Weekend Review

What a weekend! A big thank you to the women of Lake Hamilton Baptist Church. God moved in such a mighty way. I am still praising the Lord this morning. The women at the retreat were incredible. The Ladies of Lake Hamilton had reached out to other churches in the community and invited them to take part in the retreat. At least six churches were represented!

Friday night was a "tough" session but good. God had clearly instructed me to talk about sin and the effect sin has on our walks with Him. The story of David counting the fighting men provided the opportunity for us to delve deep into our hearts and examine ways we allow self-sufficiency to reign instead of God-sufficiency. The ladies were so open to this strong word from the Lord. Many of them shared specific ways the Holy Spirit had spoken to their hearts. I told the ladies that I also heard a strong word from the Lord. In fact, I had trouble going to sleep on Friday night because I was processing all the ways that I had turned from God and relied on myself during the prior week.

Saturday morning, the Lord woke me up with a strong passion to teach His Word. I was so thankful for that. Each retreat is different. Sometimes I wake up and think, "Lord I can't do this." (which is true!) Other times I wake up and can't wait to get back to the church and open God's Word. This weekend I was glad that I had the latter response. I was also thankful to see the women had returned with the same excitement. After Friday night, I prayed God would give the women a desire to keep digging into His Word.

The first session on Saturday dealt with practical ways to remain focused on the Lord during our daily lives. We studied Psalm 101:2-4 and found the call to live a careful life. The goal God had laid on my heart for this session was to provide tangible ways to renew. I shared many of the disciplines God has called me to practice in my life.

The final session on Saturday was so very special. The Holy Spirit was clearly working as we opened God's Word to the book of Ezra. In this session we studied the call God had placed on the heart of Ezra and Ezra's response to this call. In short, we found that we must answer the calls in our lives not out of our strength but out of God's courage.

I continue to pray for the women of Lake Hamilton and thank God for their friendship, love, support, and encouragement. I will be returning to this precious Church in December. However, I will see many of the ladies before December. God in His goodness and grace has opened up other doors for me to minister in the Hot Springs area. All I can say is, "thank you Lord."