I’m at Camp Barakel preparing my heart to preach to young men in the woods tonight and thinking about the power of loving God to drive out of our lives illegitimate things and this thought occurred to me. Peter said that fleshly lust war against our souls. I’m at war. The young men I deeply love are at war… Fleshly lusts war against our souls. How can a man prevail against the things that war against his soul? How can I help the young men I love win the war against the things that would destroy them: Here was a thought that formed in my heart:
If you want to help someone don’t try to wrestle their idols out of their trembling hands or shame them… They will just pick up another darker idol and continue in bondage and emptiness… Show them Christ as infinitely more satisfying. Let them see how your own heart is satisfied in Him. Help them experience the love of God–fellowship with God.
Ephesians 3:14-21 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
So it is with men. We must help them see–we must show them how our souls are satisfied in the endless beauty and glory of Christ, then when they are Spirit-enlightened and the Morningstar rises in their hearts… they will willingly drop their idols and embrace Christ.
God, help me. Help me show the young men I love what that looks like.
Ken Pierpont
Camp Barakel
June 28, 2018
