A Reflection on Thursday Night Worship Service

Camp 2K13 Alpha and Omega

Camp Toknowhim

Pisgah, Alabama

 

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Hebrews 13:8 (HCSB)

 

A Reflection on Thursday Night Worship Service

While I would love nothing more than to go through the day to day activities and experiences of our recent week at Camp Toknowhim, with the youth from Rockford, I feel strongly that I need to share my reflections with you regarding the last night.  Later in the weekend and the first of next week, you can check back and get a view of the other parts of the week.

This was the second year for our youth to come to the mountains of north Alabama, and to the hills of Pisgah in order to reconnect, renew, and restore their relationship with the Savior.  As is the case, there are always those who come with us who need to connect with the new life Christ offers freely and generously. 

By Thursday night most of the spiritual relationship was settled and secured.  We had on Wednesday evening three new believers, brothers and sisters in Christ, and one renewing their relationship with Christ.  The Worship service on Thursday night was not much different from the other three evenings, as we plunged ourselves into the presence of the Father and allowed Him to be glorified and speak to us in the moments that followed.

Our service was held in what we have called “The Tabernacle.”  It is a large meeting room in the Small Group Camp and holds a special place in the heart of those of us who came last year.  In a semi-circle, the 23 students, along with the eight chaperones, and four special visitors, sat and listened intensely to a presentation on the Exchange that all of us need to make.

The Exchange is actually a baseball term that is practiced on the diamond.  The object is for the player to catch the ball in his glove and as quickly as possible move the ball from the glove to release it toward the other player to make the play complete.  It is the quickest athlete that becomes the most successful in the exchange.

As an application to the Christian life, it is the believer who makes the exchange from a life of sin to a life of righteousness that finds freedom and joy.  It is important for the believer to release the sin in his or her life and live in the joy of an unhindered relationship with the Savior.  During this presentation I related various verses of scripture which I felt the students needed to get a grasp of.

These are those text:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

1 John 1:9-10 (HCSB)

³¹ Then He began to teach them that the  Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the  chief priests, and the  scribes, be killed, and rise after three days. ³² He was openly talking about this. So Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ³³ But turning around and looking at His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan, because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns, but man’s!”

Mark 8:31-33 (HCSB)

Summoning the crowd along with His disciples, He said to them, “If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save his  life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me and the gospel will save it. ³⁶ For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life? ³⁷ What can a man give in exchange for his life? ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the  Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Mark 8:34-38 (HCSB)

From these verses I attempted to place a strong emphasis on the power of God to forgive us and cleanse us and use us for His glory and His purposes.  I shared with them three words:

Deny

Die

Design

Also we made a stop at Jesus’ teaching on the foundations and the difference the foundation makes.  As a believer we want to be on the firm foundation, and that foundation is Jesus Christ.  He is the rock!  He is solid!  He is sure!

²⁴ “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. And its collapse was great!”

Matthew 7:24-27 (HCSB)

As we were ending the service I gave each of those present a small stone.  It was a simple, weightless and plain stone.  I made a strong case for the rock, being so small and almost weightless.  Jesus had told us that we take His yoke and it is light and easy.  The Rock, Jesus Christ, is wanting to take the load of our life, forgive the sin in our life, and stand us on solid ground, sure footing, firm foundation.  I warned them that in a moment I would ask them to trade that small stone for something else…they would have to trust me and understand that I was wanting to show them a valuable lesson.

The chaperones loaded them up on a trailer and would meet me at the Overlook. 

The Overlook is an amphitheater located about three miles from the Small Group Camp, on the edge of the mountain.  This beautiful place overlooks the Tennessee River, with Scottsboro, Hollywood and Stevenson on the other side of the river.

It was around 8:30 when I reached the Overlook, with the students and adults coming in on the trailer.  I stood and watched the clouds in the sky around us, lightening in the west, south and east of where I stood at the beginning of the boardwalk.  Amazingly, the black skies surrounded me, but over the spot where I stood, the sky was ablaze with stars and a crescent moon hung over the river, just behind the trees.  We were in the eye of the storm!

What was happening a mile from where I stood is the most incredible story!  As the trailer reached the mile mark from the Overlook, the students were asked to exchange their small stone for a 12-14 pound stone.  This stone would represent their sin, the things which remained hidden and unconfessed in their lives.  They were asked to take this stone and start walking toward the Overlook.  While they walked along, unknown to them there were four adults in the woods along the road.  These four adults would soon be calling out to them.

They could see the lights of the trailer in the distance ahead of them, but otherwise they were left to themselves to walk along and carry their load.  At the halfway mark, the adults in the woods began to taunt them and belittle them.  They called out, “You are a loser!”  “You think you can do it but you can’t!”  “You can’t live for Jesus!”  “Give up, loser!”

Some of the students got mad, others were scared, and still others were determined to help others carry their stones.  They walked along, heading toward the Overlook.  It gave them time to think about the weight of the sin they carried and the pain and suffering of trying to live on their own, without Christ.  It made the mark!

When they came to the Overlook and were seated, they reminded them that Jesus stands ready to forgive them of their sin, waiting for them to submit to Him.  I told them that He can take their sin and throw it into the ocean of forgetfulness; He can take it an throw it as far as the east is from the west.

Then I instructed them to write their sins on the stone.  The sin of rebellion, lust, pride, anger, temper, and so on.  Write them all on the stone.

Once they were done, I invited them to bring their stones to the alter, pray over them, confessing those sins to a God who loved them more than life itself.  Lay the stone at the alter, pray over it, then when they are satisfied, to take that stone and throw it over the railing of the Overlook, walk away, knowing that Jesus has forgiven them.

It was a moving time.  Watching these students give their sins to Jesus, committing their lives to His design for their lives.  Watching them labor over this and then listening as those stones crashed along the ridge and rocks below.  Oh, what a Savior!

We observed the Lord’s Supper and left from that place different.

Before we left, I gave them another stone.  This stone was weightless, but had a cross painted on it and was a beautiful reminder of the moment we had just experienced.  You would have thought I had given them a coin worth millions.

There is more, but for the time this will help you see the investment that our church puts in the future generation.  And is just a sample of what God desires to do in the lives of all who would follow Him.