Preacher Ko Lingkang

Are You Ready for Camp?

Family Camp is just one week away! Over the past few months, the members of the camp committee have been hard at work praying, planning and preparing to ensure that the camp would be well organized, and that everything would be ready for the camp to go ahead. Our various speakers have been labouring to prepare edifying messages for our benefit. The teachers and helpers have also been working hard to prepare a full program that would benefit our children. Today, we will be having our pre-camp briefing, where the final instructions will be given and camps packs will be distributed. By next week, as the 700+ of us will journey up to Malaysia for a whole week of camp, everything would be ready for the camp to commence. Question is, are we, as campers, ready for camp?

To be ready involves more than just having registered, paid up and packed your bags for camp. It is much more than just turning up with your bible and a notebook and enough clothes for the five and a half days. That is just the physical and administrative preparations that we are expected to do. How about our spiritual preparation? Have we prepared our hearts to receive God’s Word? Have we asked ourselves, what is really our purpose for attending this camp? Is it just to have fun, to enjoy a few days in a nice resort in the company of your friends? Is it just a one week holiday where we look forward to relax, unwind and take a break from our busy schedules? Or is it really a time that you have set aside to gather to study God’s Word and to experience edifying Christian fellowship? Have we earnestly prayed and asked the Lord to bless the camp, and that each of us would learn much from our time spent here? Have we purposed in our heart to take home something from the camp and apply it in our lives? If we have not already been doing so, it would be good to spend some time to seek the Lord, and ask Him to sanctify our hearts to be ready for camp.

Israel Prepared to Receive God’s Word

In Exodus 19, we see the children of Israel gathering at the foot of Mt. Sinai just before they heard the voice of the Lord giving them the Ten Commandments. They had journeyed for three months after leaving Egypt, and were now pitched in the wilderness before the mount. As the leaders of the congregation gathered, God’s word came to them through Moses: "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Exo 19:4-6). He was reminding them of how important it was for them as God’s special treasure to obey the Word of God.

It was indeed a momentous time for the children of Israel, for they would soon be hearing from God himself. The same God who brought them out of bondage in Egypt and would be leading them into the Promised Land, would now appear before them and address them directly. As such, special preparations had to be made, in order that they would be ready for this special event. And so these were the instructions that God gave to Moses: "And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. (Exo 19:10-13)

The first preparation that the Lord called for was for them to sanctify themselves. This actually referred to the ceremonial purification process that they had to undergo. It involved a physical cleansing, whereby they were to wash themselves, clean their clothes, and ensure that they do not come upon anything that would cause them to become unclean. This was of course a symbolic outward action that was to represent the inward purification that they had to undergo as well. They were to sanctify their hearts before the Lord, to ensure that they were holy and pure, for they were going to stand before the Living God and hear His Word.

Moses was also instructed to set a boundary or barrier around Mt. Sinai to ensure that the people would not wander too near and touch the mount itself. This was to prevent any excessively curious or careless person or even animal from touching or attempting to ascend the holy mountain, which would result in a sure and certain death. This was to demonstrate to the people how holy the presence of God was. No sinful man, no matter how much he purifies himself, can ever hope to stand in the presence of God and live without His permission.

All these instructions were therefore given to the people to impress upon them the real gravity of the situation that was before them. It was not something that they were to take casually, flippantly or irreverently. They were to very carefully and diligently prepare themselves in a most solemn and grave manner. It was indeed a once in a lifetime privilege to hear the word of God directly from God himself!

Will We Prepare to Receive God’s Word?

Just as the Lord instructed the people of Israel to prepare themselves to receive the Ten Commandments, we too ought to seriously consider how we can prepare for the camp. Of course we are not directly equating camp with the giving of the Decalogue, or that boundaries must be placed around the pulpit because it is holy ground. Yet through this account, spiritual applications can be drawn.

When we go for camp, the main purpose is to receive God’s Word through the faithful preaching by our speakers. As such, it is not an activity that we can approach irreverently without any spiritual preparation. In the next week before camp commences, it would be greatly beneficial if we could all pray and prepare ourselves spiritually for the camp. Instead of worrying about what clothes to pack for, or thinking about how the food will be, or fussing over the room arrangements, we should instead ‘worry’ about our spiritual state before the Lord. We must be careful to sanctify our hearts before him, to ensure that no besetting or unconfessed sin would hinder our walk and relationship with God. If there are still unresolved sins or conflicts that are distracting us, how can we expect to be blessed? In order to attain the maximum benefit from our week at camp, we must be in the right spiritual state of heart and mind, of one that is ready and eager to listen and learn from God’s Word.

Instead of thinking about the many buffets that we would be having and planning our pre or post-camp food trails, we should instead look forward to and hunger after the spiritual food that we would be partaking at camp. It would be useful to look through the camp booklet and read the various passages that we will be considering in the messages. We could also read through the discussion questions provided and think through them, so we will be ready to contribute and have fruitful and edifying group discussion sessions. We must also purpose our heart to be forthcoming and open in seeking opportunities of fellowship with anyone and everyone at camp.

If we could all just make these few preparations in our heart, I am sure that we would be able to benefit so much more from the few days that we have invested for camp. As Dr Tow constantly reminds us, we must be mindful of the thought that coming to camp is an investment of time, effort and money that we have all made. Question is: what yield would you be able to reap from this investment?

I also understand that not everyone will be able to make it for camp. However, do not despair, for there are things to do and benefits to be had as well. Whilst you might not be there with us physically, you can certainly pray for the camp, not just now or today, but throughout the week that the Lord would bless the camp and use it to strengthen our church. You could also avail yourselves to the recordings of the messages that the PA team would be making, as they work overtime throughout camp upload the messages onto our church's website as soon as they are preached. Through these means you too can share in some of the blessings that the campers would be receiving. I am sure we all would want to know how we can be more discerning in all aspects of our lives. This series of messages would help us greatly in learning more about the why, what and how of biblical discernment, and teach us how we can apply it to the different challenges that we will face through the course of our lives.

Let us all do our part to pray and prepare ourselves, so that as a church, we can all be richly blessed in the week that we will be spending together at camp.