Camp Counselors Prep

Summer camp is coming! 

Some of you may be counselors. You don't have a lot of time for prep as a counselor. So it's handy to have a few devotionals in your pocket to choose from. Here's a few to get the creative ideas flowing:

Jonah - Jonah has quite a few lessons for us. Maybe it's 4 nights in a row, maybe you skim it for the younger crowd, maybe you dig in deep for the older teens. 

• Chapter 1: Disobedience of Jonah (nobody liked Nineveh and they had a way of dealing with enemies through brutal intimidation and towering piles of skulls of their enemies, Jonah admits wrong, Jonah gets to smell fantastic for his return trip and on to Nineveh (which by the way had a fish god). 
• Chapter 2: Jonah's existential crisis in the fish
• Chapter 3: God's getting His plan done, by Jonah preaching repentance.
• Chapter 4: Jonah gets another lesson about who's in charge and who has compassion for the lost. 

Psalm 1 - There is a progression for wise righteousness.

"Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night."

You might cross paths with someone who wants you to do wrong, do not walk with them, do not go the same way, then you will stand and talk with them, it's an action. Then sit with them, you have agreed to do what they do. 

David's Mighty Men

We need mighty men today. This is an example to us and a challenge. We need men to be men, to be strong, to be courageous to be holy and wise, strong and gentle.

I Chronicles 10:11-47 lists them out. Let's take a look at a few:

v. 13-14: They (3) defended a field of barley against the enemy army. They needed food. 

v. 15-19: They (3) broke through enemy lines for a drink of water. We need water to live. 

v. 20: 1 man with a spear versus 300. 

v. 22-24: One man killed a lion in a snowy pit in close combat, killed a giant Egyptian with his (Egyptian) spear. 

Samuel 23:8-39 is another list of David's might men.

v. 8: 1 vs 800 and his hand froze to his sword

v. 9: 1 vs the army and he stood his ground and killed them all as the Israelites retreated.

v. 11-12: 1 vs the army to protect a field of lentils. 

Why are these guys so important? They were ordinary men who had extraordinary courage and faith to rely on God. Why did they fight? It was kill or be killed, and the enemies would not spare the women and children, just like they don't today. 

These guys remind me of a broadcast by Paul Harvey, now he got the intro wrong about when and how God made a farmer, but he got the rest right, listen to it once and think about the attributes. Then listen again and substitute "man" for a farmer. 

God Made a Farmer

Who Jesus Is

Stumbled across a list of who Jesus is on Facebook. Some of the list were who God is, not Jesus specifically. I added a few and changed a few and took a few off the list. Now we have 31. There are 31 days in July.

I know most youth groups are shutting down for the summer, some will even stop Sunday School for the summer. If you're one of those, this post might be for you. 

Let me lay out two different challenges for this list. 

1. A devotional guide for July. One attribute a day for the month. This is by no means exhaustive in and of itself, so feel free to add to it. I purposely did not chose the most traditional verse every time.
2. Curriculum guide - Use the ones that you think would reach your group the best for Sunday School or Youth group when you start back in the fall. You could even use a couple every week. 

What's the benefit of a curriculum like this? I am very fond of basics. I'm fond of connecting the dots. You can keep it real simple for the younger crowd or the new to faith, and you dig down for the older crowd and those who are more mature in faith. 

Be challenged my friends, be in the Word and be faithful to Him. 

The Lord My Rock - YAHWEH TSURI

Psalm 125:1-2

1

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,

   which cannot be shaken but endures forever.

2

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,

   so the Lord surrounds his people

   both now and forevermore.

A rock, not a pebble, not a boulder, not a stone, but rock, bedrock. Sturdier than bedrock. When we build on Jesus we can not fail. Way back in 1994 I was getting ready to go to West Africa for summer missions and the country was embroiled in turmoil. There were many discussions on whether I should go. My mom worried if I would be safe, and missionary friends of ours, reassured her, that if I should be there, then I am safer there in West Africa than home in my own house. As it turned out, I went to South Africa because the missionaries in West Africa deemed it a little too iffy. South Africa had just turned from Apartheid, it was not a safe place and we saw that several times in Cape Town. Cape Town, South Africa was not a safe destination either, but I was safely held by the Lord My Rock and went and served and learned much from my time there.

There is a lot of uncertainty in world today. We might be frightened of what's going on with wars, and rumors of wars, terrorists, inflation, COVID and climate change. We can rest in the Rock of Jesus, not that famous guy on TV. 

What's that picture? Uluru or Ayers Rock, in Australia. It is a giant rock. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru

If you're keeping notes, take it to the bank #1:

1. You can trust God in fearful times. 
• We do not need to be shaken, we can trust in God. 
• He is bigger than our problems. 
• He is stronger than the fears. 
• He is master over all the storms.

