Youth Camp 2003! Pursuing God - Making Christ The Center Of Your Life

Hello!

Its been almost one year since 041203 (051203). One year, since Youth Camp 2003, which changed many lives. One year since christians committed their lives to God. And now, its back!

Children's camp is 2 days away.
Youth camp is 9 days away.

Its the exicting part of the year. The time when I think most youths would look forward to. Haa. Hopefully. But spending 5 days, isolated from the world, immersing ourselves only in God's word and with the Lord' people can really work wonders- change lives. It really is the sweetest time of the year for me, particularly. Seriously, I can't wait! Haha! I can't wait any longer! But I think even us, campers, ought to prepare ourselves- our hearts, minds, bodies, souls- for the camp. It'll be 9 days for me, since I will not really be helping out in Children's camp. Haa, but I'll be praying man! But 9 days is a good amount of time, not too long, not too short to spend preparing myself for youth camp. Yupps. This year will be a totally different experience that I ever had before. Or rather, I'll be coming to camp with a different perspective as this has really been a very very significant and fruitful yr for me. After last yr's youth camp, when I made a commitment to the Lord, my life hasnt been the same from before. I begin to seek God, and develope a personal relationship with Him. So this yr, I will be going into camp hoping to encounter God, learn more about Christ, and to continue to abide with Him for the yr ahead.

Hmmm. Camps indeed are spiritual battles for Christ. They serve to give God the utmost glory if we are able to claim upon the victory that is already Christ's. Helpers, or even campers, we ought to prepare ourselves for any spiritual battle. The bible says our adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And It calls us to be sober and vigilant. Hmm, if we were to go into battles wearing no helmet, armour, holding no shield or sword in our hands, how shall we fight the battle? Eph 6:11 says put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The devil is the father of lies, so cunning and so decietful. We do not know when or how he would strike, and are especially vunearable when we do not have the Lord with us. Do you think that he is contented to allow us to have 2 weeks, 10 days to grow steadfastly in the Lord and not do something about it? Will he say, "Two weeks of isolation from the world, hmm, ok, after their camps then I will strike them again." No, he seeks to spoil whatever plans God has for us. So if we are not prepared, we may so easily become ensnared by him even in the camps. Subtle, his attacks may be, but most powerful against us. He knows your weaknesses. Be sober, be vigilant. Though in camps, we are isolated from the devil's lair(the world) but still he is seeking to devour those that are not aware of his presence. NOt only do we have to prepare ourselves spiritually and phyically for the camps because we ought to be sober, we should prepare our hearts to serve, or to recieve the word of God. A servant's heart, we ought to pray for a servant's heart to serve the Lord. And also, we need to be clear of our motives behind serving. Are we serving because we love the Lord or because it is fun, because my friends are all serving? We constanly need to examine our motives behind serving. And also, the point on separation. For those serving in children's camp, are we going to bring our "worldly cultures" into the camp that should be consecrated to God? Are we going to show the kids a good example of godliness or worldliness? Do our actions, our speech, what we wear show the world, and allow the kids to follow in these steps? OR are we youths, as 1 Timothy 4:12 says, to be an examples to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity? It actually makes me think, are we going to be hypocrites by not walking our talk? We tell the childrens to read their bibles, to pray, we teach them God, but do we ourselves read our bibles daily, pray daily our even practise what we teach them? IS it going to be just a show to them? Well, I listened to John Vaugh's sermon today while running on "Filled with Self or the Holy Spirit". It was quite good. But something that I've learnt was that we cannot be intelligent, discipline, or even have a good enough memory to maintain a "Christian's lifestyle" while inside our hearts we are so much filled with self. There is a verse in proverbs which says that what our hearts are, our mouth will speak of them. So we can never hide what our heart is filled with, self or the Holy Spirit. Witnessing isnt just talk, telling God's word. Witnessing is also done by our lives itself. Do we witness Christ in our lives? By being filled with the Holy Spirit, God witnesses through the Spirit for us! Isnt that wonderful? So what I feel as most important is that we really should prepare our hearts for service in His name. We can only bear fruit for God if we are filled with the Holy Spirit in our lives, and not self. Are we gonna be examples, walking testimonies for God to the children? "Many now are watching the footsteps that we take, many soon will follow in the choices that we make... " Be an example! Enough said, I think we ought always to be examining ourselves.

May this be our prayer today as we prepare for the camps ahead:

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.