The West Coast Revival Fellowship Retreat has come and gone already! While it is still fresh in my heart and mind, I will try to share some of the blessings of the weekend. We used to record the retreat speakers which helped me to share in detail what was said but our digital recorder went kaput and my memory isn't what it used to be – but I will try with God’s help to summarize the gist of what was said.
The Warm Beach Christian Camp is a great place for us to hold our conferences because there is no specific number of participants required like other places we have used in the past. There were 16 of us counting the three kids so it was a small group: Ron and Lois Bridgeford, Jerry Bridgeford, Ed and Carol Bridgeford, Gary and Mary Olson, Dorr and Jenny Heston and son Ethan, Jon and Stephanie Simonson and their two kids, Joshua and Sara and Ted and me. Our rooms were in the same building as our meeting place so that was helpful. The dining hall was just a few hundred feet from our place, Olympic View. The campus itself is several hundred acres with a beautiful view of Puget Sound. The weather was sunny on Saturday and even though it was a bit drizzly on Sunday, it was fairly warm.
The theme for the retreat was “His grace is sufficient” and “His strength is made perfect in our weakness” from 2 Corinthians 12.
Gary Olson opened each session with some worship songs that fit in with this theme. Ted spoke on Saturday night and shared some thoughts he had from that passage – how Paul actually “boasted” about his weaknesses. How unlike us – we try to hide our weaknesses.. Paul saw them as opportunities to experience the power of Christ in his life. I gave a testimony of how thankful I am for God’s faithfulness and His promise that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Recently I was overtaken by paralyzing fear when I awoke during the night, fear of what might happen to one of our sons who is choosing to go his own way and is making some very bad decisions. The devil was at work. Often he comes during the night – during our weak moments. But Jesus reminded me that “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” I felt so totally helpless – but again, Jesus is the Helper of the helpless. There is power in the blood of Jesus over the enemy of our souls – who tries so desperately to tempt us to get our eyes off of Jesus and dwell on our weakness or what terrible thing might happen, and on and on. As I brought my weakness and total helplessness to Jesus and repented of fear and unbelief, I put my trust in His power to overcome the devil through the blood of his cross and thanked Him that He is my peace and my hope was in Him alone. Praise His Name, He eventually brought peace to my heart and I was able to go back to sleep.
Ted and I have just finished volume 1 of William Gurnall’s book The Christian in Complete Armor. This is an excellent book and Gurnall emphasizes over and over how important it is to keep alert, keep close to Jesus, keep being cleansed and filled with the Holy Spirit and not to be ignorant of Satan’s wily ways!
Saturday morning Ed and Carol Bridgeford shared. Ed handed out a couple of pages of various scriptures that referred to the weakness of our flesh and the grace of God meeting us. He quoted various scriptures in Corinthians – 1 Cor 2:1-5, 1 Cor 20, 2nd or 4:7, 12:5b, 2 Cor 12:9,10, 2 Cor 13:3,4 and 2 Cor 13:8,9. These all speak of our weakness and God’s strength and power. He praised the Lord for the fresh work of grace that the Holy Spirit has been doing in their lives this past year and how these truths have encouraged them both in their walk with Jesus. Carol has been blessed lately by a new understanding about how we aren’t to give in to our feelings of fear and worry but turn to Jesus and believe His promises – He does what He says! There is a little poem that came to my mind as Carol was sharing. It was written by Martin Luther and goes like this:
“Feelings come and feelings go,
And feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God--
Naught else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned
For want of some sweet token,
There is One greater than my heart
Whose Word cannot be broken.
I'll trust in God's unchanging Word
Till soul and body sever,
For, though all things shall pass away,
HIS WORD SHALL STAND FOREVER!”
Jenny and Dorr Heston led the testimony time on Saturday afternoon. They praised the Lord for the way he has helped them in their first year of marriage, helping them to keep in the light and to ask forgiveness from the Lord and from each other and their son Ethan who lives with them part-time. They asked for prayer for some necessary legal decisions that have to be made in the next few months. Prayer was given for them. They have settled into a Calvary Chapel in the area and shared that the pastor preaches Jesus and Him crucified. We have kept in fellowship via Skype with Dorr and Jenny every Sunday night when we meet at Jon and Stephanie Simonson’s. Even though they live in California now, we feel like we “see” them every Sunday night and they are right there with us!
Saturday night Jon and Stephanie Simonson spoke. Jon said that the Lord had been speaking to him the past few weeks through Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. He said that all of those mentioned were sinners and needy people just like we are and yet the Lord miraculously delivered many of them from very difficult situations, impossible situations as they had faith in Him. There were many who had faith in him even when they were not delivered but endured many forms of suffering. His grace was and is sufficient. Stephanie gave a personal testimony of how Jesus is helping her to turn to him in repentance and faith and how she worries that she is not being a good mom, etc. Carol relayed a wise word from a friend of hers: “The best thing a mother can do for her children is to love Jesus.”
Sunday morning Ed Bridgeford led the communion service. Gary Olson and several others blessed us with their words of praise to Jesus and requests for prayers for specific needs in their lives. Ron Bridgeford requested that the three children that were present were prayed for and that the fathers would put their hands on their children’s heads as we prayed together for them. It was a fitting way to end a very blessed and rich weekend together. The kids were great by the way – we all enjoyed having them with us!
Thank you for your prayers for this fellowship retreat. The Lord certainly answered them. We sensed His presence and His peace and His encouragement to keep our eyes on Jesus continually, to keep alert and keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit so we might experience His grace for our every weakness. The blood of Jesus has not lost its power to cleanse and set us free!!
