IV Spring Retreat
Saturday Morning Quiet Time
14For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts,[b] yet one body.
21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 22On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Lord God – Thank you for how you have made me. For my uniqueness on this earth that no other creatures shares. Thank you that my body, my injuries and weaknesses, my mind and my talents, are all from you, for you and under your direction. God I pray that you empty me of everything that impedes me from seeing that truth every day. Let me lose all my selfishness. I desire to do everything to honor and bring glory to Your name! My flesh is weak O God! Every good thing in my life and my person is from You, it is in fact You working through me. These gifts have been given to me to use in Your kingdom work, to magnify Your name – not to advance my personal glories.
“Finally brothers,
whatever is true
whatever is honorable
whatever is just
whatever is lovely
whatever is commendable
if there is anything excellent
if there is anything worthy of praise
think about these things.”
Lord God please capture my mind! Ensnare it in thoughts and revelations of your
Amazing glory
Unfathomable Love
Infinite goodness and mercy
Lord, by your Spirit, train my heart to greater discipline
That I might love you more
That I might constantly be humbled
That I would love what you love
And hate what you hate.
Train me to recognize and despise sin, as you despise sin
Not that I would feel vain sorrow or worldly shame
But that I would have a right and godly grief over my disobedience to
My creator
My Savior
My Father
My God
Lord, stop my tongue mid-word before I displease you! Give my mind discernment and greater judgment about when and how I speak. I desire to cultivate a god glorifying patience and humility, that I will put my opinions and thoughts and humors into the dirt and only speak to glorify You.
Help me put self to death!
Help me bear my cross!
Help me love and follow the command of self control!
A loose tongue is a useful tool for the devil – it leads to more opportunities for sin, it opens the door to my sinful past and begins to glorify it. Help me not speak unless Your Holy Spirit will magnify my words.
Use me, O God,
To build up the weak and my brothers and sisters,
To encourage the strong and the leaders,
To spur on my companions,
To teach and share in all humility.
Keep my heart and my tongue constantly under Your hand.
Bring me closer into Your confidence
My savior
My Father
My rock
My foundation
My hiding place
My Shepard
My living water
My counselor
My sovereign
My fortress
My friend
My Lord
My cornerstone
My God
My way
My truth
My life!
Saturday Morning Message - John Pa
Jesus chose to bridge the immeasurable gap between us and God. People often say "you would understand if you walked in my shoes." Jesus, desiring to be a compassionate savior, walked not only in our shoes - He walked in our FLESH. He walked in our feet. He was humbled to being born, a human, fleshly, messy, undignified birth like any other living man. He was born into poverty, placed in a feed trough for animals. Manger has a romantic sentimental meaning for us now, it conjures up thoughts of the nativity scenes I put on my fireplace mantle every Christmas. But a manger is a feed trough. The rough wooden structure that hay was thrown into for the cattle and sheep to eat out of. Jesus was laid in this because he did not even have a crib or cradle. He faced every temptation that we will face.
He died so that we would live.
He suffered so that we would be healed.
He was cast out so that we would be brought in to God's family.
He became human so that we could become eternal.
In light of this great love, how do we respond? Jesus forgave and prayed for his crucifiers as he hung on the cross dying! By this power within us - who could we not forgive??
Saturday Retreat of Silence
(At this time we were given a passage of Scripture and some questions to think about. We were supposed to go and be totally alone and silent for an hour. I think it was something from Philippians - but as I was looking for a place to read I found a pony. So I climbed into the paddock and played with the pony and then spread out my coat on the ground so I could sit where he was grazing. As I watched the pony and listened to the stream that was behind me I was just really swept away by how amazing and good God is to us in giving us so much beautiful nature. So I wrote God a poem instead of doing the assignment.)
All beauty is a feeble shadow of Your glory, O Lord!
Lord God, the warm sun that settles on my cheeks is a cold pretender of Your warm love.
The gentle breeze that tosses my hair and rustles leaves is just a sigh of Your Holy Spirit's breath.
The brilliant light that glints off rippling water is a mere reflection of this worldy sun, which You glory dwarfs to nothing.
The running stream caressing smooth pebbles is music too lowly for Your heavenly courts.
The roaring waterfall plunging from heights is a meek whisper compared to Your worthy might.
The great expanse of the ocean is but a finite vapor next to Your unsearchable depths.
The rolling green hills decked with spring flowers are an afterthought to Your beauty.
The whole world faints, O God, for Your coming!
When Love will be realized!
When Grace will present itself to the ungraceful!
When beauty will fully defy words!
When we will say not
all we know is mere reflection of You
but see
Here Thou Art.
Sunday Morning
No. Think, just as one example, about racial reconciliation. It has not happened. This takes heart, gut, passion and love. It takes work. It is hard. And it has not happened because we are sinners trying to reconcile with sinners without God. We have taken it into our own hands and our own strength.
God is the great equalizer. We can be reconciled to each other only when we realize that we must ALL be reconciled to one far, far greater than us. We have ALL sinned against God. HE is the one we need to worry about being reconciled to. As children of God, then, we must be one with each other, united eternally under His blood.
He who is forgiven much
Loves much.
What about people who say all religions lead to the same place?
“There are many paths, but they all lead up the same mountain to the same peak.”
Try a different picture:
A woman is sick. The doctor gives her penicillin. What happens?
She gets better, says the world.
Wrong.
This disease isn’t cured by penicillin. It does nothing. She gets sicker. She dies.
You have to have the RIGHT medicine. NOT all are equal. No matter how committed or passionate that woman was about the penicillin, no matter how much she believed it was going to cure her – it was NOT going to work. It was as useless as water. As useless as no medicine at all.
If you had AIDS, and someone said that one medicine would cure you – then showed you a table with 1,000 different syringes on it - and you could only use one, wouldn’t it be incredibly essential to pick the ONE that contained the cure?
So it is with our souls. We are sick – we are dying. We are afflicted with sin and the prognosis is eternal death and separation from God. Only Jesus is the cure.
Sunday Morning Message
John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
Romans 12:10 “Love one another with brotherly affection.”
Romans 14:13 “Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.”
Romans 15:7 “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Hebrews 3:13 “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
In Acts, Paul leaves the elders of a city, and together they wept in sadness that he was leaving them. Am I involved with the people around me to the point that I will weep when I leave them? That is my calling – to love, invest, engage. To be with EACH OTHER. I have made so many excuses not to invest. I think “I’ll only be here two more years.” In two years Paul discipled hundreds of people, maybe thousands. Sometimes he only stayed in a city for a few months. But he fully loved. He fully gave of himself for the advancement of the Gospel.
Now think:
We WILL make an IMPACT on the world. We already are. Our very existence means we affect the world around us.
Will it be to the glory of God?
Where will we shine like stars in the world of darkness, crookedness and corruption?
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