Consuming Fire

Winter Retreat 2014

This past weekend Kyle and I had the privilege of taking our youth and some awesome adults to Epworth by the Sea on St. Simons Island. This is the second year we've had a winter retreat at Epworth. Epworth is such a sweet place. I've been going on retreats to Epworth since high school with a group called First Love Ministries. I haven't been in a while, so it was great to be back there this past weekend. Kyle arranged for an awesome speaker and band to lead us while we were there. I want to high-light a couple of blessings I came away with from our meetings. 

The first meeting was all about love. Love never sins against God. Love always demonstrates and promotes itself. I can honestly say it was not until I fully understood God's love for me that I understood what this life is really all about. The speaker used a cup for of starbursts for his talk. He explained to us that every time we give away pieces of our heart to different things (unhealthy relationships, our careers, love of money, etc.) in life then we have nothing left to give Jesus. Jesus wants ALL of us!  If you give your ALL to God you will never regret it. He used the following scripture references:

Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind.

Matthew 22:34

Whoever does not LOVE does not know God, because GOD IS LOVE. 

1 John 4:8

On Saturday morning a member from the band shared his testimony. His testimony is really profound. He shared a lot of ways the Lord revealed Himself to him. One of the most significant things that stood out to me was this...he told our youth that college is when you are most free in life (outside of being free in Jesus). Think about it...you aren't at home under your parents all the time, you have no spouse, you have no children, you have little responsibilities. It rang a bell with me. During my college years, the Lord did a huge work in my life. I had a surplus amount of time to spend with God. I had mentors coming at me from all directions. They were leading me and guiding me to the Throne Room of Grace over and over again. If you're in college and you are reading this...Soak up your time with Jesus at this stage in life. Don't get me wrong Jesus is always with you in every stage of life, but college is a season in life where you have the most time and freedom. Use you time and freedom with Jesus! Give Him your ALL! The speaker also shared with us a story on healing. It was very powerful. The speaker's dad had a heart condition. One day his Dad passed out with no pulse. He was playing in a praise band at a church when this happened. All the church gathered to pray for this man. God heard their cry and raised his dad from the dead. Jesus is ALIVE and WELL! God will forever use his dad's testimony to reach believers far and wide. He will use your testimony too. Don't ever feel like your testimony is not good enough or that it doesn't matter! God wants to use us broken vessels for HIS glory. 

Saturday night our speaker covered the Armor of God. He went through each piece of the armor and told us what it was used for. The awesome thing about the armor is if we don't have every piece of it that we mind as well not have it at all. Each piece fits us perfectly. We must wear our armor every single day.

Ephesians 6:10-17

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his might power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not again flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you maybe able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted in the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 

The Armor of God

Belt of Truth- The belt holds everything in it's right place! Remember all truth is found in Jesus. 

(John 14:6)

Breastplate of Righteousness- This covers your heart! 

Feet fitted with Readiness- We must be willing to go where God leads us to share the gospel. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. (Just a side note: I used to sing "How Beautiful" all the time.)

Shield of Faith- This protects you from the fiery darts. The more you exercise your faith, the more your faith grows. 

Helmet of Salvation- This protects your mind and brain which helps you think clearly.

Sword of the Spirit- The Bible is what we use to fight with. The truth sets us free. 

Sunday morning we spent most of the time worshipping in song. 

Kyle sent us out with this verse:

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire." 

Hebrews 12:28, 29 

Let me end by saying...I am not ordained, I am not a theologian, I am not a bible scholar. I just took the notes I wrote from the retreat and shared them with you. I will always try to give you scripture to back up thoughts I share with you. I hope this has encouraged you in some way. God loves us so much. He has provided all we need to walk in this world of darkness. Don't let the enemy take what is not his. It's by God's grace that He has called us to live in the LIGHT and give Him our ALL! 

P.S. While we are on the subject of FIRE...it's the reason this post is so late. We are burning all around our house, so we can plant more pine trees. Needless to say we have done some running around and switching around to stay out of the smoke! 

Have a great weekend!