Setting Up Your Campsite
Have you ever been camping? My family is excited to be doing some of that this summer. We love being out in nature and together is always a great place to be!
When you go camping, what’s the first thing you have to do? Pick a camp site!
You then have to prepare that campsite.
~You have to make sure you set up on level ground (you’ll be rolling around all night if you don’t)
~You have to clear away the debris (sticks, rocks, raccoon poop, etc)
~Then, you can start setting everything up so you can enjoy your trip
This is the same thing we need to do in our walk with Christ.
~level ground…You decide to follow Jesus
~clear away the debris and start building on the campsite …
~we get rid of the junk in our lives and continue building on the foundation of Christ, then we can enjoy the trip of life!
1 Corinthians 3:10-11 says, “According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.”
So, we get our foundation built, what then?
Time to clear away the debris…what does that mean? How do we do that?
Isaiah 58 (The Message) says, “Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins! They’re busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’ and love having me on their side. But they also complain, ‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’ “Well, here’s why: “The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like? “This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.”
This passage is telling us to get rid of the junk, the sin in our lives and actually be truthful in how we live. Quit SAYING we are God-lovers and actually BE God-lovers, not only through our speech, but also in our actions.
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS
How we behave and our motive behind how we behave speaks volumes about our inner-most person. Basically, this passage is telling us to get rid of the junk/sin in our lives and treat people right!
Matthew 22:36-40 (New Living Translation) says, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
We are to love God and love others. If we truly love God, we will be able to love others. If we do not love others, how will we treat them?
and James 1:19-22, 26-27says, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”
We need to make sure our campsite is prepared, laying down a solid foundation built on Jesus, then getting rid of the sin/junk in our lives, following Christ in our actions as well as, learning to love God with ALL of us and to love people.
Now, get out there and enjoy the trip! :)
