Kingdom Ready Blog

Midwest Family Camp.  As I write this, I am sitting in our room, with the evening service about to begin on our last night here.  This has been my third year to attend it, and each year, I have grown to appreciate it more and more.  For those of you who have never experienced it before, and wonder why families give up precious vacation time, to spend it at a campground, for the most part without air-conditioning, sharing bathrooms, eating food that isn’t the greatest, and sharing their vacation with other people….this blog article is for you! 

I cannot speak for all in attendance here, but I can explain to you why I enjoy coming.  This week has been a week of getting together with like-minded believers, who are not perfect people, but people who follow a perfect Savior.  It is a time of fun.  My kids, especially, love the outdoor play, boating, swimming, four-square, basketball, baseball, snack bar, and craft activities which abound.  It’s like attending Vacation Bible School all day and night.  They love the camp fires, the smell of “OFF!” bug spray, and running around with their friends – new and old, alike.  I love it, because I know my kids are getting a good dose of spiritual training on God and His word, around great teachers and super role models.  I love it, because I get to engage in meaningful conversations; attend classes on various subjects; and enjoy corporate worship with the Body of Christ.  It feels like summer, with children’s laughter, sun-kissed faces, and fans keeping us cool or at least comfortable.  It feels like time has not passed, and it could be thirty years ago, with the exception of a lap top or cell phone spotted here and there.

Family Camp feels like a huge family reunion, with the exception that the people here are choosing to be family!  We are the family of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, who are sons and daughters of the one LORD God.  We are united in one purpose and one Spirit and one baptism.   Just as Ephesians 4 speaks of, that we have the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  It’s peaceful here.  There is no strife, jealousy, or rudeness.  There is no pettiness, discord, or arguments.  There is peace.  It’s sort of like getting a taste of the Kingdom of God which is to come.  Oh, we’re by no means all perfect here, but I believe this Midwest Family Camp, with it’s people and it’s passion for the Lord Messiah and his coming Kingdom to the earth someday, is a good preview of what that Kingdom will someday be like.

Ephesians 4:4-6 goes on to say, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”  How beautiful those words are and what inspiration those Scriptures should provide for us as fellow believers!  We are one body of Christ!  When we come to gather, from different towns, different local churches, different states even, we come together and unite as one body of believers.  It is amazing how quickly we all gel and unite.  It happens easily, because we are united in one hope of our calling.  We are all hoping, praying, and looking for the day of Christ Jesus’ return.  We are all hoping for our reward, which will be when Jesus establishes that Kingdom here on the earth, and we saints will rule and reign with Christ.  Our hope is that we will be co-heirs with Christ Jesus.  As Michael Cisler taught this week on his class on the book of Romans, in chapter 8, we are called “sons of God.”  We are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”  Verse 19 tells us, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”  This is our hope that unites us in the one lord messiah, Jesus.

We are united in one baptism, with one faith – the faith of Abraham, believing God will be faithful and fulfill his promises to Abraham and to us, his descendants.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:5, we will inherit the earth, and in Romans 4:16, Paul writes, “For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world…”.  This is surely good news and this promise, this faith unites us in one Spirit dwelling in each believer, giving us a taste of what believers will be like in the Kingdom age.  The Spirit is our deposit, and an awesome testimony of what is coming!

And of course, we are united in one God and Father of all.  There is only one God, and He is the Heavenly Father.  This truth does not divide, but unite, and we experience not only joy in this truth and the hope that He provides us, but we experience a relationship with Him that goes beyond imagination and provides understanding and clarity of the hope He has planned for us.  It is a beautiful thing.

Family Camp.  It’s really not the camping experience that entices this particular girly-girl to go ‘primitive’ for a week, but it is a taste of the coming Kingdom of God, with people who share this hope, this Abrahamic faith, a faith in one Lord Messiah, and in one God and Father of us all, that stirs up my spirit, restores my peace, and renews my mind.   This is what I treasure and what draws me back each year.  Priceless.  And it only makes me wonder, what will this coming Kingdom be like, when God promises no more death, no more tears, justice, righteousness, and a new earth, upon which He will finally come down and dwell with man?  I can only imagine, but Family Camp gives us a brief glimpse of the possibilities and the love of God for His people and in His people.  A true treasure, indeed.