July 15, 2010

"And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:10-14)

Tis' the season for summer camps - including sports camps. Lebron James, who is considered to be one of the greatest basketball players in the business today, will be holding a 5-day basketball camp for teenagers in a couple of weeks in San Diego, CA, called "King's Academy" - at a cost of over $3,500 per camper! For most of us that's probably almost a month's wages - proving that learning from one of the greats can be costly. The apostle Paul was one of the greatest apostles of his day. If Paul were to hold a camp, Colossians 1:10-14 could be used as a camp mission statement and goal outline for an apostle Paul camp. Instead of calling Paul's camp "Kings Academy," we'll call his camp: "Kingdom Academy." Through the power of the Holy Scriptures, we have the amazing opportunity to attend "Kingdom Academy" free of charge!

Lebron's camp might be calculated to target a specific weakness of his campers, such as rebounding or ball handling. It's likely that Paul's words to the Colossians here were written to address specific issues with his campers of his day- the church in Colosse. But because Paul isn't the only mentor at camp - because our very God the Holy Spirit is also a coach at "Kingdom Academy," we can be sure that this camp is as applicable for us today as it was for the Colossians. This chunk of Scripture too, "is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16). So we too can benefit from time spent camping in "Kingdom Academy." Let's take a few minutes of our summer now to join our fellow campers of of the Kingdom in listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul.

Because God the Father carried out his worldwide rescue mission through the work of his son Jesus, the Colossian campers were in the camp of the redeemed - the camp of the kingdom of light - and so are we. The mission statement for the redeemed campers of "Kingdom Academy" is to learn how to "live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way." Paul goes on to provide 3 examples of how we can accomplish this.

1. "bearing fruit in every good work."

2. "growing in the knowledge of God."

3. "being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might."

Imagine that you are given a small potted fruit tree and your goal is to get it to produce a bunch of fruit. If you were to take the tree and find the darkest confines of your basement and if you were to decide to only bring it out for one hour once a week to give it light and water, then how much fruit would you expect to be find growing on your tree? How strong would your tree be? Would your tree be growing at all? Would your tree still be alive? Many "Christians" get their only dose of Spiritual water and light for one short hour on Sunday morning and then during the other 167 hours in the week, their faith is left out to dry in the dark basement - in the dominion of darkness. Paul's 3 examples of how we can please the Lord are very much intertwined and they all have to do with faith and faith strengthening. The more we grow in the knowledge of God, the more our faith itself will grow and the more our faith will show and bear fruit in what we do. The more we grow in the knowledge of God, the more we will be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, and we will come to realize more and more that, "[we] can do everything through him who gives [us] strength." (Philippians 4:13). We get more light and water to our fruit bearing faith tree when we grow in the knowledge of God by digging into his Word. "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17)

But why would we want to do any of this? Why would we want to waste our precious free time on camping at "Kingdom Academy" or why would we want to waste our precious time on taking other opportunities to grow in faith? Because of what He has already done for us. The Gospel message and what it means for us motivates us to want to learn more about our God who loves us so much. The more we learn about how much God loves us, the more we will want to show love to God by obeying his commands. We will to want to "live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way." Paul spells out exactly what God has done for those in the Kingdom, as he spells out that Gospel message very beautifully for us right here in these verses from Colossians: "the Father, has qualified [us] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

As campers we remember that our current living arrangements are only temporary, and our permanent residence -our inheritance as saints - awaits us in the eternal kingdom of heaven. In the mean time, while we camp, as part of the strengthening process as we grow in the knowledge of God, He gives us, "great endurance and patience." Then we are able to, and will want to join the Psalmist in exclaiming: "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for your salvation, O LORD, and I follow your commands." (Psalm 130:5 and Psalm 119:166)

Taking ALL of this into consideration, we will certainly want to "joyfully [give] thanks to the Father," which brings us full circle back to the camp mission statement - to "live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way."

At the end of camp, Lebron James will likely advise his campers in "King's Academy" to take home what they have learned and practice it. Paul would have likely advised the campers of "Kingdom Academy" that: "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." (Philippians 4:9) May we all put into practice what we have learned today from the Holy Spirit through the words of the great Apostle Paul as we strive more and more each day to "live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way."