Thursday, October 21, 2010

Camping Out

My brother, sister-in-law, and their family recently went on a camping vacation and invited us up to visit one evening. After cleaning up the dinner mess, I thought to myself, “This would stress me out!” I know – many of you camp and enjoy it tremendously, and there is nothing wrong with that! However, there is something about cooking a meal and cleaning up in such tight quarters; being careful of your noise level, as to not disturb the other campers near by; constantly being on guard so that the children don’t fall into the campfire or burn someone else with their hot, roasted marshmallow; and the looming thought of loading up all of the lawn chairs, coolers, bicycles, string lights, rugs, tables, radios, etc, etc, etc, just to come home that doesn’t appeal to me.

But hey – by ALL MEANS, if its your thing, I’m glad you love it!

I remember sitting down by the fire after dinner was done and telling my husband, brother, and sister-in-law that I had always wondered if I would like camping, and that now I knew the answer. I guess I’m too soft, but sand, ocean, and a full size shower with hot water-a-plenty is my idea of a dream vacation. My brother, well, he’s an outdoorsy kinda guy, and his wife doesn’t mind to join him, so camping is right up their alley.

Speaking of camping though, there is a certain type of camping that I love to do, and I want to invite you along on a camping trip with me.

Sometimes God grabs my attention, or shall I say, puzzles me with something in His Word and I just have to “camp out” there for a while. Anybody know what I’m talking about? Sure you do. Sometimes He stops me dead in my tracks and I have to pitch a tent and stay for a bit while He teaches me something new about Himself or about me. Sometimes it is something new in a very familiar scripture, and other times it is a truth that I just have never noticed before.

I love to camp out with Him. I love to feel the warmth of the fire of His presence. I love to taste His sweetness in my soul, swetter than a hot marshmallow smothering some chocolate squished between two graham crackers! He’s cozy, yet unfamiliar all at the same time. What’s funny about it is, although at times He is teaching me things that aren’t comfortable, I still enjoy the time with Him. Kinda like camping, you don’t have all of the comforts of home, but the time away is still enjoyed.

Here’s an example of a camping trip I took with Him several weeks ago: We went to Psalms 103:1-5. As we sat around the fire of His Word, He taught me something to do when my soul is downcast or when I’m discouraged – may be it will help you too.

Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The view from this campsite was splendid to me. He taught me that my youth could be renewed, if, when I am down, I tell my soul, if I tell all my inmost being, to praise Him, no matter what I “feel”. I will be renewed if I remember ALL HIS BENEFITS, which he so graciously lists right there in the verse for me. I tell ya, I remember that camping trip often, usually on Mondays around 8AM!

What kind of camping trips have you taken with Him? It can be something recent, or a memorable trip, forever etched upon your heart. Share with us the thoughts or verses that have caused you to “pitch a tent”, build a fire, and roast some marshmallows with Him, while you learned what He had to say.

If you have never commented – this is your chance! Just click on the comments button, if you don’t have one of the accounts listed, just pick the anonymous option and you can always type your name at the end of your comment.

You never know ------ (Hint-Hint!) there just might be a prize in store for someone who comments! Besides – where ever you’ve been camping with Him, once I hear about where you went, I might want to go there too!   


Royal Princess Daughter Of The King

P.S. I'll announce the winning campsite on Monday!
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4 comments:

  1. Romans 12:1-2 (MSG) So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

    This is the version Whitt likes best, and I bet I've heard it tons. In Sunday School, we are going thru a series called "Engage" and this section came up a week or so ago. You know when you're "camping" in a section of scripture, it never leaves your mind, you go thru day to day stuff, and its just there, I find myself questioning, analyzing, digging thru motivations, and praying the words of God become part of me. The part that says "Dont become so well adjusted to the culture around you that you fit in without even thinking" When I prayed God would show me how I was doing that, His faithfulness to show me was just moments away. Amazing how blind I was to myself. This camp out then turned into domino effect of situations of where I compromise, and where I do stand firm, then how to love on people, be in their lives, but stand boldly for Christ. I could continue on with more things. But its all what was packed in the tent, cooler, and backpack of Romans 12:1-2, complete with clean up in close quarters, making sure I dont fall in the fire, and respecting those camping around me.

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  2. I have been reading The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer and I have been camping on a statement made in his book.

    In regards to the idols of our hearts, A.W. Tozer said This thing inside of us (the idols of the heart) will not go out painlessly, it will not lie down and die in obedience to our command. It must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil. Extracted out of our heart like a tooth from a jaw. It must be expelled from our hearts as Christ expelled the money changers from the temple.

    Tozer then made a very compelling argument to list out all of the idols in our heart starting back to people, places, and things from the past year. Everything from January until 5 minutes ago (if we were to be so bold, as he puts it)

    Then a scripture was given to me in Mark 7:20-23 that lists all of the things that defile a man. God has been showing me how the things in that list contribute to the many idols in our hearts.

    So that is where I'm camping out at right now. The Pursuit of God has taken me on my own pursuit of Him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1 Kings 17 - Elijah
    Todd

    ReplyDelete
  4. WOW! We have got to talk! You will not believe what I have to tell you about camping!!!!!
    Love ya,
    Brittany

    ReplyDelete

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