Galatians 1:10
Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. (NRSVA)
After a full session of having MOG nearly every day, you are headed back home to your “normal” lives. While it’s true that you won’t have Roundup or MOG or Cabin Time written into your schedule every day, we hope you’ll find ways to maintain a healthy rhythm of listening to and following Christ. That’s why we’ve created a two-week schedule for your time after camp. We challenge you to spend the next two weeks continuing the discipline of seeking God every day. We hope this helps you develop good habits and practices in your faith.
Below you will find a 2 week schedule with a MOG Virtue and a Scripture reference for each day.
We hope you’ll make time each week day to practice Lectio Divina or Quiet Time in Nature or a combination of the two. Review the introduction to these practices in this MOG Journal if you need a refresher. If time is a factor, don’t imagine that this has to take as long as it did at camp—five or ten minutes is not too short. Afterward, you may want to use your journal to write out any thoughts, questions, or prayers. Journaling can help you solidify your thoughts.
We want to also acknowledge that these practices are not the only way to interact with God or exercise your spirituality. After these two weeks you may find other methods of prayer, meditation, contemplating God or scripture, or deepening your faith to be more beneficial. This is simply a challenge that we encourage you to take on together for at least these next two weeks.
1st Monday – Humility – James 4:6
1st Tuesday – Love – 1 Peter 4:8
1st Wednesday – Maturity – 1 Timothy 4:12
1st Thursday – Endurance – 1 Corinthians 10:13
1st Friday – Self Control – 1 Corinthians 9:25
2nd Monday – Purity – Phillipians 4:8
2nd Tuesday – Grace – 1 Peter 5:10
2nd Wednesday – Meekness – Titus 3:2
2nd Thursday – Courage – Deuteronomy 31:6
2nd Friday – Empathy – 1 John 3:17
We had a blast getting to hang out with you guys this summer and telling you about what the Lord has done in our lives. We also loved learning a little bit about what the Lord is doing in yours. We hope that your experience with your counselors and at camp was epic and that you learned a ton and had the best time. We hope that you were able to dive deeper into your relationship with the Lord and take home many of the lessons you learned through MOG, Roundup, and Cabin Time.
Our MOG verse for this year challenges us to live for God and not for man. Worldly temptations are constantly knocking at our door in our day-to-day lives. Paul challenges the Galatians in this verse to not be people pleasers, but instead to live for God. That’s our challenge to you to!
We strongly encourage you to seek out new opportunities to strengthen your relationship with the Lord. Whether this looks like spending some quiet time in nature, spending some time in the Word, or simply talking to one of your cabin mates or counselors about what the Lord has been teaching you, we trust any effort you make will be valuable and life-giving. As you transition back to everyday life after camp, we challenge you to take some time over the next two weeks to read through and meditate on the MOG scriptures. We hope you’ll find them to be as impactful as we did!
We had so much fun these past two weeks and cannot wait to see you again next summer!
Sincerely,
Jonas and Ben
MOG stands for Men of God, and we believe that every young man may wear this title. We are all “of God.” We are all God’s handiwork (Eph. 2:10), created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26). At MOG each young man gains wisdom for how to seek God and learn to be secure in who God has created him to be. MOG is a time where we celebrate manliness in all its forms. We laugh, we play or compete, we acknowledge our similarities and differences, and we engage in spiritual learning and discussion as well as quiet time. We often wrestle with the challenges of being male as well as discuss positive masculine traits we might all strive for. We look to Jesus as an example and tell stories from scripture and our lives that demonstrate admirable living. We strive to create a culture that challenges young men to love God, love others, live well, and be their fullest selves.
Each summer we select a short passage of scripture to be our focus for the summer. Everyone is encouraged to memorize it. We put the reference for that passage on a MOG bracelet, which every guy will receive. Each year’s bracelet reminds campers what they discussed in MOG that summer and the truth that they, like all men, are beloved sons of God.
What is a Virtue?
A good or admirable quality or property; uprightness; rectitude.
A particular moral excellence
Since the introduction of MOG at LLYC, young men have been discussing and striving to embody the virtues demonstrated and taught by the man, Jesus Christ, the prime example for all of humanity. Over the years, we’ve compiled a list of virtues, and we believe each virtue is consistent with the character of Christ. We believe the spirit of Christ calls all people to follow and imitate Jesus.
However, no one can imitate Christ perfectly. In fact, we all fall dreadfully short. In Romans 3:10-23, the apostle Paul wrote that in this life no one has been or will be able to be righteous (or perfectly like Christ). However, God’s spirit lives inside us and calls us to look at Christ as our example, to act like Christ, to follow in his ways. We believe that when we do these things we will see beautiful transformation in our lives and in the world.
As we talk about some of these virtues during MOG, it is critical to keep in mind that we do not earn God’s love or acceptance by striving for these things. God already loves and accepts us. Christ already entered the world and died and rose for all of humanity. These virtues are simply qualities toward which a loving God is drawing us. When we strive for and aspire to these virtues—out of love, out of freedom, out of joy—we will live a more fulfilled life, others will benefit, the Kingdom of God will grow, and the world will look more like it should.
Men of God at LLYC, let’s strive together to emulate Christ. God’s ways are good. Jesus is worth following. Let’s challenge each other to build our lives on these virtues of Christ, our rock, our firm foundation.
A loving God draws us toward these things:
Boldness, Character, Charity, Courage, Discernment, Empathy, Endurance, Faithfulness, Fellowship, Forgiveness, Generosity, Gentleness, Goodness, Grace, Gratitude, Honesty, Hope, Humility, Integrity, Joy, Kindness, Long-suffering, Love, Maturity, Meekness, Obedience, Patience, Peace, Perseverance, Prayerfulness, Purity, Restoration, Sacrifice, Self-Control, Selflessness, Service, Wisdom
