It is easy to love your team when they are winning. No doubt, social media is lit up when it comes to a winning team, and we talk smack about our team when they are good. We also go into hiding when they aren't good.
Likewise, there are times when it is easy to be a Christian, pontificating about society in general and issuing edicts about the deplorable conditions we find ourselves in. Shame on them (whomever that may be) for having fallen to the depths of depravity as society spins further out of control, for I know the love of Christ at work within me, and you clearly do not. And then we step out of the sanctuary and back into the world which can be hostile to the gospel.
So was the message the first night of camp as we climbed to the "wooden cross" on an adjacent ledge to the "lighted cross" mentioned in an earlier devotion. At this point of our camp, the first night, we had started talking about following Christ and sharing Christ to others. At this point in the hike, I read from Luke 9 about the transfiguration of Christ where he takes Peter, James and John with him to a mountain to pray. While there, Elijah and Moses appear with him and he is shown in his heavenly glory. Peter unwittingly says, "This is a good place to be, let us build tents here" to which Luke says, "...Not knowing what he said."
It's easy to be a follower of Christ when you are on a mountain top with Christ (and other Christians at Lutheran Camp). It's easy to proclaim the gospel, but like Peter, we want to stay there. Our calling is not to stay there, though, but to go out into the world and share that love of Christ with others. Not easy to do, we noted in that devotion, and the trappings of the world make it difficult, even for the best of us.
Pray that we have the courage to proclaim the gospel of Christ with others, even in the trappings of this world (comfort, stability at times, and things that distract us).
Hope Men's Ministry
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