Lakeside Retreat in Tennessee
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
Nothing has the power to separate us from God’s love in Jesus.
- Not bad religion…
- nor fundamentalism…
- nor dogma…
- nor polity…
- nor hypocrisy…
- nor judgmentalism…
- nor legalism…
- nor prejudice…
- nor my sin…
- nor anything at all that we utilize to create walls between us.
TRAVEL: Sometimes the best words about a travel experience turn out to be a few good pictures.
While it did rain pretty much all weekend in Tennessee, I did manage to capture a series of beautiful photographs. So I’ll highlight just a few representative images (fifteen) in the short slide-show below.
This particular weekend, as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, was characterized by such diversity that the spiritual focus was all over the map, from “I’ve been a down-the-line Methodist all my life,” to “I’m a recovering Baptist,” to “I’m not sure I could call myself a Christian at the moment,” to everything in between.
Blakemore UMC Men’s Retreat
BURNED: Some of the men had been so badly burned by the harsher interpretations of “evangelical” Christianity that they had moved a “safe distance away” even from Jesus.
However, just about everyone at the retreat was in attendance because they knew that the choice to do what’s necessary to move closer to God was/is undoubtedly the most important decision they need to be (or are in the process of) making.
they knew that the choice to do what’s necessary to move closer to God was/is undoubtedly the most important decision they need to be (or are in the process of) making.
This “spirituality” thing is a journey. It’s not cookie-cutter and it’s not ever formulaic. But the journey is critically important. And, no matter where you are in the process this Monday morning, then there is a positive step forward, or two, that you can make today.
Always reading, always praying, always learning - DEREK
- Comment Policy: ”Please stay positive with your comments. If your comment is rude, it gets deleted. If it is critical, please make it constructive. If you are constantly negative or a general [rear-end], troll, or hater, you will get banned. The definition of terms is left solely up to us.”
No comments:
Post a Comment