Camp Skyline Theme 2020 Announcement!
The Theme for this summer is….Drum roll please….
BLOOM!
I am so excited to get to share what the Lord has for us to learn this summer using this theme. Our theme memory verse is Psalm 1:2-3
Why this verse/theme?
I was really fortunate to grow up in a home where we spoke about God and Jesus freely and regularly. My parents worked full time as state side missionaries serving as college campus ministers. Though I always heard and learned about Jesus and the life of those who followed His teachings, it took me a little while to really understand what the whole Christian thing was about. I thought the Bible was just a list of do and don’t’s so you’re well liked, but it is a story of this amazing God who cares for you and me and who wants to have a personal relationship with us! Going to Skyline as a camper, I really saw my counselors live out their faith. They knew Jesus not just as an example of how to treat others, but they truly had a personal relationship with Him, which affected the way they lived. 2 Corinthians 5:15 “and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.” They didn’t love me so that I would love them back, but they loved me because they loved Christ and wanted to share His love for me.
I chose to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, not because my parents believed this, or even because my counselors who I loved believed it. I chose because through them and others, the Lord revealed himself to me by their love and teachings of God’s word.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it tells us that once we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and savior, we have been re-created and made new! But what does this mean and how do we “live out our faith?” Is it just a snap of our fingers and all our other struggles are now gone and life is instantly made easy? Of course not! But the promise is that our lives will be substantially better because we now have the hope that is in Jesus Christ. And once we have Jesus we want to be more like Him Galatians 2:20. The Bible teaches us about Him, and gives us guidelines to help us live lives that reflect Him.
Our theme verse, Psalm 1:1-3, gives us a good example of what a righteous person (one who loves and follows Jesus) and what a wicked person (someone who lives for themselves) looks like. The first thing that verse 2 says is that a righteous person “delights in the law of the Lord, and on his law he mediates day and night.” Meaning that they are excited to learn and read the Bible, and they want to sit and focus on what it says “day and night”. And if we are to do this, the Psalms goes on to say in verse 3 that we will be “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit (bloom) in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”
So how do we become like this tree? How do we ~bloom~ and reveal that we have been changed and are growing to be more like Jesus? We have to start by going to the source, the Bible! At Camp we start everyday at Morning Watch, reading, learning, and meditating on God’s word. Then we end the same way at night at Campfire.
Please join us in prayer as we ask for the Lord to use this theme to help us learn more about who God is, therefore help us learn how to live our lives for Him. Please also pray for our counselors, for us as a head staff, and for our campers that their hearts will be open and receptive of hearing the good news!
