Suit Up

A big youth camp hello to all of you! I am so proud of our teenagers. We demand a lot out of them for youth camp and they have responded swimmingly. Except at the moment they are, in fact, not able to swim due to lightning. That is neither here nor there. They are having a good time and getting into God's Word like champs. This morning, our speaker gave a message about battles. He explained thatt as children of God, we have an enemy. Our enemy comes to steal kill and destroy. Fortunately, God has not left us without defence. We are instructed in Ephesians 6:10-18 to put on the full armor of God. Most of our armor is defensive. They are tools for resisting the enemy. Only one is an offensive weapon, the Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all scripture is useful and profitable. Because our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of darkness, we use the spiritual weapons of the Lord instead of the weapons of the world. Brad shared a story out of 2 Samuel. When Saul died, the issue of Israel's next king led to war between the supporters of Ishbosheth (Saul's son) and those of David. A particular battle took place when 12 men from each side were chosen to fight each other. Joab was the commander of David's army and Abner the commander of Ishbosheth's. (By the way, there is in fact a person at this camp named Sky Commander. Who does that?) One of Joab's brothers, Asahel was among those chosen. The Bible says that he was as fast as a wild gazelle. Asahel began to chase Abner. Abner was amazed to see that Asahel had gone into battle without any armor. Twice he warned Asahel to pick up some of the weapons of soldiers who had fallen, but Asahel kept chasing. Finally, Abner plunged the blunt end of the spear all the way through Asahel and killed him. Initially, one would believe Asahel to be completely unreasonable. Was he cocky., forgetful, or just plain crazy? However, when we turn the question inward, things get uncomfortable. If we know that every day that we wake up, a battle is raging, why don't we put on armor? How can we choose every day to go into battle unprotected? Putting on armor once a week at church, or every now and then when we have time isn't going to cut it. Keep praying for our teenagers as they learn to put on their armor. Today's. Silly moment is brought to us by Dusty Prism : Terry : How old do you think I am? Dusty : You're a ninja so no one knows.