Advance

God surpassed my expectations during our recent church advance (retreat.) We enjoyed good fellowship, prayer, worship, teaching, eating together, and even a little Frisbee. Again i am reminded of an orchestra, with all the different instruments. Occasionally one solos, sometimes a section (like strings or horns) plays, and then the entire orchestra plays together. But it is the conductor that sets the pace, the one on whom each musician looks and depends for the right timing. All analogies break down at some point but in the one described above the Holy Spirit is the conductor. He chooses the music, and we play at His direction. There is some structure but within it, each person gets to play to the peak of their gift and ability.
I had become concerned that we were simply a collection of individuals rather than a group established by God to work together in glorifying Him and bearing good fruit. What I saw encouraged me that we had some cohesion and worked well together. One attendee was a fourteen year old teenager who had never met any of us before. In the beginning he wanted to go home right away. By the end, after hanging out with us, being prayed for and praying for others, he thanked us for inviting him. Three young men, college students, came. Each added a lot to us. Our sisters excelled in hospitality, as they always do. We also thank John & Debra for their generosity in loaning their immaculate home to us for the weekend.
Am also thankful to God for time spent with Gary, looking into, among other things, the father heart of God. Also thankful with what He is doing with Sanford and Co. brothers gathering for prayer at the home where I live, on Monday mornings.