Spruce Lake Retreat

This past weekend I went with my young adult Bible study group to the Spruce Lake Retreat Center in Canadensis, PA. It was a great weekend all around, with much fun had by all.
We arrived at Spruce Lake around 9:45pm on Friday and unloaded the vans in order to get situated in our cabin. Once we were all settled, we played a couple rounds of Loaded Questions in order to get acquainted with one another. During this time, we also ate some soft pretzels as a late night snack before dispersing for bed.
The next morning we had breakfast burritos made by Wes, Roshelle, and Karl, which were delicious. Breakfast was then followed by worship in music and then a teaching on 1 Corinthians 1:30 by Jim. The teaching focused on how we need to have our lives centered on Christ and that we are given new life through Him. Also, we can never gain righteousness on our own, only through Jesus. We then had about 15 minutes of prayer before Jim's second teaching, which focused upon sanctification. He taught that sanctification is two-fold: first we are sanctified (set apart) when we first believe, and then God continually sanctifies us throughout the course of our lives. This is because of the indwelling sin that we have in us. It's dead, but still present. We are no longer slaves to sin, but that desire in our nature still exists and is only dampened through God's sanctifying of our souls. We cannot and should not try to reform ourselves, for this is God's job. It involves the painful death of our sins in order to enjoy the joy of God. If we refuse to let go of our idols, our joy will be limited.

Following Jim's teaching, we enjoyed some relaxation outside on the swings that were built around the fire pit. Some people read, others chatted, and a couple played guitar. We then enjoyed chili for lunch before tackling the hike, aka Powerstroke 5000. The view was fantastic once we reached the top, and the weather was gorgeous. Soon we all headed back down to the cabin for some round-robin ping pong, followed by some head to head games to 7. Schulte crushed us all by winning almost 20 games in a row before dinner. Dinner consisted of angel hair pasta and a meat sauce that Heather made using the recipe of an Italian woman from Staten Island.

Following dinner, we watched a documentary entitled Catfish. This was about the influence of social media and how some can use it to deceive others. A man from NYC had developed a close bond with this family in Michigan, but he soon discovered that the majority of it was a scam set up by a woman who was just desperate for attention. Our discussion afterwards confronted whether or not this was real and also made us question how we interact with others using social media. It definitely makes you question how honest people are being, but even in person, people can lie to you. We all enjoyed some icecream during our discussion, followed by a jam session that included vocals, guitar, a drum, along with an assortment of household items such as a cheese grater, pots and pans, wooden spoons, a cooler, and a pink lemonade container. I then went outside to enjoy the campfire for a while before coming back inside to take notes on an audio book while others either read or played Scrabble. There was a bit of a dispute over whether "gorer" was a word before I decided to get some sleep.
This morning for breakfast we had bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on bagels. After breakfast, Mark taught on the importance of having our identity in Christ and how when that is our focus, our actions are more likely to mirror Jesus. We must always remember that we are already children of God and then we will slowly have His ways manifest in us and flow out on a daily basis.
I chose to relax outside and listen to more of my book and take notes. I was definitely noticing some contradictions between the author and Scripture and between the author's own comments, which makes me leery. Heather was engrossed by The Hunger Games, while others played Perudo. I got in on the action for one round before going to relax on a swing while watching our chicken lunch roast over the fire. Lunch of chicken burritos soon followed before it was time for us to start packing up all of our belongings. We took one last group photo before everybody departed in the vans and I drove myself back to Stroudsburg.

Quakertown Regional Conference on Reformed Theology

I spent Friday evening and Saturday at Grace Bible Fellowship Church attending the Regional Conference on Reformed Theology. The best way to describe the conference is amazing. I was impacted by the teachings, each one of them getting me to think more in depth on the topic of Our Great God. Each speaker had their own unique preaching style, which all conveyed a clearcut message about God and how we are to think, act, and respond. I will do my best to highlight what I absorbed during each teaching by paraphrasing the notes I took during the conference. *None of the following ideas or concepts were formulated by me, but by the conference speakers.*

The first speaker on Friday was Bryan Chapell who discussed the topic of The Greatness of God. The main point was the fact that God is a counter-distinction to humanity, which means that He is set apart. This was important to what was conveyed in the description of the verse, Romans 4:18, which begins, "In hope he believed against hope..." This was referring to Abraham when God revealed that he would be the father of many nations, even though he was an elderly man and his wife, Sarah, was barren. Chapell asked us what it meant to, "hope against hope." He said that it was the pitting of divine hope against human hope. In every instance of this situation, divine hope will prevail because it comes from God, who is set apart and greater than humanity. To apply this concept in your own life, you must believe that you will prevail in the long run without hiding from the brutal reality of your present circumstances. The hope we have in God will keep us from wavering in our faith because we can trust God to provide because He sent us Jesus and He can bring dead things back to life.

Another concept that Chapell said we must grasp about God's greatness is the fact that He blesses us out of His own faithfulness and not our own faithfulness. We are saved by grace alone and God's promises are eternal. We must also learn from the situations that God places us in because He sometimes puts us in particular circumstances in order to strip away our self confidence so that all that remains is our faith in God. You need to decide if you are relying on yourself or on God and then realize that you bring nothing to the equation. God is the only one who can provide and that proof can be found in Jesus being raised from the dead as justification for our trespasses. This act of love was proof of God's mercy, which is the only thing that can provide us with hope in life.

