Remembering is an important concept in the Bible. We see the idea in the Old Testament in the Shema prayer in Deuteronomy from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41. You may recognize the beginning of the prayer from Deuteronomy 6:4-5:
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
The ancient Jewish people would have prayed these words every morning and every evening as both a prayer of allegiance to the One True God and a hymn of praise. It was an active remembering of who God is and in turn gave them an identity of who they were.
Jesus would have prayed this prayer daily, and when He is questioned in Mark 12 about the greatest commandment, he responds:
“The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)
Why do I bring this to your attention today? Because remembering rightly is an important aspect of our development in our faith. It’s important that we remember rightly who God is as He has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Likewise, it is important that we remember rightly who we are in light of who God is, that we are “in Christ.” As Tim Mackie of The Bible Project writes in his commentary on the Shema prayer, “Following Jesus is about love. And as we receive Jesus’ love, we respond with gratitude, humility, and a commitment to honor and love in return. Love generates more love, which results in faithfulness and obedience.”
Why is this important to a camp ministry? Because as a child experiences joy and laughter and friendship and loving community and worship at camp their capacity for the plausibility of a God who loves them increases. They form memories of what it is like to be known and to be loved and to experience joy that they will need to help them remember who God is as they enter the rough terrain of adolescence and young adulthood. If every place else in the world crumbles or tells them that they aren’t good enough or that there is no goodness in the world, the memories of joy and love and laughter of camp can help them actively remember that there is a good and faithful God who created the universe out of His great love. They can remember the friendships of camp and that the One who called them his beloved children and who spoke to their young hearts still calls to them, and still says “I delight in you.”
At King’s Camp our mission is to create space and time for all who walk on our grounds to experience the love of God as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ…and our prayer is that they take that experience home with them and remember. If everything else in their world is telling them otherwise, at least they have this experience of God that can help them remember who God is and who He says they are.
We still have some spots available for camp this summer but will be closing our registration two weeks before each session. If you have a child or know of a child that could benefit from the experience of summer camp, please go to our website at www.kingscamp.net or email us at kingscamp@gmail.com.
For more information about the Shema prayer see the Tim Mackie’s explanation at this link:
For a great podcast on what it means to be “in Christ” go to this link:
Our weeks for King’s Camp 2024 are:
Grades 3-4 Session 1: June 3 - June 8
Grades 5-6 Session 2: June 9 - June 15
Grades 7-8 Session 3: June 16 - June 22
Grades 9-12 Session 4: June 23 - June 29
Grades refer to the grade your camper would be going into in the fall of 2024.
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