As for Me and My House 

We are so grateful that at camp meeting we can proclaim from every pulpit the precious light of Jesus' grace and truth. 

It is my prayer that you are eagerly anticipating joining us this June for Michigan Conference camp meeting. Our camp meeting theme this year is “As for Me and My House.”  

This theme is drawn from the well-known appeal of Joshua to the congregation of Israel, found in Joshua 24:15, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”  

Joshua’s call to the Israelites to choose whom they would serve is just as significant for us today as it was to those entering the promised land thousands of years ago.  

It seems odd to say that serving the Lord would “seem evil.” But we are living in a time the prophet Isaiah described when there would be “those who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20) And as Jesus said, “If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:23)  

At every step the enemy of souls attempts to lay the trap of temptation to catch us in his snare. Distractions and the love of the world can creep in ever so subtly. Unless we are watching and praying as Jesus calls us to, we will fall into temptation (See Matthew 26:41). And it might not be that we view serving the Lord as evil but the service of God may start to seem “undesirable” or “disagreeable” as some versions are translated. (See for example NIV, NASB) We may begin to love the world and the things in the world more than we love Jesus and the things of heaven.  

Dear brothers and sisters, let’s “set [our] hearts on things above, where Christ is, at the right hand of God…and not on earthly things.” (Col. 3:1-2, NIV). Let’s be found where prayer is wont to be made. Let’s be where there is a heavenly and godly influence – where angels love to tread. And we can be of good courage—because of Jesus we can choose to serve the Lord!  

It is often in the assembly of His saints that the Holy Spirit is poured out in great measure. Decisions are made and God’s people go out in great power and boldness to serve the Lord with the love that Jesus declares embodies the whole of the law. “And you shall love the Lord our God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”(Mark 12:30-31) 

That was the testimony of Joshua as he declared with every fiber of remaining strength, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Friends, how much more important it is for us to press together in sacred assemblies where such appeals are made as we are nearing the heavenly promised land. This is our prayer for Michigan camp meeting. Everywhere I go it seems I hear stories of how camp meeting has impacted families and has helped them in their personal walk with the Lord and increased their desire to serve Him.  

In many ways, just like in Joshua’s day or at the yearly Feast of Tabernacles, camp meeting can be the type of gathering that the servant of the Lord encourages for the people of God today – “a joyous commemoration of the blessing of God to them” (Patriarch’s and Prophets, p. 540). 

In recounting the joy of such gatherings for ancient Israel, God’s messenger says, “at these yearly assemblies the hearts of old and young would be encouraged in the service of God, while the association of the people from the different quarters of the land would strengthen the ties that bound them to God and to one another” (ibid.).  

This is what we want the Lord to do for us at our yearly gatherings where God’s people gather from all over the state of Michigan and often far beyond. Our prayer is that as we press together in tents, classrooms, campers, and auditoriums, we too would be bound closer to God and closer to each other. And again, “that the hearts of old and young would be encouraged in the service of God.” Is this the prayer and desire of your heart?  

The Lord’s servant goes on to say that, “As the children of Israel celebrated the deliverance that God had wrought for their fathers, and His miraculous preservation of them during their journeyings from Egypt, so should we gratefully call to mind the various ways He has devised for bringing us out from the world, and from the darkness of error, into the precious light of His grace and truth” (ibid.). 

What a precious blessing and privilege to be a part of this end-time movement that can celebrate so clearly God’s leading hand of providence! We are so grateful that at camp meeting we can proclaim from every pulpit the precious light of Jesus’ grace and truth. This is where we want our focus to be. 

God in His wonderful providence is still leading His remnant people today as we draw nearer and nearer to the coming of Jesus. We are so close to entering the heavenly promised land. As we see the Day of Christ approaching, could we not use such a gathering as camp meeting to continue “to stir up love and good works” as the apostle exhorts us to do? (See Hebrews 10:24)  

The Day is approaching, friends. Let’s plan now to gather together, young and old, with our sons and our daughters and keep the hope that we have burning in our hearts– hope in the coming of the Lord.  

And when the appeal is made, “Choose this day whom you will serve,” I pray that you will proclaim, as did Joshua, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”