New Year's resolutions...don't you just love them? I actually like making resolutions before leapfrogging into a new year. As a matter of fact, if you are reading this, you are taking part in the materialization of one of my resolutions. I have toyed with the idea of creating a blog for some time now. I was hesitant since there are millions that occupy the web. "Why should I join the fray?" I thought. However, I am joining my voice with the plethora of bloggers out there and hoping that I can get a few to enjoy the thoughts I'd like to make public. Really, this blog is intended to recruit people who'd like to journey with me inside and outside the camp. I guess this creates a great segue for me to explain why I have decided to call this blog The Campgrounds.
Recently I was invited to speak at an event for pastors kid and preached a sermon from Hebrews chapter 13:12 - 15,
"Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name."
I've become highly intrigued by this passage of late. The camp in Scripture was the temporary dwelling place of the nomadic Hebrews. While the Hebrews journeyed, these temporary dwelling places were to be kept at the highest sanitary conditions because God dwelled among them. After a while, the term "outside the camp" begins to pop up in Old Testament literature. It became a place where the sin offerings took place, where the deceased where left, bodily excrements were buried, lepers were even relegated to this area. In short, it was a place that most Hebrews did not want to hang out because it was plain, well, nasty. Yet the author of Hebrews tells its readers that Jesus is outside the gate...outside the camp...and that they should go out and meet him bearing His reproach. Wow. That's heavy. Jesus is amongst the mess, calling His followers to join Him. There is so much to say about this that I'll have to break my comments up into singular posts...but chew on this: Priests were not allowed to come in contact with the dead and they certainly couldn't be around the other mess outside the camp...yet, Jesus, our High Priest is there beckoning His royal priesthood to join Him.
This blog is simply going to be my thoughts about leaving the camp and heading out toward Jesus. My thoughts will deal with our "camp culture" but hopefully not in a super critical way. I want to engage all of us to "camp out" at certain places along this journey to consider Christ's call and to have discussions about interacting with the mess outside our safe, tidy and clean campground. I want to talk about inside the camp and outside the camp.
I'll do my best to be consistent in posting to this blog if you'll become a camper and ask others to pack their backpacks and head toward Jesus. I am excited about it and I am thankful that you are joining me.
So, let's go.
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2 comments:
I'm so excited! This very topic has been at the forefront of my thoughts as of late; what can I do to get out of my Pentecostal bubble and get down to reality with the people that surround me on an every day basis? Better yet, how can I get out of my "camp" and into theirs without comprimising by beliefs and standards in the process?
I've thought so much lately about how Jesus was mocked and ridiculed for the company that He kept, the people He ate with, and the cultural mores He broke. I've found myself asking the question as of late, "Could it be that I, as a lifetime Pentecostal, have walled myself into a camp full of holy 'cultural' mores?" Who says I can't spend time with my alchoholic neighbor as he sits and sips a beer? I bet Jesus would have!
I can't wait to see what the campground has in store for me! I'll be watching for the next post. Challenge our thinking Wayne!
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