West Cocoa Chat

The Book of Ephesians is one of my favorite books/letters in the Bible. The problems Paul inveighs against are so contemporary. I remember Dr. Carroll Osborn commenting on Ephesians 1:22 – 23 (22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.) saying that this was Paul’s way of saying to the Ephesians, stop living your life according to some pagan norms and some Christian norms. Get into Christ with both feet!

In our last devotional at Camp, I encouraged our campers to not allow the lessons they had learned at camp to stay at Camp. I told them our and their time was wasted if they didn’t make some changes at home that would bring them closer to Jesus. I’m sure you preachers out there can identify with this admonition. I’d like to share with you some of the changes that I’m aware of since we’ve returned home with respect to our kids.

First, many of our teens have placed a statement on their “My Spaces” that reads this site is “His Space” as in God’s Space. This is a cyber space version of Pat’s admonition to our campers to simply answer and say “Jesus” when someone asks them to do something they know goes against the will of God.

The second change involves my son and 2 of his friends in our youth group. I’ll illustrate with a couple of incidents. As I said in my last post, Steven is playing in a “Wood Bat League” and he had a doubleheader this past Sunday. We were unable to attend due to a fellowship meal after church so I called him in the late afternoon to see how he had done. He told me he had arrived home and that he and Zack were reading the Bible. Wow, at home and reading the Bible. Those are 2 phrases that for many of us including yours truly, rarely go together.

Later that night he and Zack went to their other friend’s home. When he arrived back home that night he came in carrying his Bible and a notepad. When we inquired as to what they had been doing he responded by saying they had read some of the Psalms, prayed, and started a prayer journal. My first thought was we need a Bible Camp for us (pronounced in the South by some as “add-dults”) adults.

I know the world will pull on them once again and their various (Steven – lifting, summer baseball, Zack – lifting, summer football, John – working) activities will be a challenge. However, these 3 teens have attempted to carry the lessons of our Bible Camp, living in His Space, beyond the confines of Camp. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see the changes in ourselves and our churches if we “add-dults” tried focusing in on Bible Study, prayer, and reaching out to others in the name of the Lord.