A week ago, I spoke at Mission Prayer Band about camp ministry – focusing on how to pray for those who serve at Christian camps.  In preparation for this, I put together a pamphlet of specific requests from several Christian camps I’m familiar with.  I’ll put the text below; you can download & print the pamphlet here, if you’d like.

AMAZING GRACE BAPTIST CAMP
Ottawa, KS            Aaron Burton, Director
www.agbcamp.org        agbcamp@agbcamp.org

1. Please pray for our staff (there are about 35 of us total, including both operational and counselors), that the Lord will glorify Himself through us and that His strength will be perfected in our weakness. Please pray for spiritual wisdom and sensitivity. Pray that our motivations will be completely to glorify God and not seeking our own pleasure.
2. Please pray for our campers (we typically have between 40-80 each week), that the Lord will work in each heart and that their hearts will be tender to God’s Word and that they will not just have a good time here at camp, but that they will grow to know and love Christ better. Please pray for spiritual and physical safety.

CAMP JOY
Whitewater, WI        Scott Hatchett, Director
www.campjoy.org        staff@campjoy.org

1. Construction work is in progress on the hillside cabins, which are in need of siding.
2. There has been much bad weather that could hinder a relaxing week for the attendees here at camp, so pray that the Lord would provide good weather.
3. Pray that the Lord would prevent any injuries during this week and summer.
4. We have room for more campers for the following camps: Junior Camps, Teen Camps, and Wilderness Camp.
5. Pray that the Lord would strengthen our staff – some have had health problems.
6. Pray for our staff to be a spiritual strength through their testimonies to others.

NORTHLAND CAMP
Dunbar, WI            Steve Pettit, Director
www.northlandcamp.org     office@northlandcamp.org
For our Speakers

• They prepare and preach the word, for clarity of speech and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
• Also, our speakers obviously have many other duties, so special prayer for them as they prepare and juggle all those responsibilities is greatly appreciated. Also most of them travel in Evangelism, so carry that burden of preparation as well.

For our Staff

• Servant-mindedness
• Good Health and Rest (when possible)
• Wisdom and discernment in counseling campers

For the Campers

• Salvation Decisions
• Understanding the teaching of the passage, that in salvation, the old man has been put off and the new man has been put on.  Understanding that now, they need to ‘Renew the mind’.
• That God would work in the family campers in salvation as well as the restoration of family relationships.
• Encouragement in the Christian walk/ministry.

SOUTHLAND CHRISTIAN CAMP
Ringgold, LA            Todd Sasek, Director
www.southlandcamp.org

1. Purchase of 160 acres of land to expand camping ministry.
2. Wisdom for our young staff this summer as they minister.
3. Financial provision for our staff to go back to school.
4. We are understaffed a little this summer. Pray that we will be effective and get needed rest on the weekends.
5. Pray for our evening services that begin each night at 8:30 (central).
6. Pray for godly, qualified staff for our future summers.

THE WILDS
Brevard, NC            Ken Collier, Director
www.wilds.org        info@wilds.org

1. CampsAbroad, the missions arm of THE WILDS, takes our camping philosophy to the foreign fields.
   Ken Hay and Dan Brooks are finishing up a camp in India this week (6/21). The roads out of the camp have been shut down and there is a possibility that they will need to leave by helicopter. This is very expensive.
   Matt Collier will be going to Uganda from June 30-July 7. He will spend the first week training the staff and the second week helping the missionary and nationals run camp.
2. We have over 1,000 campers and sponsors coming each week of this summer. Please pray for the summer staff to have opportunity to minister to them individually.
3. Pray for daily safety of our staff and campers.
4. Pray for hearts to be prepared to hear the various evangelists throughout the summer and that many will come to Christ or take the next spiritual step.
5. Pray for our one week of junior camp in New England in August. We are trying to establish a camp in New Hampshire and have had years of wading through permits, etc. We are presently renting a camp for one week in the summer.

Brian Collins recently pointed out a connection between the words “glory” and “image” in the NT – a relationship between God’s glory and his image.  I posted a comment on his blog, since it’s somewhat long, I thought I’d post it here.

Brian listed these passages in the article: I Cor. 11.7; II Cor. 3.18; Rom. 8.29-30; II Cor. 4.4-6; Rom. 1.23; 3.23.

