5/29/24
Going through a box the other day, I found a program from a Kentucky camp meeting where I played the piano back in 1986. I used to do a lot of that. Every summer for decades I either led the singing or played the piano at some camp meeting or revival not only in Kentucky but also in Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Alabama.
Those were exciting, inspirational days! Depending on your location, there might be 1,000 or more people taking time out of their summer to attend a camp meeting at places with names like Zion’s Hill, Silver Lake and Chula Vista.
Now everyone heads to Gulf Shores or Disney World, but there was a time when believers would actually take a week of vacation to stay in sometimes primitive conditions and attend multiple services a day! At camp meetings, you could always count on an abundance of preaching (sometimes very long); of singing (always long and very enthusiastic); of conferences (usually good); of food (always the best!); of reunions of friends and family (always wonderful) . . . and most of all, there was an abundance of JOY (unspeakable and full of glory!).
Now, as summer approaches, at Christ Church we’re gearing up for our annual nod to those times with our Camp Meeting Days.
During Camp Meeting Days our services are a bit more casual, our music is more revivalist (with a healthy dose of gospel music), and I step away from whatever gospel I’m preaching through and preach from either Acts or one of Paul’s letters.
For example, the summer of 2019, I preached from Colossians, 2021 was from Ephesians, 2022 in Acts 1-5 and last summer was in chapters 12-16 of Romans.
Why the last chapters of Romans? Because I’ve discovered that if you start at the end of Paul’s letters (really any of the New Testament books for that matter) and work your way backwards, it’s easier to grasp the meaning of the book!
This works especially well with Romans, which can be really challenging. Last year, by reading chapters 12-16 (often called the “practical” chapters), we saw that Paul was writing Romans to keep the people united. The emperor Claudius had booted all the Jews out of Rome – both believing and non-believing Jews – because of their “continued rioting over Christ.” Now Claudius was dead and the Jewish believers came back to Rome to find the church that had gotten quite accustomed to doing church the Gentile-way and not the Jewish way. Neither side was happy! And that was the problem; in the family of God, there are no “sides.”
So Paul wrote them a letter. Paul spent the first 11 chapters to show how God had made Jews and Gentiles into one family and the last chapters, 12-16, were practical ways that unity was lived. He closed with a beautiful benediction that said it all: “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:5-6).
And in the middle of all that, in chapter 8, Paul writes what one writer called “arguably one of the most spectacular pieces of writing found in the New Testament.” So rich is this chapter that it has inspired hymns such Charles Wesley’s “And Can it Be” and the Bach motet, Jesu, Meine Freude. The opening verse, “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” stands right up there with John 3:16, “for God, so loved the world that he gave us only begotten Son. . .”
And that’s just verse 1!
In Romans 8 we learn that the worst we might face in this life pales in comparison to what God has for us: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (8:18). In the meantime, when we don’t know how to pray “ the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” (8:26). And through it all, Paul assures us in one of the most loved and often quoted verses in all the Bible, that, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (8:28).
“If God is for us, who is against us?” Paul asks in verse 31, and the answer comes booming back to us in Paul’s grand climax of assurance, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:38-39).
But wait! There’s more! That was just skimming the surface!
As we dig into the scripture, we’ll see how Romans 8 shines light on so much else in the Bible: we’ll see God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit at work; we’ll discover the meaning behind Jesus as Messiah, his death on the cross, resurrection, ascension; we’ll read of God’s plan of salvation, redemption, and adoption. And on top of all that, there’s suffering and glory, holiness and hope and the entire gospel from the promises to Abraham to the visions of Revelation!
That’s all in one summer! Eight short weeks in one of the most glorious chapters in the Bible – and we start this Sunday! So be reading Romans 8. Read it in as many different translations as you can find. Read it several times if you can . . . but read it! I’m looking forward to it; I hope you are, too!
Blessings,
Pastor Terry
PS - Camp Meeting Days will begin on June 16. If there are songs you’d especially like to sing (old favorites, maybe songs we haven’t sung in awhile) please let us know and we’ll do our best to include them.