Retreat Recap -- Part 2

I wanted to take another blog entry to give you the highlights of Jennifer Rothschild's talk from last Saturday morning at Falls Creek. The previous post on the retreat was from Friday night. Her words on Saturday require a lot of self examination. I need to ask God to give me that free time (no errands, no social commitments, no mental distractions) to reflect back and examine myself. Life gets too busy. Her text was Matthew 25:14--Parable of the Talents and here are some of my notes from what Jennifer Rothschild spoke...

• Are you where you want to be and if not, why? Is it because you are afraid of change?
• Taste some of the fear and recognize God's sufficient grace.
• What or where would I be if I didn't make the choice to live through fears?
• Don't be dominated by fear but be dominated by Faith! (My words: Help me God!)
• Matthew 25. The 3rd servant was a hole maker. He dug the whole & shoved the talent into the dirt.
• Am I a hole maker, risk taker, or edge dweller?
• Again....governed by faith, not by fear.
• Our lives were not granted to us with shovels. It was given to take risk. Don't cling to the shovel!!
• We cling to the shovel out of the desire to be conservative and not make mistakes.
• Your shovel could be: control, micro managed life, bitterness, perfectionism, anger, disobedience, etc.
• Using a shovel, we bury what could be our potential.
• Live by faith in such a way that you have more to offer to the Master.
• Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Not one of us has to have strong confidence, but we ARE to have strong courage.
• Idol ends up governing you. When you are clinging to your shovel, your idol, you don't have a hand to accept/cling to God and you forfeit the grace He has for you. "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs." Jonah 2:8
• God can make it well with my soul even when it is not well with my circumstances!

At the end, she sang a song that had these lines which spoke volumes to me "Heartaches you go through are often blessing in disguise." Help me God to see the blessings!
One of the ladies who went with us made the statement she isn't holding a shovel...She said she was more like a backhoe. I need to identify my shovel or shovels. Which one are you? How much are you burying or holding onto that is getting in the way of our Saviour? How big a whole digger are you?


Pray my ability to retain what I have heard will increase. Pray I am not caught up in the moment of a retreat. I don't want to have just a weekend. I want to carry what I heard this past weekend with me every day of this week and longer. But I am struggling with various thoughts and emotions even as I write this. They are crowding out the word. I feel like I'm in the middle of the thorns in Jesus's parable right now. There are things choking out the word. I MUST BE OBEDIENT TO MY CONVICTIONS. I need to cut out so much TV and idle time and make adjustments in my life. I've watched more TV the past 3 months than I have in a long time. Why not read the Word or read a Christian book instead. Please pray.