Dear brethren,

 

We returned from Camp Hye Sierra after a few days to recuperate afterward.  Camp is a hectic go-go type experience because our youth are quite energetic and keeping up with them is not easy.

 

After camp was over Joan and I were completely exhausted, and we were incapable of doing much else than rest.  However, camp was quite successful and rewarding to us personally, and I'm sure all those who served at camp would say the same thing.

 

If you ever have the opportunity to serve in some capacity at camp I would advise you to seize the challenge. Carpe diem- seize the day!  You will come away from camp enriched by the excitement of the spiritual experience alone.  

 

It has been said that life is like a parade, and that there are two types of people- someone who watches the parade go by, and someone who is in the parade.  Most people are spectators who stand afar off and watch everything happen, and a spectator watches their own life bypass them.

 

God has not called us to be mere spectators of His Work, but He has called all of us to participate.  Because of what our awesome God has done for us we have a serious responsibility to participate and contribute in some way.  Some more perhaps than others based on different factors in their lives.

 

Jesus Christ spoke many parables about the Kingdom, and God expects each of us to be willing participants!  We must remind ourselves of what He said about the man who buried his talent?  What was given to him was taken away, and he was cast into outer darkness. (Matt. 25:29)

 

Jesus likened the Kingdom of Heaven to a king who arranged for his son's wedding, and he invited guests, and when there we not enough guests He broadened His invitation to others, and then the wedding was set.

"But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, [b]take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 "For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matt. 22:11-14)

 

A garment in the Bible is a symbol, and it pictures the proper attire of a Christian which is living according to God's holy law.  We should have on the garments of righteousness and obey the commandments, the statutes and judgements of God's law.  When we have on a garment it means we wear it, and in the same manner with strive to live by God's laws.

 

The scriptures explain it this way in James 1:22-25, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."

 

God's people must be doers of the work and committed participants in the work God is doing in preaching the gospel to the entire world.  Jesus spoke these words:   "Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing."  (Matt. 24:46)

 

We don't stand back and watch the parade go by, but we volunteer to help in any way we can to preach the gospel and prepare a people in the great calling God has given to us.  The person who does this will indeed by blessed in what they do--both now,  and in the world tomorrow!

 

Please have a wonderful Sabbath!

    
Your servant and pastor,                                                        
Jim Tuck