Well we are back from camp. What a week! I tell you I was so exhausted on Saturday, but you know what: it was well worth it. I learned so much and throughout the week I will be telling you of what I experienced. We were in the mountains where there was no television, no internet and almost all of the phones had no service so there was no calls or text messaging. All these kids had was each other and to learn about Jesus. We had two camps: Junior Camp and Senior Camp. We were combined at one site, but it worked out well. I was a cabin director at the jr. camp (ages 6 to 10).
First Y.E.S stands for Youth Experiencing Salvation. The kids had two services so to speak: RWG {rapping With God} and a chapel service along with cabin devotions. My part was to do the cabin devotions all week. As I said before I was way out of my comfort zone. Many of you reading know I have problems speaking in front of people even if it is young children. But I was able to do it with God's help. I was speaking his word and many times it was as if God was there helping me through it; especially in the beginning before I got used to my kids. Granted I haven't made it to where I want to be but I now know I can teach. Baby steps. Soon I will be able to be in front of a large crowd and not have a panic attack.
God sends things our way to teach us different things and to help us through something. YES Camp was his way of showing me I could do the things I never thought I could do. It helped me grow in my faith. God puts in positions where he knows we will learn, but many times we don't take the opportunity presented to us. I know plenty of people who didn't take this opportunity to be either a camper or staff and missed out on something wonderful. What opportunity are you missing? What are you passing up by not volunteering to do something even if it is helping in the nursery at church one Sunday? Are you going to keep passing up opportunities? How else do we grow in God if we don't do things like being a cabin director for a camp?
Part of being a Christian means we need to serve God. And throughout Malachi, God has stated his disappointment in people basically wanting God to serve them not the other way around. He has stated he was weary and that people have asked for proof of his love instead of the other way around: us proving our love to him. How could we say we believe in God, yet not serve him the way we should be?Malachi chapter three, verse 13 and 14 says "you have said terrible things about me says the Lord. But you say What do you mean? How have we spoken against you? You have said 'What's the use of serving God. What can be gained by obeying his command or by trying to show the Lord Almighty that we are sorry for our sins." Too often we wonder why serve God? We want to get something come out of our service to God. We don't understand that serving our own selfish needs we are saying the same things.
We need to look at our lives and wonder how are we serving God and how can we serve him better? We are saved only through God's grace. The other night Todd mentioned trying to keep an eye on his speed while driving because he said what kind of example would he be by not obeying the speed limit laws. In a way wanting to be an example of good driving also shows he wants to be a good example of serving God. When we break laws even small ones, we sin against God. Small things mean a lot in the long run even if they don't seem like it.
The way we act to others, do we gossip, we do we glance at naughty images, do we swear from time to time and that includes taking the Lord's name in vain like: God da** it. Do we try to assume what goes on in a person's head and spread rumors about one another, do we indulge in things a Christian should refrain from?
That is an interesting title I know. "Wearied Lord." does the Lord get weary? Why would he get weary if he does? Malachi tells us why the Lord gets wearied. We weary him with our actions and our words. He does get tired of how people can twist the Word to fit their style and their own selfish desires.
Malachi 2:17 is where we are told You have wearied him by asking "Where is the God of Justice?" We always ask where is God's justice when something bad happens in our lives we like to turn the truth around to meet our needs instead of turning ourselves around to meets God's needs. We often ask where is God when bad things occur. How many people asked where was God when the tragedy of September 11th happened? We don't see that God's justice is everywhere within the bad things. We don't put all our faith in him.
Earlier in the chapter in verse 10 in Malachi God says Are we not all children of the same Father? Are we not all created by the same God? We neglect the fact that we are God's children. That we serve GOD not the other way around. God does not serve us, yet we always try to make it that way. When we pray, we ask for things that we want. When someone needs our help we tend to think about what WE can get out of it 
instead of thinking we can show the glory of God through love for others. When we do things like this we make God weary of how we continue to act this way and treat people this way.
We need to stop trying to make God serve us and serve God. We need to think about how we can glorify GOd through our actions and not try to twist the Word of God around to fit our needs and desires. We need to change to fit God's needs.
