Men's Retreat

This past weekend I was blessed to attend CCMB's men's retreat. Wayne Taylor was our guest speaker and the Lord used him mightly to speak to the hearts of the men who attended the conference. He began by sharing from Luke chapter 3:5. The theme was repentance, and we all needed cleansing. I found myself convicted of each of the four areas described in Luke 3:5. The "low valleys"; which referenced things like self pity and ultimately unbelief, the "high mountains" which referenced pride and lack of dependance in our Father, the "crooked paths" which referenced lying, cheating, defilement, and impurities, and "rough ways" which referenced sinning in anger, harsh words, lack of gentleness, meekness, compassion, and ultimately lacking the fruit of the Spirit. How obvious it is to see the need for Christ is our lives when we become aware of the sin in our lives, therefore we must keep our focus upon Him and not on ourselves.

The second lesson Wayne Shared with us was based on 2Kings chapter 4:1-6 where a widow was unable to pay her bills after her husband has died. So Elisha advised her to ask for cisterns from neighbors so that she could fill them with oil, which was the only thing of value that she had. So, she sent her sons to get the cisterns and as many cisterns were brought, so were they filled. The typological lesson was, as many areas of our life that we bring to the Lord, so shall they be filled. Let God take control. What an encouragement to hear such a promise from our Lord, who is willing and able always when we seek Him.

Another aspect to the lesson, was that the widows oil filled her neighbors cisterns. Therefore, as the Lord fills us with His Holy Spirit, so shall we bless our neighbors. Therefore, reach out and be available for increased responsibilty, that you may be a vessel for the Lord to use so that others may also be blessed.

The third lesson Wayne shared with us was about faith. In 2 Kings chapter 6 a young man was chopping wood and his ax fell off and went into the river. The ax was borrowed and so the young man was very concerned about getting this ax out of the water. So he told his master, who was a faithful man of God, and his master used a piece of a tree to retrieve the ax and told the young man to pick it up when he had brought it to the surface. The typological reference here was that we are the borrowed ax, and that Jesus, who died on a tree as prophesied in Isaiah, brought us up from the bottom because we had faith which He gave to us.

Furthermore, as we read on in 2 Kings 6:8-22 we see that Syria had surrounded Israel and that Elisha was made aware of this. Upon his awareness, he said in verse 16," Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed that blindness would be upon those that surrounded Israel and it was done. The enemies were then lead to their captivity whereupon in verse 21, the King of Israel asked Elisha if they should be killed. But in verse 22, Elisha said to feed them and to love them. Therefore, we are to have faith that the Lord will take care of us and protect us against our enemies and we are to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44).

Finally, pastor Roger blessed us with a message on the importance of morning devotionals. Earlier that day, pastor Nate had shared about the importance of morning devotionals and so it seemed that the Lord wanted us to realize the importance of "getting our orders" as each day begins. We need to "go to our post" and seek the Lord in the morning as referenced in Isaiah 50:4. It was interesting to know that the hebrew word for "seek" implies "early".

What a blessing it was to spend in fellowship with the men of CCMB and other local congregations. We were blessed and refreshed and the Lord encouraged us and it was good.