keep that between Jenette and I and the Lord. Those who have been critical have been hurtful because of what they meant to me.

I spent a lot of days worrying that other people would worry about us. That has been a foolish venture. The fact is that the Scripture says that children are a blessing from God. Why would I not want to have God's blessings? And why would anyone be offended by that? I don't know. I posted another blog post several months ago about the football player who had "John 3:16" on his eye black. People were offended by that - greatly offended by the love of God. Why? I guess because people's hearts are hard.

So, this is one small area among so many that I have feared people more than I have feared God. One of my favorite parts of Psalm 34 is verse 7:

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

I like that a lot - I want the angel of the Lord to be encamped around me. The petty opinions of people will seem pretty small in comparison to that.

Two years old, with a license to drive.

It hardly seems possible that Josie could already be driving. She turned two today, and there she is in all her glory, driving (or at least being pushed in) her big birthday present, a little plastic car, while holding her little glow bear.

The camp is an outstanding place for these young ones to grow and play. Even though there was a retreat going on at the retreat center, (usually the Retreat Center parking lot is where the kids ride around) yesterday we came down to the circle drive to let Josie truck along on her new ride. Since it can be pushed, there was even some minor squabbles about who would be able to push her and for how long. I was thoroughly impressed that Jason was able to ripstick and push her at the same time. This Saturday was certainly a lot better than last Saturday!

Her new wheels gave me an appreciation for the nice freshness of a brand new car, especially since it was a $36 dollar brand new car, which is probably the only brand new car I will ever buy. I have been thinking about cars and vans and the sort since last Saturday, when our beloved Ford van met it's demise at the base of a rather stout electric pole.

I was impressed at how quickly our insurance company jumped on our claim, and after the value was assessed and a check issue for our loss, it made me realize what a great deal we had found when we bought the van over three years ago.

Since it was such a great bargain, I toyed with the idea of getting the van fixed - maybe it wouldn't be perfect, but it wasn't perfect to start with. Maybe if I could get it to a body shop for an estimate, or have my brother look at it, or salvage it myself and keep the extra money...all the possibilities.

But then I started thinking about the realities. How much would I have to spend just to have it towed to a shop for an estimate? Then, if I didn't like the estimate, how much would it cost to have it towed to another shop, then another? Even if I liked the estimate, how long would it take? Would the insurance company even insure it after they had declared it a total loss? Would the front end ever be the same again? Surely the engine block itself was destroyed by the impact - the frame was twisted and broken and absolutely fried - what was I thinking?

This didn't go on very long before I realized that I would just be better off starting over with a different vehicle - this ole Ford was done, and destined for the scrap pile. After all the Scripture says:

"What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted." Ecclesiastes 1:15

Well, there you go. "what is twisted cannot be straightened." Hmm, that's not what the body shop phone book ads say.

I couldn't help but think about this in light of my little two year old and her new car. In fact, it brought to light one of my great struggles that I have faced over the years in my ministry to youth. I spent a lot of time with students who were messed up in their view of life and truth. To think that I could try to "straighten" that out for them in a few hours was maddening and insane. Their twistedness began long before I met them.

The greatest "twisting" that anyone faces ever is truth twisting - not the crunching of metal and fiberglass in a car accident, although that can be truly devastating. The twisting of truth in a person's life stays twisted - only the Lord can straighten that out, and that through many years of readjusting our worldview though the leadership of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. The truth will remain twisted in the life of one who refuses to listen to God's truth.

At my high school, the principal would give a long speech over the school intercom at the beginning of every semester. I don't remember any of it other than the refrain of "no note, no change," which had something to do with changing classes. Only with a note of permission to change from parents (or was it teachers?) could a student go to the office and request a class change. The principal would say this "no note, no change" thing at least a dozen times each time he gave this speech, and it was a common thing for us to joke about.

The refrain of the Bible is "no truth, no change." If you listen to the father of lies, you will speak his language and lies will be your native tongue. Jesus said in John 8

⁴³Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. ⁴⁴You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!

Like my poor old Ford, what is twisted cannot be straightened. When a child grows up with twisted truth, listening to lies, speaking lies, living lies, and believing lies, that child becomes an adult whose native language is falsehood, and he doesn't even know it.

What I want for little Josie, (and all the 8 J's ) is that truth - God's truth, is always front and center for her. It's her North Star - her Polaris. It's her point of reference. I want God's Word to be my kid's default setting - their basic assumption about life - their native tongue. Of course they all have a sinful nature - sin's twisting is evident in their young lives. But if there is no point of reference - no Polaris, no unshakable absolute truth, then that twisting will continue unabated.

At two years old, Josie's heart is a lot like her new car - not perfect, but clean. She will become the product of her influences, just like every other child in the world. If she is immersed in the flood of the lies of our culture, and that is the dominating influence in her life, she will grow up with lies as her native language - but that's not going to happen on my watch.

My job as a Christian father is to help establish a Biblical worldview in my children - not just tell them a bunch of unrelated Bible facts. I don't care if they win Bible trivia games, I want them to follow after God's heart. Like the Ford van, it is better to start with a correct and true frame than to try to straighten what has been twisted.

I could spend a lot of time and energy later on in their lives running around trying to straighten them out, or I could be busting my rear right now to make sure that I am doing everything I can do to give them a proper understanding of God's truth, so that they can make the choice to accept that or reject it as they become adults. I will let them choose, and I will pray that they will choose wisely.

My theory is - if their framework is right and they understand the reality of what they might be rejecting, I think they will choose to follow and obey God. Doesn't the Scripture say the same thing in Proverbs?

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6

God, help me to build your truth as the true and right framework into each of the 8 J's.