Looking for the Real God

Christy continues to share Stories from Camp with this episode focusing on friendships she made over the years with both boys and girls. These young people had very different backgrounds but they all helped Christy to learn and develop as she discovered what it was like to live in the real world.

Some friendships were life-giving, some gave her a new perspective, and some broke her heart a little, but they were all filled with special memories. The impact people can make on our lives in short amounts of time is a beautiful thing.

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In today's episode Christy shares some of the relationships that made the most impact on her those first few summers at camp. Coming from a culture where behavior and standards were the focus, Christy was shocked to discover acceptance and grace even when she made mistakes.

Her coordinators that first summer and the camp nurse for years afterward were people who loved Christy in ways that demonstrated the true love of God. These people might not have "had it all together" but they were authentic in their understanding of grace, their love for God and their love for people.

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Christy tries to explain the wild and wonderful atmosphere of summer camp. A place where you become real and get to know other real people by living together 24/7 in the grit of serving children through heat, rain, lack of sleep, and plenty of sunburn. It's hard to describe, but Christy does her best.

When you are encouraged to be crazy, loud, and adventurous -- thanks to skits, songs, and ridiculous costumes -- amazing things happen to your soul. Christy found growth, healing, and her true-self in the midst of pranks, adventures, and more. Here are some more Stories from Camp!

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Christy continues her summer series, Stories from Camp, by talking about boys, flirting, kissing, and learning how to appropriately interact with the opposite sex. Growing up in an environment where many boys and girls didn't have relationships until arranged marriages, the whole "how to be friends with boys" thing was very new.

Summers at camp allowed Christy the opportunity to learn how to deal with boys, what it looked like to flirt, and how to develop good boundaries. As she shares these sometimes ridiculous and slightly embarrassing stories, Christy encourages her listeners to give their past selves grace.

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Christy continues this summer's series Stories from Camp by talking about her total lack of culture or pop culture references that first summer at camp. She had a lot to learn but was able to explore and experiment in a safe place thanks to the great people at camp.

From learning to understand slang, listening to Christian Rock, and watching her first PG-13 movie, Christy had a lot of new experiences. As that first summer ended with Christy bought some capris and got a cartilage piercing to remind her of her new-found freedom.

Books Referenced:
"Changes that Heal" by Dr. Henry Cloud

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Christy begins her summer series “Stories from Camp” by describing her love/hate relationship with camp that began as a child. She then describes the way five summers at camp in her early 20s changed her life. Christian summer camp provided a safe place for Christy to go through the developmental stages she missed while being raised in a cult.

This summer of 2021 Christy will be diving into memories, telling funny stories, and sharing how the Real God met her at a simple and, ahem, “rustic” little camp.

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Christy uses her background in a cultic sub-culture of Christianity to question the popular ideology known as Critical Race Theory. She gives a basic overview of the ideology, raises some red flags from the perspective of a former cult-member, and points listeners back to the truth about this broken world and the broken people in it.

Just because something sounds like it could be true doesn't mean it is. All great lies have just enough truth to be believable. When an ideology seems to cause division and chaos even though it promises liberation and freedom it'd definitely time to question it.

Podcast Referenced:
Freeborn and Liberty https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freeborn-liberty/id1552442669

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Christy shares some of her own experiences with patriarchy both from her cult days and from more recent times. She asks questions about the way the church views women. If God created both men and women in His own image than why do so many Christians seem to believe that women are less than men? If the fall is where sin entered the world and part of the curse of sin was that men would rule over women, then why is this considered a good thing?

After sharing stories from her life, Christy gives a review of the new book "The Making of Biblical Womanhood" by Beth Allison Barr. What if the common understanding of Biblical womanhood isn't actually Biblical at all? Looking through the lenses of history and culture, Beth Allison Barr systematically takes apart complementarian theology brick by brick. She explores the flaws in our English understanding, reintroduces her readers to historical Christian leaders who were women, and ends her book with a resounding, "Go, be free!"

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As Christy wraps up her series asking the question, "How did we get here?" she takes time to ponder the ways we allow ourselves to be motivated by fear. Fear is a huge part of our broken world. Unfortunately people who are looking for power and control know that fear is also a powerful motivator. If you capitalize on people's fears you can get them to do anything you want.

Christy explores three ways fear has contributed to the state of our current Christian culture. First fear has kept us from telling the truth. Secondly fear has stopped us from seeking the truth. And finally fear has hindered us from sharing the truth. What would happen if we truly experienced a love that cast out fear? Would we become bold people who followed the example of Jesus Christ -- the God-Man who did nothing out of fear?

Scriptures Referenced:
I John 4:15-19

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In this second to last episode in the How Did We Get Here series Christy shares a story about her daughter's imaginary friend Ellen. If God is just a concept, just an idea, just an imaginary friend, then it doesn't matter what we believe about Him or if our beliefs line up with historical orthodoxy.

But if God is REAL real then everything changes. We don't get to create Him with our beliefs or change Him with our objections. He is Who He is whether we like it or not. If God is REAL real then we just get to discover Him. Too often we make God in our own image. We think that He is like us. But we forget that He is nothing like us, we were just created to be a little like Him.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christylynnewood.substack.com