Here’s my comment:

My thought on the relationship stems from the definitions Jaeggli gives for “holiness” and “glory,” namely, that God’s holiness is the sum of his attributes, his unique character, and that God’s glory is what men see of his holiness, when they interact with that holiness (unique character).

To bring that into this question, it struck me that God’s image in man (men being, in some way, like God) has much to do with God’s holy character reflected in us. That was the primary change after the Fall – redemption history tells the story of God restoring his image in us – making us more like him. Moral character is the foremost component of that restoration.

Ideally, no redeemed person displays God’s holiness in a vacuum – people see God’s likeness in believers. That display of God’s likeness/image is glory – God is glorified in us, we glorify him, etc. His image is displayed to men.

In the verses above, we find references to “beholding” God’s glory and to that glory shining like sunlight. Our interaction with God’s holy image results in his glory reflected in us.

I could describe it in three steps:

1. God is holy – his nature/characteristics are unique.
2. We see (interact with and respond to) God’s holiness: glory.
3. This produces a second glory when others see the first glory (his likeness in us).

There is a fair bit of overlap of terms in this idea, but I think that’s approriate – the two words are used almost synonymously in I Cor 11.7.

This is just a tentative suggestion – there is something to God’s image/likeness that’s more than just moral (as is evidenced by the general statement in I Cor. 11.7 above).

If anyone has thoughts or responses to this suggestion, I’d love to get your feedback in a comment.

I like Firefox 3.0, particularly for its speed and Awesome Bar.  However, I do not like the fact that all the bookmarks in my Bookmarks Toolbar open up in the current tab.  I want them to open in a new tab.  I used the Tab Mix Plus extension to accomplish this in Firefox 2.x, but that extension isn’t compatible with 3.0.  Today Google helped me find a (mildly involved, but not too terribly difficult) fix for that problem.

1. Download and install UserChrome extension: http://mozilla.zeniko.ch/userchrome.js.xpi – this will allow Firefox to open/run the next files.
2. Restart Firefox.
3. Copy two JavaScript files (userChrome.js and OpenInTab.uc.js) into your Firefox chrome folder.  See path below:
   C:\Documents and Settings\[Windows login/user name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[profile folder]\chrome
4. When you copy the files, a dialog box will ask you about replacing the existing userChrome.js file – yes, you need to replace it.
5. Restart Firefox.

Now all your bookmarks (in the menu or in the bookmarks toolbar) should open in new tabs.

One caveat: a comment on the original page claimed that this doesn’t work on Mac OS X, but I haven’t tried on my MacBook yet – I’ll try that tonight or tomorrow.

I just loosened up the comment feature for all to (appropriately) enjoy.  My apologies to anyone whose desire to comment on a post was repelled by the “you must register first” message.  Comments are now open and welcome.  I don’t just want to post into the great blogosphere of no return – I’d love to get feedback from my readers (and Google Analytics tells me that there are a few of you – it even organizes you by your shoe size).

Thanks!

There are some excellent hiking trails not far from Greenville.  Table Rock State Park has a 3.6mi (one-way) trail that goes up to the Table Rock Summit at 3124ft.  I hiked that with a group of friends last weekend.  There are several really scenic overlooks along the hike – we looked out over miles of beautiful countryside and all of the beauty of creation and praised God for his handiwork!

Here are some of the pictures:

I read this poem on the Between Two Worlds blog and felt it to be well worth passing on!  We (me included!) so often lack the appropriate contrition and humility that our relationship with God demands.  This prayer beautifully expresses gratitude for what God has done and humility before Him.

O God of grace,

Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute,
and hast imputed his righteousness to my soul,
clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe,
decking me with jewels of holiness.

But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained with sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity;
my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.

I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;

I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for thou dost always justify the ungodly;

I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing forth
the best robe.

Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day’s work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.

Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.

If anyone knows the source to this poem, I’d be very grateful to have that.

This is the equation in Haggai 2.

The Lord told Haggai to ask the priests two questions (Hag. 2.11-13):

1. Can you use ceremonially clean meat to impart clean-ness to other objects?
2. Is ceremonial unclean-ness “contagious?”

No.  Yes.  You can’t walk around your house with a piece of clean meat and pronounce everything you touch “clean.”  On the other hand, if you’ve come in contact with uncleanness (like a corpse), the things you touch are also rendered unclean.  That’s a nice bit of trivia from OT ceremonial regulation, but what application does it bear for us today?

