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.
