Retreat Messages

As I type this, I’m listening to SCC’s The Mountain… not surprisingly that’s how I feel after such a refreshing retreat in Lucerne. A part of me does want to stay up there and just enjoy the fellowship with fellow believers, but as SCC said,

You bring me up here on this mountain
For me to rest and learn and grow
I see the truth up on the mountain
And I carry it to the world far below
So as I go down to the valley
Knowing that You will go with me
This is my prayer, Lord
Help me to remember what You’ve shown me

I used to think that the “mountain-high” or “retreat-high” should be supressed as something that is bad or some side-effect.. well through the years I’ve come to see it really as an act of God’s grace. Why? Personally for me it is such a reminder of how I ought to feel about God. Emotions were created by God and shouldn’t be something we as Christians should fear as having.. yes we should be concerned about using it as a gauge for our walk with God, but to have them is not intrinsically bad. Emotions you feel from retreats, I think are a good thing, they remind you of how your pleasures ought to rest on God and on His goodness. Emotions that come from retreats are an amazing reminder of how we should feel towards people and towards God.

“You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” -psalm 16:11

“Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.” -psalm 51:8-12

For the hungry, here’s the messages I recorded from this past retreat at Lucerne. The speaker is Doug Thompson from Middletown Bible Church. God used this servant this past weekend mightily.

Question and Answer
Seek to see yourself a Sinner
The biblical strategy for sanctification
The deady delusion of legalism
The “exposive” power of affections