Isaiah 26:3-4 New International Version (NIV)

3

You will keep in perfect peace

   those whose minds are steadfast,

   because they trust in you.

4

Trust in the Lord forever,

   for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.

Psalm 62:1-2

For the director of music. For Jeduthun. A psalm of David.

1

Truly my soul finds rest in God;

   my salvation comes from him.

2

Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

   he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

If your keeping notes, #2 Take it to the Bank: God is your foundation. 

Take it to the bank:

1. You can trust God in fearful times
2. God is your foundation in life

I have a big question for us to think about:

• How do we make God our foundation? 

Just a note: 

I'm going to post up the rest of the lessons we did use and then I'll start working through the rest of the Names of God from the Old Testament. 

The Names of God: El Olam

Scripture

Genesis 21:22-34

Name

El Olam - God who has no beginning and no end. The everlasting God whose Son is the Alpha and the Omega

Picture from Francis Chan

Understanding the Name

Rope illustration

Rope Illustration with Francis Chan

God Reveals His Name

Ps 90:4, 10, 12

A thousand years in your sight

    are like a day that has just gone by,

    or like a watch in the night.

Our days may come to seventy years,

    or eighty, if our strength endures;

yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,

    for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Teach us to number our days,

    that we may gain a heart of wisdom

Is 46:4

Even to your old age and gray hairs

    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you;

    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Is 40:28-29

Do you not know?

    Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

    and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 

He gives strength to the weary

    and increases the power of the weak.

Take It To The Bank

1. God is everlasting, eternity to eternity.
2. Man is eternal. His spirit exists forever. Ecc 3:11
3. God's promises will not fail. Ps 33:11 

Small Group Questions

We want the youth to be able to eventually feed themselves spiritually. Here's where we can get some practice in. Let them read the passage and then let them work through the questions to better understand it. 

Psalm 90:1-4, 12 Althought the whole passage is important, focus on these. 

1. What do we read here that describes God?
2. What can we learn about His nature?
3. Our own nature?
4. Why trust God?

Isaiah 40:28-29

1. What can learn about God's attributes?
2. How can that affect us?
3. What does God offer us?

Ecclesiates 3:11 and John 17:3-5

1. What does man long for?
2. What "void" can be found in every human heart? 
3. What about atheists?

Plunger Tennis Billards

Imagine a larger than life pool table. 

Sixteen plus feet long, eight plus feet wide. 

Imagine standing on that pool table playing pool with a plunger like a croquet mallet. 

Here's the set up:

Stand your tables on their sides to make a wall, leave gaps where the pockets go, you'll need a standard old style plunger, 16 tennis balls, preferable 7 of two different colors, an 8 ball and a cue ball. When explaining the game, be sure to swing the plunger like a croquet mallet, specifically say they must hit the cue ball with it for play. This leaves the door open for using it as a pool stick, but it may take a few games before someone decides to do it. 

Yes, you can play in teams. This is harder than it looks because tennis balls want to bounce. So I recommend either "dead" ones from a racquet club or stab all the tennis balls several times to take the bounce out. Don't stab yourself. You could borrow a labrador to chew all the balls ahead of time as well. 

The Names of God: El Shaddai

Scripture

Genesis 17:1-2

Name

El Shaddai - "El" meaning God and "Shaddai" meaning Almighty or Mountain 

Understanding the Name

Almighty - by the dictionary, having unlimited power

God Reveals His Name

God reveals His name as He makes a covenant with Abraham. God waited until Abraham was 99 years old to establish a covenant with Abram,  well past the age of parenting and Sarah was 90 and well past child bearing years even in those days. God's plan was to show the world that He can do the impossible, so He waited until in human life, a baby was beyond impossible. 

With God the impossible becomes possible. God transcends, time, space, and creation and has complete dominion over it. 

Mark 4:35-41 - Jesus calms the storm - Think about it, Jesus had a hard day teaching, gets in the boat with the fishermen, the professional sailors, let's go to the other side. Galilee is big, shallow and storms pop up fast even on a clear day, like Oneida Lake near Syracuse. They head out across the lake, a storm comes up, the worst storm they have ever been in. They are seasoned fishermen and they are terrified. Jesus is sleeping in the boat on a sack of rope. "Jesus!" "Wake up! We are going to drown!" Jesus gets up looks around and speaks, he doesn't shout, he simply says "Peace. Be Still" and immediately the waves and wind stop. Now the disciples don't know what is scarier, the storm or Jesus!

