Crown Him With Many Crowns 2014 Ladies’ Retreat

IMG_2586IMG_2703IMG_20140324_202641_088We had a wonderful time at our retreat, great fellowship, fantastic speakers, and our ladies were downright amazing!  Most of all, none of this would have been possible without God.  Our ladies had been praying for God’s will to be done and for Him to outshine everyone and everything.  We dedicated the retreat to Him, right down to those who were there.  We know there were those who just could not make it this year and wanted to very much.  Those ladies were missed.  No one knows, but we know our Lord is ALWAYS in complete control.  Friday evening’s highlight was a play entitled “…But After This…” , which pictured the entrance into Heaven for our saved “victims” of the plane crash in our previous retreat.  While we know that no one here on earth can even imagine the beauty we will behold, let alone replicate it, our ladies put together quite a scene!  The imitation of Heaven, however, was just the beginning.  Our characters stood at the judgment seat of Christ and received their rewards – along with the wood, hay, and stubble.  They found in the end it was not their busy works that earned them their crowns, but their sincere, humbled works as they surrendered to the Holy Spirit. Their motive to do God’s will and not their own, their desire to please God and not men were acceptable offerings.  I’m sure we will be surprised when we get to Heaven just what our work here on earth has earned us; I pray that we will not be ashamed.

Saturday consisted of presentations from our speakers Jan McDonald and Elizabeth Ogdie, and we finished off with a character trait exercise by Trish Shifflett.  We had a wonderful time, and look forward to meeting again April 17-18, 2014.  Mark your calendars!

Men’s Advance

On Friday, April 25 our men will be traveling to Stillwater, Oklahoma to attend the Men’s Advance conducted by Bible Baptist Church of Stillwater for great preaching, singing, and fellowship.  They will be returning Saturday afternoon refreshed and recharged!

2014 Ladies’ Retreat – Crown Him With Many Crowns!

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Who’s Carrying Your Burden?

There is an anonymous poem that has been around awhile.  It goes like this:

Broken Dreams

 As children bring their broken toys with tears for us to mend

I brought my broken dreams to God, because He was my friend

But then instead of leaving Him in peace to work alone

I hung around and tried to help with ways that were my own.

At last I snatched them back and said, “How can You be so slow”?

“My child”, He said, “What could I do?  You never would let go.”

Kind of makes you want to shake your head to imagine such silliness, doesn’t it?  But think about it a minute, in a different light.  How many times have we done exactly that to the Lord?  We say, “Lord, I’ll let you save me, but I won’t bother you with my burdens, I’ll carry them myself.”  “I’ll trust You to keep me out of Hell, but my problems are all my fault – let me help you solve them.”  “God, you take care of the big problems I can’t handle, I’ll take care of the rest”.  If we can trust God to save us from Hell, don’t you think we can cast ALL our cares upon Him?  Psalm 55:22 and I Peter 5:7 tells us we can.   The Bible is full of verses and examples that tell us just that.  Why don’t we resolve to do just that in this new year?