reppepper
"It's not someone who's seen the light. It's a cold and a broken Hallelujah." -- Leonard Cohen
god It was a beautiful sunny day yday at Camp Gitchigomee where a few of us gathered to do some more prep of the physical plant. One of my jobs was to kill (or shorten anyway) thousands of physical plants.
I got thinking about how at times I hear people say "This is God's ______ (camp, church, mission etc.); he will provide for it."
But in this case (grass cutting), we and, I imagine, every other Christian camp say to God, "Thanks for the grass, but we don't actually want as much as You have sent. We will reject some of Your provision."
I'll return to that, but first --
If an org'n truly IS God's then, He can actually decide NOT to provide what WE think He should. He can decide that it's time for it to go under. (Note that I am not predicting or hoping for that in the case of Camp G.)
Usually, we acknowledge that God's plans for us might differ somewhat from what we thought, but it's terrifying to contemplate His plan differing radically. Most org'ns rapidly reach a point where their main objective is to perpetuate their own existence. Even if God willed for us to exist; He may not will that we continue.
It's my belief that it's fine to pick goals (such as numerical ones), but I'm leary of saying "We are trusting God for 300." -- as if God made a PROMISE of 300 to us, which we TRUST Him to honour.
I'd prefer to say "We believe 300 is an achievable goal and we are asking God to direct us in reaching it." -- least of all because that way it is less embarrassing if we don't reach it and have to lower it. Oh well, we simply miscalculated.
(But most of all because I think we should have a greater fear of taking God's name in vain.)
Currently it's my understanding that God doesn't have ANY covenant obligations to provide for ANY group except the Church Universal (Matt. 16:18), and possibly the people of Israel, in some sense, though I'm not willing to commit to a belief that the modern nation of Israel is the same thing.
Does this sound like a lack of faith? I don't think it's WELL-PLACED faith to believe that God will honour promises He hasn't actually made.
My faith is that God is good and wise in all He does. He gives and takes away.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. He will do with it as He will. But we have to take what He sends us (or allows us) including grass, disease, storms, pain in childbirth and, acting on what light we have (by which I mean supremely Scripture), decide what is desirable and what is not -- and make our best efforts to resist the latter. We may find out later that we had some of it backwards.
But we can ask God to help us in our struggle. Often He provides enough gas for the lawnmower.
It was a sunny day. The sun was shining on Camp Gitchigomee that day -- and on Dorion Bible Camp -- and Round Lake Bible Camp.
Quite possibly it was shining on Windsor too and on the Hell's Angels. What does it all mean?!!
I got thinking about how at times I hear people say "This is God's ______ (camp, church, mission etc.); he will provide for it."
But in this case (grass cutting), we and, I imagine, every other Christian camp say to God, "Thanks for the grass, but we don't actually want as much as You have sent. We will reject some of Your provision."
I'll return to that, but first --
If an org'n truly IS God's then, He can actually decide NOT to provide what WE think He should. He can decide that it's time for it to go under. (Note that I am not predicting or hoping for that in the case of Camp G.)
Usually, we acknowledge that God's plans for us might differ somewhat from what we thought, but it's terrifying to contemplate His plan differing radically. Most org'ns rapidly reach a point where their main objective is to perpetuate their own existence. Even if God willed for us to exist; He may not will that we continue.
It's my belief that it's fine to pick goals (such as numerical ones), but I'm leary of saying "We are trusting God for 300." -- as if God made a PROMISE of 300 to us, which we TRUST Him to honour.
I'd prefer to say "We believe 300 is an achievable goal and we are asking God to direct us in reaching it." -- least of all because that way it is less embarrassing if we don't reach it and have to lower it. Oh well, we simply miscalculated.
(But most of all because I think we should have a greater fear of taking God's name in vain.)
Currently it's my understanding that God doesn't have ANY covenant obligations to provide for ANY group except the Church Universal (Matt. 16:18), and possibly the people of Israel, in some sense, though I'm not willing to commit to a belief that the modern nation of Israel is the same thing.
Does this sound like a lack of faith? I don't think it's WELL-PLACED faith to believe that God will honour promises He hasn't actually made.
My faith is that God is good and wise in all He does. He gives and takes away.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. He will do with it as He will. But we have to take what He sends us (or allows us) including grass, disease, storms, pain in childbirth and, acting on what light we have (by which I mean supremely Scripture), decide what is desirable and what is not -- and make our best efforts to resist the latter. We may find out later that we had some of it backwards.
But we can ask God to help us in our struggle. Often He provides enough gas for the lawnmower.
It was a sunny day. The sun was shining on Camp Gitchigomee that day -- and on Dorion Bible Camp -- and Round Lake Bible Camp.
Quite possibly it was shining on Windsor too and on the Hell's Angels. What does it all mean?!!
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