Red Cliff Men’s Retreat 2008, Sessions 2 – 4

Let me resume these posts on the Red Cliff Men’s Retreat 2008:  Sessions Two through Four with Dr. Les Ollila, chancellor of Northland Baptist Bible College.

 

Friday

***Session Two

With diverse projects and a demanding pace ahead of us, our character will be tested in several ways.  Careful attention must be given to some key areas of our lives if a crash is to be avoided in the personal life.  Dr. McLachlan spoke of “monitoring our gauges” to make certain we are not running out of fuel.  This session will address three gauges that need to be monitored if we are to guard our marriages and ministries.

We are living at a high, demanding speed.  We need fuel.

I.  Monitoring the spiritual gauge

A.  To stay near full requires spiritual disciplines:

1. Solitude – Solitude is not loneliness.  It is not inner emptiness but inner fullness.  What is your place of solitude?  What if I were to talk to your wife or son and ask them where is your place to get alone with God?
2. Sacrifice – What is the price that you are willing to pay to see this happen? 
3. Scripture – Reading through the Bible in a year is minimum.
4. Supplication – Prayer day [(1) Adoration for who God is and what He does, Sing “Great is Thy Faithfulness”.  Did you just pray? (2) Agreement – Are we telling him what He already knows in our confession and repentance?  (3) Asking in intercession for others and petition for ourselves]

B.Stephen Olford suggests 6 steps for devotions:

1. Wait – Isaiah 40:31
2. Read-Have a plan.  Recently, I memorized Paul’s prayers in the New Testament.
3. Think-What did that just say?
4. Write-It is much easier to crystallize and recall when you write.
5. Pray-(For our young people, give them a cause, let them prove before others the reality of the living God.)
6. Share-Edify one another.

II.  Monitoring the physical gauge

(Don’t neglect this.)

A.  God’s Temple (I Cor. 6:19)

B.  God’s Tool (Rom. 6:13)

C.  Temporal (II Cor. 4:18; I Tim. 4:8)

D.  God’s Trophy (Gen. 2:7)

E.  God’s Treasure House (II Cor. 4:7)

III.  Monitoring the emotional gauge

(Can you feel depressed and be serving right in the center of God’s will? – Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, the disciples, Paul- II Cor. 7:5-6 – We need the Titus touch.  A Paul – a pattern,  A Barnabas – a pal,  A Timothy – student )

A.  Signs that the emotional gauge is low:

1. Begin to feel weak morally
2. Begin to get short and irritable with people
3. Begin to feel a desire to get out of God’s work

Uphold your pastors in prayer.  You be that emotional, prayerful support.

***Session Three

Ever read the book by Paul Bitz, Faith of the Fatherless?  Absent fathers, angry fathers, abusive fathers create a wrong view of God.

I would like to talk on the sin of anger, usually not seen outside our home.

Anger is an emotion that can be more destructive than smoking, drinking, overeating, etc.  According to Dr. Redford Williams of Duke Medical School, anger produces a high stress hormone that burns out our body.  There is rightful anger, and there is wrong anger.  I want us to consider the spiritual and physical affects of sinful anger.

Numbers 20; James 1:19-20

I.  The Cause of Anger

A.  Personal Pain – have you ever really been hurt?  Abandoned by a mate?  For Moses, Miriam had just died. 

B.  People pressure – There are people that give aspirin a headache, that make coffee nervous.

II.  Countenance of Anger

A.  Sarcastic words (600,000 fighting men, 600,000 fighting women, and 4 million screaming kids (laughter)

B.  Self-centered focus – “Must we fetch you water out of this rock?” Moses had good private time (verse 7) but then he faced a circumstance that really gave him inconvenience.

C.  Striking physically (v. 11) – He got the water, but he lost the blessing.  It is important to do God’s will and do it the right way.  (It is probably good for the preacher to never coach a basketball game. )

III.  Calamity of Anger

Destroyed God’s picture (I Cor. 10:4) – Christ only smitten once for all.

Denial of God’s prize

IV.  Cure for Anger

A.  Face it (don’t repress it, suppress it, express it wrongly- confess it

B.  Focus on God.

1. God is in control of all cirmstances
2. God is conscious of all my needs (Psalm 103)
3. God is concerned about what burdens me (I Peter 5:7)

V.  Checklist of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit controls all relationships in life.

Afternoon fun at Red Cliff included foosball (ask Chris L. and Todd versus Dennis R. and Tobe S. about their competitive action), pingpong, silhouette paint ball, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing.

***Session Four

We sang . . .  

Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross, lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss; from victory unto victory, His army shall He lead, till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed.

I Am Resolved

I am resolved to enter the Kingdom, leaving the paths of sin; friends may oppose me, foes may beset me, still will I enter in.  I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free; Jesus, greatest, Highest, I will come to Thee.

No Other Plea

My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed; I trust the ever living One, His wounds for me shall plead.  My heart is leaning on the Word, the written Word of God, salvation by my Saviour’s name, salvation thro’ His blood.  I need no other argument, I need no other plea, it is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.

Director Dean Loftus gave some announcements about the camp

Concerning the Lodge expansion . . .

There is $7500 in the account

Rough estimates needed on future stages for the lodge expansion

$11,000 plumbing

$15,000 electrical

$18,000 sheetrock

If you are interested in bringing a work group, please contact the camp office.

Other projects are . . .

Major renovation of our bathrooms

Lean-to on the shop

Would you pray with us?

Would there be 25 guys to pray for the youth retreats every day coming up, that God would do a great thing for His glory?

We then sang some more: 

My Hope is in the Lord

My hope is in the Lord who gave Himself for me, and paid the price of all my sin at Calvary.  For me He died, for me He lives, and everlasting life and light He freely gives.

Dr. “O” then led us in this fourth session:

What does it mean to be a Spirit-filled man?

Lessons from Paul (Ephesians 5:18-33)

Husbands are commanded to love their wives.

Love is giving.  Lust is getting.

The greatest problem from a woman’s standpoint is a passive male.

Lessons from Peter (I Peter 3:7)

Man is responsible for five things:

1. Live with her.  This is the tool of time.  The tool is foundational to all relationships.  Deuteronomy 24:5 – Cheer your wife for one year.
2. Learn about her.  This is the tool of thinking. 
3. Love her.  This is the tool of tenderness.
4. Lead her.  This is the tool of testimony.  Think of the ontological trinity and economical trinity (equal in essence; different in function)
5. Laugh with her.  This is the tool of tickling.

__________ 

Back up at the lodge, there was bottomless coffee and hot chocolate.  And good ol’ Dennis convinced me to jump in to the silly game of “Pass the Pigs”.  Come on piggies, roll!

One more thing . . . I am glad for some ear plugs late in the night.  The men in my cabin snored louder than 747 jets.