We'd love to hear from you!  Do you have a devotion that holds special meaning you would like to share with the others?  Just send it to the Camp Director and we will post it here.

Sketch For The Romany Girl 1882 - Robert Harris (1849 - 1919)

"IF" ~ For Girls

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FRAGMENTS

I encourage you to read 1 Peter again.  It is an awesome letter with many ways to help us in our walk with our Lord.  It reminds us the testing—and perseverance—of our faith is of greater value than gold (1 Peter 1:7).  So what should we do with our faith?  Should we keep it to ourselves?  No, Jesus shows us how to share it. 

Peter, writing to the dispersed Christians of the world about their duties as unevenly yoked husband or wife, reminds us, "...Your Godly lives will speak to them [non-believers] better than any words" (1 Peter 3:1).  The words we speak day to day are important, but our actions are far more essential.  Our actions, as we choose to do what is right instead of what everyone else does, set us apart from the world.  Peter encourages us to be clear minded and holy, to put on God’s beauty with a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great price in the sight of God (1 Peter 3:4), to have self control and, above all, to LOVE.  God is the father of all and we are to love Him (Deuteronomy 6:5).  Because ALL of His children are brothers and sisters (every person, not just the saved), we are to love one another (Leviticus 19:18).  In these two commands hangs all of the Law and the fulfillment of prophecy (Matthew 22:36-40).  We need to do what is right from God’s perspective.  We are to be a living stone (1 Peter 2:5) and our example must shine from a hill for all the world to see.  The way we dress, how we act, and what we do illuminates our heart.  What does the world see?  What is the response?  Are those around us drawn closer to God by our example?  Let me share a short story from the internet with you:

A couple took their young son with them on a trip to Europe where they visited many of the cathedrals on the tourist trek.  When they returned home the little boy's Sunday school teacher asked him, "Did you learn what a saint is?"  He remembered the many stained glass windows which depicted the Christian saints so beautifully, and he said, "A saint is one who the light shines through."

Does the light shine through us?  It is better to suffer for doing good (1 Peter 2:20) than to get in trouble for doing something wrong.  Jesus had a mind to suffer in order to do right (1 Peter 4:1-2).  He did not suffer because he wanted attention or enjoyed pain.  He endured the stripes in order to obey his Father.  He also endured the stripes because He loves us.  The writer of Hebrews (12:4-6) tells us, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as children?  It says,

'My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his child.'"

We would do well to endure suffering in order to obey our Father.  “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps.  ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’  When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.  Instead, he entrusted himself to Him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:21b-23).

In closing, I encourage you to read In His Steps by Charles Sheldon.  It is a book of fiction with a great many reminders of what we need to do everyday — follow Jesus’ example and demonstrate our love to a hurt and dying world.  We are in this world but for a short time, “but the word of the Lord stands forever” (1Peter 1:25).  Do not forget His words of encouragement.  Live each day like it is your last: cultivate a close relationship with your heavenly Father, study His word, and stand up for what is right, even if it means standing against the world.  Live each day boldly, knowing “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:6). 

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INSIDE OUT, NOT OUTSIDE IN

It is easy to look at the things we own or have achieved and assume that these things are the measure of a good life.  We sometimes believe that the more we achieve or accomplish, the closer we come to arriving at a certain status in life and the more peace, meaning, and acceptance we will experience.  We often assume that these things are associated with the life Jesus wants for us, only to discover they are, in fact, temporary.  Be encouraged--it's not a new stuggle.  The religious scholars and teachers of Jesus' time felt this as well.  We buy into the idea that if we can master a moral code, Jesus will commend us for having lived a good life.  This is a fallacy, and it is dangerous to believe.  Jesus called the most morally correct people of His day hypocrites, blind guides, snakes, a brood of vipers, and whitewashed tombs (see Matt 23:1-39).  Ouch!

On another occasion when questioned by the Pharisees, He told them, "The kingdom of God does not come visibly, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21).  These words were indeed counter-cultural to the religious world of His day, and they still are today.  As we lived as Jesus lived, we may find the most turbulent times on the outside, but deep within ourselves we discover both the purpose and the peace of God.  We learn that life isn't about us, and therefore we begin to view our lives with a different perspective.

[quoted from Breaking the Discipleship Code by David Putman (2008).]  

