{2 different toilets, and using the example of our toast during the lesson}
In keeping our theme, we found some gross, weird and true lessons. Our lesson, Remove the Poop, came from this website.
We started by reading Deuteronomy 23:12-14
"Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you."
- What is the command of God in these passages? God wants there to be a specific place outside their camp for going to the bathroom, and a specific way of cleaning it up.
- Why does He tell them to do this? To keep the camp holy.
God is serious about holiness. When the army was assembled, He wanted to make sure that they were taking their lives and their actions as serious as He was. If the army got together and didn't follow God's rules, then He wouldn't go into battle with them. God wanted His people to approach Him with respect and to live in holiness.
This isn't just an Old Testament idea. We also read in 1 Peter 1:13-16
"Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”"
- Because God is holy, what are we supposed to be? God wants us to be holy.
- What does it mean to be holy? Dedicated or devoted to the service of God or the church. {source}
- What are some synonyms for holy? Humble, pure, believing, clean, faithful, good, moral, blessed, devoted, prayerful, virtuous. {source}
- What does "being holy" mean in the life of a teenager? What would it look like? It could look like stopping to do bad stuff and starting to do good things.
Of course there are the obvious things, don't drink, do drugs, smoke, swear, have sex until you are married, or look at porn. But there are some subtle things too. Holiness means avoiding hateful thoughts about others. It means to not only stop doing things, but start doing holy things. Holiness is about standing up for others and cutting out gossip and backstabbing.
We are to be holy; we are to clean up our lives. You may have tried this at different church camps, Flower City Work Camp, or just tried to change your behavior. You may have made commitments to stay away from bad stuff and to read your bible and do good stuff. For some reason, though, it never seems to work.
This is because we are not strong enough to clean up our own lives, but God is. We can be holy because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. God himself, the third part of the trinity, lives in you if you are a Christian.
You may wonder that if holiness means giving up things that I enjoy or doing things that I may not want to do, then why should I try to do it? "Because you are told to by the God who created you" should be enough of an answer, but that isn't the answer that God gives. God says that you should strive to be holy because that is how you succeed in this world. God's ways aren't just random ruiners of fun. They are laws designed to help you to make it, to save you from unnecessary pain and to help you live fulfilled.
We finished out the evening with an activity called "remove the poop". We wrote down the bad things, the "poop" that we wanted to get out of our lives, and flush down the toilet.
What would you flush out of your life?
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