Judges 15:15 - Samson kills 1000 Philistines with a donkey's jawbone - I'm not sure about you, but if I need to square off against a 1000 sworn enemies who are all tough warriors, I don't think I would reach for a donkey's jawbone. I 'd be looking for a few good Marines, a case of grenades, a machine gun. He fought and fought. I'm sure when he was done, it was sight worse than the worst movie scene fight. 

Exodus 14:21-22 God parts the Red Sea - Think about standing there, the dust from the Egyptian army rising up from them as they close in coming across the desert, Moses crying out to God, and then the wind starts up coming in from the sea. Then as you stand there thinking about the end of your life, dry land begins to appear where the sea was, the army slows it's approach blinded by a gritty sandy wind. Then the command to move forward on the dry land to cross where the sea had just stood. 

Joshua 10:12-13 God makes the sun stand still for a day and a half - I love astronomy, seeing the stars on a dark night with a dark place, I've seen many things up there, northern lights, meteors, comets, eclipses, Venus transiting the Sun. How God stopped the laws of physics for the sun to stand still is beyond my comprehension. Here's some pictures I've taken over the years. Celestial Images

I Kings 18:38 - God sent down fire - If you want to re-enact this, use kerosene not gasoline, less explosive. 

Genesis 19:24 - God rained down burning sulfur on Sodom & Gomorrah - God napalmed Sodom and Gomorrah. The United Nations banned napalm usage against civilian targets in 1980. It is so dangerous and deadly even after the incident, it has been banned. God does not take sin lightly. 

Take It To The Bank

1. God is bigger than your problem. He knew about your problem before you and He has the resources needed to take care of it. 
2. When facing a temptation, God's power is available for you to resist the temptation
3. God's timing is perfect, He is always on time. 

Small Group Discussion

Open in prayer, and pray for God to make Himself known to your students.

1. Have you ever seen the power of God in your life? What did God do?
2. Describe God's power.  - This is hard to do. Look at the universe with a broad large stroke, what can we see. Describe God when you look at the vast array of stars in the universe. Describe God's power on a smaller scale with a storm or waterfalls. Describe God's power on you or your families life.  
3. What covenant has God made with us as believers? -
• We are Sanctified
• We are Sealed
• We are Redeemed
• We are filled by the Holy Spirit
• We are empowered by God
4. What can we do with God's power? I Samuel 23:8-23, I Corinthians 11:23-28, 

Epistles to the Youth Group

To the Youth at Syracuse Alliance Church,

Fast food, microwave popcorn, drive thru coffee, 20 minute air fryer dinners and 15 minute Insta-pot recipes, we want it now. I have been learning the 3 string guitar. oh so many twangs and zzzt's and buzzes, and sore finger tips. I took guitar many years ago, but had nearly forgotten the finger tip toughening up part. How's it sound so far, well I can plunk out a recognizable Happy Birthday and a couple hymns usually with a few long pauses in the midst and a few wrong notes here and there. There's no recording album in my future, or praise band, it's just for fun. besides I need to justify building a few more to keep at the house. 

The truth is we want instant results, I want to be able to play yesterday, I want that Big Mac now, I want to cook dinner in 20 minutes after taking it out of the freezer. The best takes time, the mighty oak grows slow and long and deep and tall, the roast in the slow cooker melts in your mouth, the professional has practiced 10,000 hours. Not just practiced, but practiced correctly. I. M. Pei said his best work was when he was in his 90's. 

So how does that apply to us? 

Who is I. M. Pei? Look him up, Syracuse is blessed to have one of his works, though it was never fully completed to his vision. 

You are young, but there's a world out there that needs you, God has a plan for you, and a job. Now here's the important part, God has already put in the 10,000 hours, and when we need His strength and skill and words, He provides.

 

II Corinthians 12:9 "But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'"

Matthew 10:18-20 "You will even be brought before governors and kings because of Me, to bear witness to them and to the natons. But when they hand you over, don't worry about how or what you should speak. For you will be given what to say at that hour, because you are not speaking by the Spirit of your Father is speaking through you."

Notice the verse doesn't say, don't study, don't prepare, by all means we should prepare, we should study the scriptures, we should work away at the 10,000 hours of Bible study. 

Don't be like my friend who said he would take care of the sermon one Youth Group Evening Service, we the youth group were in charge of the evening service, and more came out to see it, than normal weeks, My friend got up there, told the church we should be ready to preach, pray or die. He also quoted this verse and opened in prayer. Then we watched him collapse on the inside, God never spoke, he had no inkling of what to speak on. 

What is God calling you do? Read your Bible, listen to Him, pray, obey your parents, those are the easy ones. What about sharing your faith? Volunteering to help when its not cool? Befriending the friendless?  Get out there and serve Jesus. study and prepare for that practice.

Go in peace and grace,

Chris Peters