Cascades Camp Blog

As we draw closer and closer to summer a lot of the projects around Cascades shift towards summer preparations.  One such project includes the new luggage cart for Brightwood Station.  ”The Wagon”, as it’s named, is about half way done at the moment.  Dan Clifford, our Special Projects Manager, is just finishing up the last six boxes before he adds on the roof. In the end this luggage cart will be outfitted to look similar to a Conestoga wagon!

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“ I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone…”

-1 Timothy 2:1-

As Christians we are taught that prayer is instrumental to our relationship with God, and rightly so.  But as I read through the words of 1 Timothy 2:1, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone…” I am reminded how quickly I forget that last little clause “for everyone“.  I have no problem praying for my family, my friends, the congregation of my church, the organizations I volunteer with, etc… but what about things that don’t directly affect me?  Or the bigger question, what about praying for people, organizations, movements, and so on that I don’t even like?!?  

Whether we choose to live this way or not, it is clear through the words of 1 Timothy 2:1, that we are called to go to God on behalf of EVERYONE.  I shouldn’t ask God to change people that I don’t like into people that I do like or to change circumstances that make me uncomfortable into circumstances that are comfortable.  I should pray on behalf of everyone I encounter, with thanksgiving, asking God to bless them immeasurably.  

For it is as we pray for others that our heart will mold ever so much more closely to the heart that God desires of us – one that places the needs of others before our own, as Christ did so unreservedly for us on the Cross.

Blessings,

Dirt

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  Current prayer requests include:

• Rainier Kids Day Camp is the newest addition to the programs at Cascades this summer.  This is a great out-reach opportunity for kids in yelm to come to know the Lord!  Please pray for God’s guidance as we go about planning and preparing for these 4 one-week long sessions of day camp.  
• Summer is just around the corner!  Continue to join with us in prayer for campers, guests, and summer staff – that they would grow in their relationship with God, remain safe, and enjoy their time at Cascades.
• Busy Busy Busy!  As summer is fast approaching, there are several projects, big and small, that still need to be completed.  Pray that all the preparation that goes into making Cascades “summer-ready” would go smoothly. 

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05.01.09

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As we approach Easter, the Cross becomes more and more real.  Images of Jesus’ atoning work through His death on the cross are ever before us…but what does the cross mean?  What weight does this word atonement, this word that is so central and crucial to our faith,  really mean?  

In the hopes of beginning to answer this question, I’ve asked a wise friend, Cean “Torque” Williard, to share his thoughts on the subject.  It may be a bit longer than our regular blog posts, but it is well worth reading – enjoy:

“The Atonement is a wonderful doctrine.  By atonement I simply mean the work that Jesus did in his life and death to earn my salvation.  When I think about all the wonderful ways in which I was profoundly reconciled to God through Jesus, I have nothing but rejoicing.

 I rejoice for in it I see a great love of the Father.  He did not have to save me.  I did not have to be spared from the consequences of my sin, for certainly I did not deserve this wonderful redemption.  God did not spare the angels when they rebelled against Him, but cast them out of His presence (2 Peter 2:4), and in the last days will destroy them.  Satan and his demons are fallen angels.  No, God did not spare the angels who went astray, and certainly did not have to spare me either.  Yet He did.  In His great love for His people, God the Father made a way for us to be with Him for eternity, and for that I rejoice.

 I rejoice in that I have a righteousness that it not my own.  Quite simply, all the good work I can muster, all the right words and actions, thoughts and feeling, anything I do of my own accord means nothing.  Apart from Christ, there is no intrinsic worth or value, nothing to earn me any credit of righteousness.  Yet in Jesus I’m given a perfect righteousness.  While the Son was here on Earth, He lived a perfect life.  He never sinned.  He never ever sinned, not having one second of a wrongful thought or bad attitude.  There was nothing in His life to earn Him the ‘demerits’ of sin that I’ve so easily gained.  So Jesus was perfect.  But greater still is that Jesus not only lived a sinless life, He also upheld each and every law of God.  It’s not that Jesus simply lived sinlessly, remaining morally neutral in relation to the Father, but he earned a perfect righteousness by fulfilling the law.  How marvelous that this righteousness would then, in turn, be given to me.  I rejoice, for I have the righteousness of Christ to cover over my unrighteousness.