God wasn’t merely concerned with meat and corpses in Haggai 2.  He was (and still is) concerned with His people’s hearts (Hag. 2.14).  The problem is common: people whose hearts are not right with God attempt to mask that condition with outward religion.  That doesn’t work.

A wrong heart (in Haggai’s day, people were not building the temple that God told them to build) cannot be hidden under external Christianity.  People may not see; even your closest friends may be fooled.  God is not fooled; neither is He impressed with the pretty show.

The outward impression of religion is actually corrupted and made unclean by underlying sin.  All the actions and externals of godliness are rendered worthless when the heart persists in disobeying God.

The remedy is a simple one, thankfully!  Repent – turn from disobedience – and obey God.  The results of a right walk with God are sweet: “From this day on, I will bless you” (Hag. 2.19).

On Wednesday, the youth group of my church gave testimonies about their recent week at the church’s teen camp.  It was an exciting service!  I arrived early and read through the bulletin pages that listed several teens’ answers to questions about favorite activities, games, lessons learned, etc.  Testimony time during the service was a contagious joy – hearing the teens’ spiritual fervor from their own lips, listening as they praised God in song, watching their excitement on the camp DVD.  The focus of the week was on “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (II Cor. 7.1).  You can see some photos from the week, read the daily newsletters and listen to the sermons on the Youth Ministries page of Mount Calvary’s website.

Seriously.  They’re in mine.  And I think it’s funny.  :)

On Firefox Download Day, I downloaded and installed Firefox 3.0.  If you haven’t done it yet, you should too.  Then I heard the rumor about the robots…  And ignored it for a few days.  Then I tested it out – and it’s true.  You can find the robots in your computer by opening Firefox 3.0 (they aren’t there on 2 or earlier) and opening a tab to about:robots.  Prepare yourself – the robots are real.

I was reading from Micah earlier this evening and the words of chapter 2 were frightening:

• “Lately my people [Judah] have risen up as an enemy” (Micah 2.8)
• “If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying ‘I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,’ he would be the preacher for this people!” (Micah 2.11)
• “Then they will cry to the LORD, but He will not answer them; He will hide His face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.” (Micah 3.4)
• “The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them.” (Micah 3.6)

Not the most joyful message that God had to send to His people, is it?  The kernel of the problem is this: the leaders of the nation were leading their people in sin, while proclaiming that God would bless and not judge.  This leads to some hard questions: “Why, Lord, why do you let your people go on in this blatant hypocrisy?  Why don’t you put faithful people in charge?  Why don’t you let godly men lead us in righteousness?”  Or, in the words of Habakkuk, “Oh LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?  Or cry to you, ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?  Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?  Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.  So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.  For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted” (Hab. 1.2-4).  We can feel his sentiment, can’t we?  “Why, Lord, is our nation moving toward open acceptance of so many sins?  Why don’t we have a truly righteous candidate for certain key offices?  Why is the culture around us so blatantly God-less?  Why are so many in the church cold and indifferent?”

God answers Micah (and Habakkuk) with something different from what we’d expect.  Rather than a theological explanation, God gave prophecy.

I broke into a smile as I read Micah 4:

• “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it” (Micah 4.1).
• “For out of Zion shall go forth the law” (Micah 4.2)
• “We will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.” (Micah 4.5)
• “the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation” (Micah 4.7)

And the irony of Micah 4.11-13 is wonderful!  The nations surround Zion, desiring to defile and profane her, “but they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan!”  God allows them to surround His people, but really, “He has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.”  Their attack turns into an ambush – their own destruction as the Lord gives His people an iron horn and brass hooves (images of strength and power to destroy) and uses His people to “beat in pieces many peoples and … devote their gain to the LORD.”  And all this ties into the coming of Messiah – God’s “Anointed One” – who will be born in Bethlehem, the least city.

How should we react to this prophecy?  Micah 6.8 tells us.  This verse has been oft quoted, beautifully set to music and inscribed on greetings and plaques – but also meant to be obeyed!  “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

And wonderfully, the book ends with this assurance about our God: “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?  He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.  He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot.  You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7.18-19).

The problem: sin around and within God’s people.  God’s answer: prophecy about the coming day when He will make things right. Our response: do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God.  The motivating confidence: our God delights in loyal love and irreversibly forgives sin!