This past
weekend I had the pleasure of participating in a Christian men's
retreat that I did not have to organize or host. Since 1993 God has
given me the opportunity to coordinate at least forty small scale
men's retreats. While I thank Him for the privilege, and thank the
many brothers who have joined with me in them, it was nice to simply
enjoy the time. Our brother Nathan did an excellent job of hosting
despite this being his first brother's retreat. There were six of us
in all, a blend of younger and older men, introverts and extroverts.
Sanford shared a solid message on the dangers of falling away,
concentrating on 2 Thessalonians 2, while I spoke on the challenge of
following Jesus in discipleship.
We had times of
prayer and fellowship. One brother, Mark, has a gift of asking
edifying questions that others might wish to ask but don't. Late
Saturday evening we watched a film by Voice of the Martyrs, about
eight teenagers from the US and Australia who visited the persecuted
church in an Asian country. They were decisively impacted by their
experience there, so radically different from our comfortable western
form of Christianity. As Sanford and I returned home I said, “We
may not ever go to a place like that; at least we need to pray for
and supply them with Bibles.
One situation
which particularly struck the teens was the exuberant worship that
they discovered among people who could be arrested, beaten and
imprisoned for their faith. I have observed similar enthusiastic
expression of worship in both Brazil and Ghana.
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