What is your understanding of the word retreat? A friend of ours does not like using this word to describe an event that people go to for refreshing or spending time reflecting; as to him it says we are withdrawing, pulling back from the front line.
Reading an article on the National Army Museum website about Bernard Law Montgomery you start to understand the need to retreat sometimes and ensure you are ready for the next battle or task that you have to go through. Montgomery when he was sent with the 3rd Division to France in 1939 had a plan in place because he could see there was the strong possibility he would need to retreat at some point. In 1940 he had to withdraw his troops from Dunkirk but it was a temporary retreat whilst they recovered from the battle and prepared to win the war.
How does this apply to us? As Christians we want to show people the absolute love that God has for his creation and we are part of that creation. He wants to lavish his love on us. What is this battle that Christians talk about? It is a battle that has been there since the beginning of time, it is a battle between Good and Bad. When God created humans He created us in his image, man and women. So God is both man and women! He created us in His perfect image. Creating us as we are in his image, meant he would give us free will. He wanted this because he wants us to freely choose to follow him; however he knew in doing that humans may also choose to follow their own way and not choose to follow The Fathers way. This has meant there has always been a battle going on. God has been battling for us. He so wants us to freely choose to follow him. A verse you will hear me quote time and time again is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall NOT perish but have eternal life” Eternal life means we have life to the full and with no end.
Sally and I both want to show God’s unending love on the waterways; however giving of ourselves means at times we become exhausted. To help us we recently went on a retreat at Wellwick House near Wendover. Led by Phil Hulks we were taken on a journey to learn more about God; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This led Sally and I to learn more about ourselves. Phil has an extraordinary way of teaching and not once did we feel preached at. We felt like we were on a journey to spend more time with our God. We learnt a lot about the relevance of Middle Eastern culture and how when we read different bible stories with this in mind the relevance of the meaning of the story can be quite different to how we originally understood it.
The aim of The River is to experience the love God has for His children. Not only through teaching and prayer we were also served by 4 excellent hosts, who looked after all of our needs and lavished us with kindness and generosity. It was all part of the journey to demonstrate God’s outrageous love for us.
We started the first evening in Genesis 1:1-3 learning about the Trinity and how it works together, how no part of it sees itself more important than the other.
Day 2 we looked at surrender and the Baptism of Jesus, Matt 3 v 16-17. The Son – surrendering to the will of his Father. (Baptism is a symbol of surrender). The Father – speaking out of heaven. The Holy Spirit – hovers over the water and then lands on Jesus. The significance of surrender is the key to experiencing all that God has to offer us. The Holy Spirit hovers patiently over the water until the landing is ready.
When Jesus came to earth he took the humble position of a slave and came as a human being, Philippians 2 v 5-11.
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. (Philippians 2:5-7)
There was opportunity given for us to surrender past hurt or failing.
At the end of the day we looked at being a bride of Christ Rev 19:7-8. This is our destiny, for a man it is quite strange to experience this part of the teaching. We spent time on a couple of occasions discussing gender and how we as humans get more hung up about gender than God. How can God be both male and female?
In many of the sessions we did not just sit and talk or listen but become actively involved. This day finished with an amazing banquette put on by our hosts to celebrate our wedding to Christ.
We also learnt about the 3 stages of a Jewish wedding.
Day 3 was all about the Father and restoration. We explored the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15.
We finished the day with a banquette, again! This one was bigger and greater than the wedding feast. It was the restoration feast, throughout the day we were taken on a journey through the parable. We were presented with a robe as the son was given the father’s cloak. We had shoes put on our feet to show we are fully accepted as the Father’s children, we are not slaves we are fully restored. A moment of realisation of how far the Father is willing to go was when we were given the ring with the Father’s seal on it. This means we have full access to the Father’s wealth of grace. We are truly the Father’s children.
On our final day we looked at how we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. These key points were made, I have personalised them.
- I have a unique God calling
- There is something that I am called to, that no one other than me will ever be able to do
- To what extent am I prepared to embrace God’s calling on my life
- When the angel appeared to Mary and told her she would have a son, she responded by saying: Be it unto me according to your word (Luke 1:38)
We finished with prayer and opportunity to speak into each other’s lives.
Author: Chris Buck