Winter Retreat - Caleb

2009 Winter Retreat
Monday, January 19, 2009

This weekend I learned that Jesus wants to be the leader of every area of our life. When I think about that I intend to put it into my everyday life, but sometimes I know I will forget. I also learned even when you don't see it, the strength of God is in your life. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phillipians 4.13," which is the verse used as an example this weekend. We are called to fight, we are called to finish. Jesus has fought the good fight, but the fight is not over yet in the lives of some of our friends. God doesn't choose us because we are great, he chooses us because he is great.
- Caleb Simmons

Winter Retreat - Kevin

2009 Winter Retreat
Monday, January 19, 2009

This weekend was another life-changing experience - from the fun times all the way up to the most serious times. We heard a lot of great speakers from Dave Edwards to Jose Zayas to Scott Dawson to David Nasser to Rick Burgess from last year. We were lead in worship, by Scott Dawson, Shane & Shane, and Jeremy Camp. The night of the big concert theri was about 160 people that came to Christ.
We had fun stopping Krispy Kreme donuts when the light was on. It was a good experience. I am glad we went and I can't wait for next year.
- Kevin Latham

Winter Retreat - Nick

2009 Winter Retreat
Monday, January 19, 2009

As of a result of this weekend, it was a lot of fun because everyone got to spend time with their friends and all of us met new people. We also got to see some people from Trigg who were from a few other churches. Also that it feels good to learn about the Lord from the four speakers at the four sessions we had. The "Finish the Fight" theme with Halo was really cool. That we have to go home now is bad. I would really like to go back again. Now as we come home, I think that everyone is wanting to go back now because of the fun we had. I hope that next year is going to be like this year.
- Nick Allen

Winter Retreat - Jessica

2009 Winter Retreat

Monday, January 19, 2009

This weekend has been amazing.  A line from a Jeremy Camp song stuck with me, "Let this old life crumble, let it fade."  This spoke to me because about 180 people accepted Jesus as their savior tonight.  That's 180 lives completely changed.  Sometimes as Christians we accept Jesus, but you can't tell.  We don't want to sacrifice bad habits.  Why is this so hard when Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice?  Like the lyric says - if we follow Jesus, our old lives crumble.  It's one thing to believe in Jesus.  The devil believes in Jesus too.  It's a whole other thing to follow Jesus.  That means changing our lives to glorify him.

- Jessica Bostick

Winter Retreat - Blaine

2009 Winter Retreat

Monday, January 19, 2009

This whole weekend has been amazing.  Things said by the great speakers, in each of the sessions really spoke to me.  I learned a lot about God this weekend and I feel more in touch with him.  This conference has lit a passion in me for God.  But as Dave Edwards said, as Christians we have to keep this throughout our life not just in Church on Sundays and then once in a while when we go on a retreat.  We often only have God in a little part of our life and he doesn't affect the rest.  When you face a problem and you try to lean back on God he looks so small and the problem looks so big.  We must let God consume every part of our life and live in his will.  

One other big thing that spoke to me was what Jose Zayas said about 1 Peter 3.17.  "It is better to do the will and suffer for well doing than evil doing."  This verse really spoke to me and showed me that even if you do the right thing or good things you might suffer but eventually it will be great and you will be blessed.

- Blaine Alexander

Winter Retreat - Ethan

2009 Winter Retreat

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Today we had a speaker named Jose Zayas.  He said some things that really spoke to me.  Some of his statistics were startling.  About 85% of people who don't personally know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, know a Christian.  This isn't even the worst part.  Only 15% of those who answered said that they saw a change in those Christians lives.  This tells me that people are always watching you if you know it or not.  Also he said people say Christians are 'anti' many things (anti-homosexual), judgmental, hypocritical, and old-fashioned.  It is sometimes easy to see how some people can get this picture of us.  When all they hear from us in you're going to hell and everything you believe in is wrong, and you should believe what I say and repent from your sins.  Lastly he said we need to have Jesus separate in our hearts and make him holy.  If Jesus is the same as everything else, how can there be a difference in your life?  

I would just like to quote a part of a song by Shane and Shane, "Lord I want to yearn for you, I want to burn with passion for you."  This really spoke to me because we Christians need to keep a passion for God and want to be closer to him.  Normally when we go to these camps everybody will hit a 'high' on Jesus and feel good for the next few weeks and go right back to where we were.  If we do what this song does we can keep that Jesus 'high' all the time.  It is easy to be a Christian and be held accountable when you're with a giant group of Christians.  But when we get back to our everyday lives it gets hard.  With this message we could keep a passion for God and make it easier.  

I would like to finish with something Jeremy Camp said tonight.  He told us a story about how his little girl and him would say they love each other 'this much' and would spread their arms as far out as possible.  One day he said, "How much do you love me?" and she had an ice cream cone in her hand.  So she only held out one arm and held onto the ice cream, while Jeremy held out both arms.  This represents how God will say he loves us, but we'll still hold onto stuff (addictions, possessions, etc) when we say we love him.  That's all for tonight.

- Ethan Sweno

Winter Retreat - Eric

2009 Winter Retreat

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Day 2 Speaker - Jose Zayas

It's hard to imagine the percentage of people who don't personally know Jesus, but know someone who does.  Over 85%, but the problem is what difference they see in us and people who don't have Jesus.  Only 15% said they saw a difference in the two groups.  That says a great deal about how we act, or rather, how we don't act.  I know there are too many times when we act the way the world wants us to act instead of how God wants us to act.  Jose said there are 4 things that people say about Christians:

• anti-homosexual
• judemental
• hypocritical
• out of touch

And it is easy to see why they think this.  There are so many TV Evangelists who spew out this kind of propaganda, that they assume that is how all Christians are.  But as Christians, it is our duty to close this gap.  And to close this gap, we need to set Jesus apart as Holy in our hearts, to make him our consuming passion, to find out more about him.  Then the more we get to know, the more we will want to know.  Which will be reflected in how we act and behave.

Lord, help me to put Jesus in charge of my life, to be your servant & witness, so that I can be your light in a dark world, not for my glory but yours.  I can do all things (for God's glory) through Christ, because he gives me strength.  Without, Jesus in my life, I am nothing.  Help me to never forget that. 

- Eric Sweno

Winter Retreat - Ethan

2009 Winter Retreat

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Today we had a speaker name Dave Edwards.  The message I got from him was that sometimes we take what we hear about God and Jesus and "water it down".  We take what we like to hear and what is most convenient to us.  We take the stuff about God being forgiving or God being loving and we just have selective hearing and not hear anything else.  Then we will combine this with our lives and try to "have the best of both worlds."  We can sometimes try and just keep our sinful lives and just say "God loves me and will forgive me."  This really spoke to me because sometimes I will sin and "water down" what I know about God and Jesus.

Also, I realized that sometimes I can make God seem so small and weak - when He is actually big, strong, and always with me.  He is the same God that parted the sea, defeated great armies, and created me.  Lastly, I learned that the devil will try and use different strategies to destroy you.  He will try to isolate you which gets you away from other believers and he will tempt you.  Then through accusation he will try to get you to accuse others and God for problems.  Lastly he will use personal leverage to make you think you can do things by yourself without God.  Well that's all for tonight.

- Ethan Sweno