10th Year Bible Camper

After 9 years of Bible camping, it seems as if I wanted it to end it by attending my final one to make a 10th one to make it a decade as a Bible camper. What makes it better would be myself being the oldest camper in the entire camp besides the camp commandant which means there's a financial advantage over all the other big brothers. Heh Heh. Hey, financially loaded is a huge advantage in camp if you don't know how Bible camp is like when you're appointed as a big brother for a group. With that, I'm able to treat the whole group ice cream plus some other goodies to greatly motivate the group to win more activities that we took part plus putting extra 'stress' upon the other group leaders. Hehehe..Even their group members felt like switching over to my group. Like Switch. "Have you switch from Windows to Apple yet?", Apple's famous quote. 

Anyway, this camp was the most tiring camp ever in my entire Bible camping experience. No, it's not because I'm getting older but those who have went for that camp can testify with me that this camp is indeed very tiring as most of us doze off even before 12am. I used to be able to have midnight chats with the all the group members talking about ghosts, spiritual life struggles, girls, or arm/leg wrestling inside the dorm from my past years in camp but this one, no one even stayed up for any talks. All slept like a log when the lights went off.

All the activities in camp organized by Burmah Road Gospel Hall was intense enough to make me used up all my skills and capabilities to lead the group to participate in all the activities. Each activity requires much planning and quick workarounds as any surprise element would pop up during the activities. There was the Amazing Race challenge, Survivors Nite challenge, Test of Wills challenge, Fire and Ice challenge, Bible CSI and finally the Runway to summed up all the activities in 2008 Bible camp. As I always liked workshops more than just playing any ball games which would always be the 'same' thing over and over again. I enjoyed all the workshops very much in terms of their creativity and challenging tasks at hand but I would just remark them as too tiring. However, all in all, these workshops are great and I deeply thank BRGH for organizing it. They have indeed pushed the benchmark of Bible camp into another level from all the other years of camps.

Inasmuch as I've enjoyed the camp activities, I enjoyed serving God there in the camp by mixing around with all the campers plus encouraging them and sharing with them in the Word of God. I've seen many different personalities in the past camps and this camp is not exceptional as well. Many of the believers come from different backgrounds which makes it more interesting when sharing with them. Some came from strong Christian family backgrounds, some are newly 1st generation Christians, some came from different denominations, and some are non-believers. Each of these groups potraits a different frequency of need in their spiritual walk with God and for some, yet to start a relationship with God which should be dealt with differently.

I took the oldest group which consists of those aged above 20 years old in my daily devotion group as I felt that I'm beginning to lose touch with the ones that had a decade age gap with me. It was refreshing to be in this group because everyone in that group came from different background which made the morning devotion discussions very interesting in terms of listening to my group members share from their experiences. There is one thing I loved about camps is that there are always opportunity to touch other people's lives with your own or be touched by others.

I used to think that serving in camp should be reserved for the younger generations in order to groom them to be a capable leader and those who are seasoned should not take that place. However, God showed how wrong I can be when the organizers appointed me as a big bro for a group. Well since then, I changed my 'perspective' and started to proclaim to the world that if a person decides not to serve or go for camps like this are labeling themselves to be 'senior people' who should go for seniors fellowship camps. LoL. I guess this statement will change as the years passes by and when I get older. Hahaha..

Just to sum up everything, one thing I've learnt in this camp is that motivation is indeed very important in every believer's life. It is because of motivation I believe that my group won the best group in camp. It is because of motivation I believe that ensures a believer to do their quiet time daily without fail. Most importantly would be that every believer's motivation should come from Christ alone and that without Him, we are nothing but with Him, we can be anything for Him. Amen.

Grace Period

One day as my colleague was installing a software for our new server and he got this prompt up after installation saying 'The product has not been activated and has been operating without activation for a grace period of seven days.The Grace Period has now expired.' He asked me what to do next when faced with this problem so we managed to get hold of the license key from our counterpart in US and managed to get it solved.

The thing that struck me was this: What if the Grace period given to the whole world to find grace in the Lord Jesus Christ is expired? This thought continued to develop in my mind as I thought of the consequences when the dispensation of grace really expires. What is going to happen? To those who have studied about dispensationalism and second coming of Christ would know what will happen next.

The verse below taken from Luke 4:16- 21 states the fulfillment of the acceptable year of the Lord which would usher in the dispensation of Grace to replace the dispensation of Law.

16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,^[j]
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”^[k]

20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The original text for that part of Scripture is from Isaiah 61:1-3

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

Certainly this prophecy has come to passed in part and the other part is still yet to be fulfilled. Yes, the part where "And the day of vengeance of our God..."and the rest of the written text is not being fulfilled yet. However, it will come to pass when the grace period expires and it definitely doesn't sound nice to see the word 'Vengeance of our God' appear after that.

The point that I want to stress on is that time is running out. The grace period of God which is extended to everyone is now available so it's high time for each of us to start spreading the gospel of Christ before it's too late! And as for those who is reading this and knows about the gospel of Christ, linger no more. If you are curious about this, please speak to this blogger about it. It really matters! Plus it's better to be warned than not informed of such grace extended to you by God. Just as the software's trial period is up, we have to start paying for the license to use it. Similarly with God's period of grace when once the period is over, those who are left behind must pay the price of sin which is everlasting death.

Slowly but surely, a time will come where the throne of mercy will be turned into the throne which 'proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices.' (Rev 4:5, Rev 11:19) The description of the judgment of God is described in those verses and it will come!