I KNOW THERE WAS A GAP! BUT HEY I TOLD YOU GUYS TO EXPECT IT COMING!!
This is probably going to have the shortest diary, and the longest sermon summary and a medium sized devotion. This is also going to be the last post of the series "Sit. Walk. Stand.". Anyone sad to have this end? Anyone rejoicing to be free from this theology and Christian stuff?
Haha, I may be wrong, but most likely I have the correct hunches, like Kakashi Sensei XD!
MY new fave Two Steps From Hell song is Everlasting but with the Irish low whistle. If you have Spotify go check it out!!
Anyways, enough of what's going on now and more of what happened six days ago.
Alright! Lezz gooo!
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Day 4 19th May Friday
Session - Stand
So, we had breakfast, and sleep was better than all of the other nights combined. I don't know why, but it was just like that. Anyhow, I woke up feeling like I actually had enough sleep. Not to the point of being refreshed that some church leaders say one will experience at a retreat.
Breakfast was... right! How could I forget!? Breakfast was waffles! And it was sooooo good! Their homemade berry jam was amazing, there were whole raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries in the jam and it was just the right amount of sweet and sour. They had loads of whipped cream too!
Okay now I'm hungry.... and there is no food at home.... :'(
We then had our last session, since this was the very last day of our retreat. I will obviously get to the session later.
I stayed in the cabin for the hour and a half long team game, which was phobia and manhunt. I didn't join in because of my ankle, and granted I would not be able to run if I tried. I didn't see the point in getting tagged straight away just to sit down either.
So I stayed in the cabin, found out the toilets were clogged, I did some plumbing work and went back up my bunk and started doodling and doing the devotion. I also finished up packing my stuff(I had some time after breakfast because we finished fast).
We had a Subway-Esque lunch, it was pretty lit.
Then we had the rest of the waiting time for the bus to get here as free time. Me and my friends sat down on one of the outdoor benches and enjoyed the sun as well as each other's company while we swatted blackflies and watched the others play Ultimate Frisbee.
The bus got here on time, and we departed hoping that we would not get stranded at a McDonald's again.
That, by the grace of God, did not happen. Phew! But, a boy in my grade was being more noisy and obnoxious than ever, and all who were sitting around him (that includes me) which were obviously trying to get a few winks of sleep, were not able to do so.
I was drifting into sleep and then a sudden loud proclamation would come from the boy and make me awake again. It was like a living hell.
However, as we approached the remaining half hour of our journey home, one of my friends devised a plan for revenge. The boy was always talking about what he loves, and was inconsiderate to others and gave no craps on who liked what.
So, we would get his attention(he was being loud and annoying because no one would sit with him and no one was paying him any heed, so basically he was begging for attention), and start ranting about our favorite movies, music, video games, places to go on our bucket list, books etc and all that jazz.
I talked to him about Markiplier and Two Steps From Hell. My friend who initiated the plan started us off with an amazing presentation on the band Arctic Monkeys. Another friend talked about Harry Potter, another talked about swimming.
He would be uninterested after, like, two minutes and try to ignore us. But we wouldn't let him turn away from what we had to say, and we would reprimand him for being inconsiderate if he ever tried to even block out our voice. Basically, we were doing the same thing to him, giving him a taste of his own medicine.
When almost all of the people who had involved themselves in the plan had a turn to talk, we had arrived at school! The friend who had initiated the revenge exclaimed, "Man, revenge has never been so sweet!"
So there's that.
And thus ended the retreat!
Now, onto the session!
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The passage for this scripture is Ephesians 6.
This is the only part of Stand.
To stand is to do something with all your might. But to delve even further, what is the meaning to do something with all your might?
We were given the example of Macbeth, which had a character - Young Silam - stand up to face Macbeth, he stood firmly and fought with all his might and he did not flee.
Another example is Jacques Plante, who was the first one to wear a mask to an ice hockey game. He did not waver under his coach's opinions or commands, but instead stood firm against what was dangerous and what was wrong, put on his mask and won the hockey game for Canada,
Those are all good examples that we can relate to, however, for a Christian to do something with all their might, they must be strong in the Lord and His mighty power and stand in His armor.
Now, you must be thinking, standing firmly and doing it with all your might sounds good and all, but what are we Christians standing against?
The answer is simple - the enemy.
The enemies of Christians are the devil, earthly authorities, and spiritual forces.
The name Satan alone means the opposer! Earthly authorities could be earthly sins, or the new expectations that I have written about in previous posts. Spiritual forces could be evil spirits or even temptation!
But, you must be saying, we are standing with all our might against these enemies but we do not have the strength to stand for much longer, where can we be protected and have strength to drive away the enemies?
The answer is very much a Sunday School answer, but it is most definitely true and applicable - the Armor of God.
All the pieces of the armor are the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, gospel readiness, the sword of Spirit and welp my notes on the official names of the armor end there. But, the main point is that we will be able to have a warlike imagery, with God as out sword and shield.
Another way of interpreting what the armor is is to imagine the attributes of God as actual pieces of armor. Some of these attributes are truth, righteousness, peace, faithfulness. Salvation is God's grace, God is the word i.e. the Bible.
And, you must be exclaiming that there are a lot of defensive "weapons", what happened to the offensive weapons????
Our weapons are the Bible and prayer. Prayer is actually an ongoing spiritual warfare that is waged almost every day. The Bible is technically the Sword of Spirit, where we can either strike Satan down with the true words of God, or we can protect others through the word of God.
In the end, it all comes back to Jesus. Not because it is cliche or a Sunday School answer, but because it is best and the truest and the only answer.
Jesus is the center and role model for our walk, where he is is also a goal and model for our position, and finally, he is the one who gives us the strength to stand with all our might.
Sit.
Walk.
Stand.
Do it, in the name of Christ.
I hope this series has benefited some of you in your spiritual journey or it has made you think deeper about scripture/your belief. If you aren't a believer, then I sincerely hope that you will discover the grace of God, and I really hope that it is through this series that you have discovered God.
If you have certain reflections, or if you want to know more about Christianity, then feel free to comment! Like, seriously! I wanna try and answer your questions!
I have decided not to do the devotion since there is actually very little content XD. But we did spend our small group time praying for each other, and that was amazing.
So..... darn I'm tired!
But thank you for sticking to this series!
Stay tuned and
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