 I rejoice for the wrath of God which I ought to bare has been appeased.  In all my sin, God’s anger has been kindled, for God hates sin with a passion.  All his fury against the injustices I cause, against my rebellion, against my utter depravity, ought to be poured out upon my head.  Yet Jesus took that wrath and satisfied it.  As He hung on the cross, the scriptures teach us that Jesus bore the wrath of God (Isaiah 53, Rom. 3:25).  Literally, God put Jesus forth as the propitiation for our sins, “a sacrifice that bears God’s wrath to the end and in doing so changes God’s wrath toward us into favor.”  I must no longer fear the wrath of God, for Christ has taken it upon himself.  Now there is favor in the Father’s heart towards me.  I rejoice, for the punishment that I deserved has been served by another.

 I rejoice for I am reconciled to the Father.  That is the grand work of Christ on the Cross, the master plan of atonement.  In His great love, God made a way for the relationship which was destroyed because of sin to be reconciled.  How sweet that I can again walk alongside the Lord as our first parents did in the Garden of Eden.  Jesus came that He might bring me back to the Father, reestablishing the connection that was severed.  I rejoice, for I know that I am set right with God, reconciled to Him through the blood of the Lamb.

 I rejoice, still, in the sacrifice and suffering of Jesus.  The suffering He endured was intense.  Yet He did so willingly, righteously, and triumphantly.  What a model, what an example!  When I face trials of my own, I think upon all the Jesus did to earn my salvation.  I see in Him the perfect illustration of how to suffer in a way which glorifies God.  And if my Lord would suffer so much for my sake, how can I not suffer for those around me?  If He can pray, “Not my will, but yours be done,” how can I not follow suit?  How can I continue to turn and run at the first sign of trouble?  How can I pray that I would not be strengthened and refined by the trials of life, made perfect through suffering just as Jesus was (Hebrews 2:10)?  I know that suffering is coming in this life.  In a fallen world, it sadly is a part of life that I must endure.  Yet I rejoice in the sufferings of Christ, for He is the perfect example of how I must respond in the midst of trials.  If I can remember that He endured so much for my sake, then truly whatever suffering I undergo will seem as a momentary, light affliction, soon passing away, resulting in rejoicing.

 I rejoice that the righteousness of God is now vindicated for all eternity.  One of the triumphs of the cross is that God, who passed over former sins of all his people prior to Jesus, can now be seen as absolutely Just and completely Loving.  Were God simply to pass over the sins of old, not requiring a payment or reparations for wrongs, we could not call Him just today.  He could no longer remain just.  Yet that is what He did for all those who put their faith in Him before knowing of Jesus, men like Abraham, and King David.  Yet the apostle Paul affirms in Romans 3:25, that the atonement “was to show [God’s] righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (ESV).  The atonement of Jesus was the grand demonstration of God’s righteous judgment of the world, proving for all time the He is Good.  So I rejoice, knowing that in the end the righteousness of God’s justice will set all things right. 

 This is a time of rejoicing in the cross of Jesus Christ.  Though it is folly to some, we call it the Good News, for surely that is what it is.  The work of Jesus in his life and death certainly is good news, it is the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation, it is what we are to remember this Easter season.  Let us rejoice, giving thanks and praise to God the Father, to His Beloved Son, and to the Spirit by whose power we come to understand these deep mysteries of faith.  Let us remember the atonement, allowing its weight to rest upon our hearts in the coming days.  Let us continue to worship the Triune God who paid the ultimate price in order to bring us through this life and into salvation, the blessed communion with the Lord. 

 “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”  (Jude 1:24-25 ESV)”

So, in this season of Easter, rejoice, for Christ has risen.  He has risen indeed.  And who we are, as His followers will forever be changed because of Jesus’ atoning work on the cross.

Blessings,

Claudia “Dirt” Fisher

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