It’s camp day!
We’ve been going to Daniel Springs Baptist Encampment since 2002.
Back then we had 32 go; this year there are 7 of us.
Back then I was told that I couldn’t participate in the business meeting; this year I’m teaching the adult class again.
Things have changed at camp over the past years.
Most of that change has been in the kids that come.
Like our group, kids grow up and move on; they graduate, get in college, or go to work.
Some will never return to camp as adults or continue in church.
However, some will come, learn, and continue in the ways of Christ.
They will grow up and become the leaders, the preachers, and the teachers of the church.
When camp time arrives they’ll be the sponsors that bring a new batch of kids.
Wisdom, morality, ethics, and virtue come from the Holy Spirit but also with training.
The mature Christian shares with the younger the ways of Christ.
I remember what the elders of my church told me as a young Christian.
Many times their words were ancient and out-dated; they were “old fogies” that didn’t know what they were talking about.
The older I get the more I realize they were right on about things.
There is an example in the Bible of rejecting old tried-and-true wisdom for youthful idealism.
Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, saying, “How do you advise me to answer these people?”
And they spoke to him, saying, “If you are kind to these people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever.”
But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. 2 Chron 10:6-8
The advice of Rehoboam’s younger friends led to the split of Israel as a nation.
The people were divided and no longer unified under God.
This year’s camp lesson is about unity, being one in the body of Christ.
It starts with salvation, the leading of the Holy Spirit, and mature Christians teaching the youth!