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 UPSIDE DOWN, NOT RIGHT SIDE UP

I often wonder, If Jesus were on earth today, would I recognize Him?  I walk down the aisles of the store where I shop, and I'm afraid that if Jesus looked like many of the people I see there, I probably would not have a lot to do with Him.  Isn't it amazing that we sometimes put Jesus into our own neat little boxes, assuming that He would act, speak, look, and think as we do?  Instead of adjusting our lives to emulate His, we create a Jesus that accommodates our own choices and lifestyles.  We will do nearly anything to justify our choices and our way of life.

We sometimes think it's interesting how radical Jesus' message was in His day, but if we examine ourselves, I think we'll find that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense today either.  Read the passage of Scriptures we refer to as the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.  Jesus called them "blessed" who were poor in spirit, who mourned, or were meek or persecuted.  You won't find this ideology in a lot of leadership or self-help books.  Jesus taught that the greatest among us would be the least, and the last would ultimately be first.  He raised up the humble.  He sat a child in His lap as an example of greatness.  At times He completely ignored the religious leaders of His day, and at other times He took them to task with a vengeance.  He led from the back and served from the front.  He modeled in every way that to really experience life, we have to give it away to others.

[quoted from Breaking the Discipleship Code by David Putman (2008).]  

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GREAT BIG, NOT ITTY-BITTY

Frankly, we often live our lives as if we were at the center of all things, but our world becomes itty-bitty when it becomes all about us.  What we learn by living like Jesus is that He considered others as the center of the world, and He knew how big the world truly was.  He held what was huge in His very hands, and at the same time was in intimate contact with every little detail.

Nothing went unnoticed to Jesus.  He felt the woman with the hemorrhage as she brushed by Him in a massive rush of people, and He also saw the crowds who came to hear Him teach and was moved with compassion because He knew they were like sheep with no shepherd.  At one time He fed the five thousand and another time He had a touching supper with the Twelve.  He called His disciples to come follow Him one by one and at the same time held the world in His hand.  He died on the cross for the sins of all people for all time, but while dying, He had an evocative conversation with a thief crucified beside Him.

Jesus came demonstrating that it is no way all about us.  This is not our little world, but rather we are citizens of His kingdom; and His kingdom is like a mustard seed that grows to the most magnificent proportion.

In John 3:16 we read that God so loved the world that He gave us His Son.  Yes, it's true He loves me, but I am not the main attraction.  He loves the whole world.  He loves street gangs.  He loves strippers.  He loves AIDS victims in Zambia.  He is really concerned about the genocide in the Sudan.  He pays attention to every conflict and every battle.  His heart breaks for the injustices we fail to see.  Yet, in far too rare moments, He peels back the veneer of my self-centeredness and allows me to feel His compassion for the world. 

God cares about the hungry, the oppressed, the misdirected, and the disconnected.  He cares about His world: world hunger, world AIDS, and world peace.  He cares about you and me and even our pettiest of concerns.  He invites us to His dream of peace on earth and goodwill toward all men.  He invites us to join Him in His prayer, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven" (Matt 6:10).  To live as Jesus lived is to pray as Jesus prayed.  Let your kingdom come on earth in my life, in my environment, in my experience, and in my purpose as it is in heaven.

[quoted from Breaking the Discipleship Code by David Putman (2008).]  

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Even with the chaos of the world around us, it is still amazing to me that our lives can become so complicated.  I think of my parent's home, where they have four storage buildings filled with the things they have accumulated over the years.  I was picking through them recently, looking for a few usable pices of furniture for my daughter.  I left that day promising them that I would return to take time to go through their stuff, thinking to myself that much of it should be hauled off to the grabage dump.  It occurred to me that this is a good picture of how we accumulate so much stuff we don't need and hang on to for years.  Before we know it, our lives are filled with trash because we are too afraid to throw it away, too afraid of what might happen if it weren't around when we needed it.

I think the same is true for our relationship with Jesus.  We begin this journey of following Jesus with simple, childlike faith.  We are a lot like the blind man--all we know is that once we were blind, but now we see.  Coming to know Jesus and following Him are pure joy because we are focused solely on this loving relationship with our Savior.

Yet over time we begin to "supplement" that relationship with other things--things that really don't have anything to do with Jesus, things we think we need because, on some level, we're afraid that a time will come when Jesus won't be enough and we'll need those other things to support us.  What was once simple becomes inordinately complex.  But Jesus calls us to return to Him in simplicity, abandon our excess, and come to Him again as a child.

[quoted from Breaking the Discipleship Code by David Putman (2008).]  

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