Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: CAMP (08/18/22)
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TITLE: A War Zone | Previous Challenge Entry
By Art Fahy
08/25/22 -
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I answered. “Park Ave.”
“Oh yeah the new kid. You play ball?” I nodded. “You’re on our side.” We’re the Park Ave. Gang.” He nodded toward the other group. “They’re the Holly Ave. Gang. We had a pretty good game and won. We played baseball almost everyday until school started.
I look back on that day and I think about the different battles fought over land, power and ideologies. I imagine when David and Goliath met, the Philistines pitched camp at Ephes Dammim while Saul and the Israelites assembled in the Valley Elah 1 Samuel 17:1,2 NIV.
We find in Daniel chapter six King Darius issued an edict stating his people could not pray to anyone but him for the next thirty days. Daniel continued with his prayer life choosing to pray to the one true God as he always did. The King found out about Daniel and he spent the night in the lion’s den. When they lifted Daniel out of the lion’s den the next morning, he was unharmed. King Darius said, “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel.”
Republicans and Democrats sit in a house divided on almost every issue. Whoever is in power gets to set the law of the land. Separating them is an aisle. It is an aisle many chose not to cross.
The line we have to deal with on a daily basis is an invisible line. Yet it is a line that when crossed to the wrong side brings consequences. This imaginary line divides us from living in the flesh or living with the Spirit. We have a choice every waking minute to what side of the line we will walk.
When we venture over the line into the camp of the flesh we not only hurt ourselves but others. When King David saw Bathsheba he looked too long, and his lust over took him. He slept with her, she became pregnant, and to cover it up, he devised a plan to kill her husband Uriah. An innocent baby died over someone else’s sin. It is almost certain that when we break one of God’s laws, it will lead us to break another.
Satan used alcohol to bring me over to the camp of the flesh. Alcohol made me bigger, stronger and faster than anyone on Park Ave. In reality I was empty inside and directionless. I compared my insides to other people’s outsides. I wanted to be accepted. At times I knew I was doing wrong but did it anyway. I couldn’t live with myself. I pulled up stakes in the old way of living and joined a twelve step program. That program led me to Jesus and my acceptance of Him as my Lord and Savior.
The secular world tells us we need this type of car, home, bank account or clothes. All these treasures are temporary. Jesus tells us to build our treasures up in heaven.Matt 6:20. Storing up our treasures in heaven means Loving Jesus and using our resources—time, talents and money to do God’s work to expand His kingdom here on earth. We are to do His work with humility and love.
We all dance from the the camp of the flesh to the camp of the spirit. When we find ourselves walking in the flesh, it is best to run and not look back. Follow John’s, advice in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What will we choose today? Will we spend our day in the camp of the flesh or in the camp of the Spirit?
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