The second speaker on Friday was Richard Phillips who discussed The Holiness of God. He spoke about how we cannot actually discuss what holiness is because being holy means to be set apart to be used for God. God is above and beyond us and has an all consuming majesty. We can only discuss what holiness is not because that is the perspective we have as a sinful society. The spiritual essence of God is beyond our comprehension. 

In 2 Samuel 6, David was trying to comprehend God's holiness. This passage discusses bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. David wanted to honor God by bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, but he became angry when Uzzah was struck down in God's wrath. This occurred when Uzzah tried to prevent the Ark from falling into the mud and he touched it, which is forbidden. In truth, God was justified to kill Uzzah because he was disobedient. As Richard Phillips stated, "Uzzah was arrogant enough to think that his hand was cleaner than the earth. This just isn't so because humans are sinful creatures while the earth is at least obedient, making Uzzah more filthy than the mud." God's holiness gives Him this right, and it is because of God's holiness that we must gather in church and worship is glory. We must not shy away from what is holy, but instead accept the great mercy that abounds from God through Christ's death on the cross. In the end, what we must do is humble ourselves, confess our sins, and place them on the cross of the Holy One.

Kevin DeYoung was the first speaker on Saturday morning. His topic was The Truth of God. He started by mentioning how religion is a process of discovery, not revelation, and our knowledge of God can't escape our culture. Truth is necessary within Christianity because the gospel is the only absolute truth in this world. This truth needs to be preserved and not reinvented to suit our own needs. DeYoung taught that there are three misconceptions on truth that are held, which include sincerity is a measure of truth, humility is inconsistent with certainty (assurance is misconstrued as arrogance and confidence is seen as cockiness), and the notion that all we have is interpretations of truth, but no clear concept. I was greatly intrigued by the fact that sincerity is not a measure of truth. DeYoung illustrated this misconception using Philippians 1:15-18, which states, "It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice." This scripture mentioned that some only preach out of selfish ambition and only appear sincere, but the importance is in the fact that the gospel is being shared with people. Those who attacked on 9/11 sincerely believed in what they were doing, but that didn't mean it was true. 

DeYoung also taught that when we share the truth of the gospel, we must not burden individuals with difficult concepts. Instead, slipping a small idea into their mind for them to mull over is best. This is much like "putting a pebble in someone's shoe." Along with this, DeYoung stated the one vital truth that we all must hold on to is the fact that our God speaks to us. The Bible is God's Word. Any questions that we might have should be directed towards this text in order to find the answers. Those who refuse to listen to the Word of God are refusing to obey the truth. Everybody wants to discover who God is, but He already revealed Himself through Jesus and in the scriptures. We must never forget this most important truth, but we also must not be like the ignorant and unstable who twist scripture to say what they want it to say.
The next topic was The Wrath of God, which was taught by Richard Phillips. The scripture he focused on was Hebrews 10:26-31, which states, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' and again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Many people recoil at the idea of a loving God sending some His people to hell for eternity. What they seem to forget is that God is not only loving, but just, and He has the right to bring down judgement on those who reject Him. Phillips used the analogy of the college professor who has his students turn in three papers during the semester. The professor clearly states that any late papers will result in an automatic failure of the course. When the first paper is due, a quarter of the students bring their papers late, but the professor shows mercy and does not fail them. The students recognize this and are thankful, so when the next paper is due, half the students are late turning them in, but the professor again shows mercy, which the students are thankful for. When the last paper is due, three quarters of the class turn in their papers late and the professor fails all of them, which causes an outrage among his students, but they forget to realize that the professor reserves the right to do this, even though he showed mercy in the past.
Phillips says that even though it is hard for us to stomach everlasting torment, we need to remember that God hates all that is evil and wicked and He cannot live in harmony with it, which is why God brings wrath against that which is evil. Phillips also said that we must avoid embracing a sinful lifestyle and that the only way for us to know if we are true followers of Christ is by having fruit apparent in our life (referring to the fruits of the Spirit, which include love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control ~ Galatians 5:22-23). Phillips said we cannot trust mere emotional responses as marks of salvation. Otherwise, we are like those mentioned in the passage from Hebrews who mentally grasp the Gospel, but still spurn Jesus in their hearts by continuing to flagrantly sin. The worst thing one can do is tell such people that they are Christians just because they know the Word of God. Unless they are living it out and there is a definite change, the best thing that someone can do is force these people to confront teachings on the wrath of God so that they understand the horrible consequences of trampling on the name of Jesus. Phillips' closing remarks were that God is not terrible; sin is terrible. Also, the wrath of God on the cross was also a measure of God's love for us.
The workshop that I chose to attend in the afternoon was led by Kevin DeYoung and was entitled: Just Do Something. DeYoung spent much of the time discussing how people use "waiting to hear God's plan" as an excuse to be lazy, not take initiative, and place responsibility on somebody other than themselves. DeYoung said that, instead, we should capitalize on our skills and talents and take risks, as opposed to wasting our time "tinkering" and refusing to grow up into adulthood. Many are just sitting and waiting for a word from God when instead they should be going and getting jobs and trusting that it is all a part of God's plan. It is sheer ignorance to think that God would actually reveal is plan for your future to you before you discovered it by living day by day. DeYoung said that we are too preoccupied with the future and wanting to know now, rather than being patient and trusting that everything will work out. DeYoung said that the three reasons we are so desperate to figure out God's will is because we want to please God, many are timid and hesitant, many are searching for perfect fulfillment, we have too many choices, and we are cowardly. We need to focus on building in faithfulness instead of fulfillment and get away from this concept that everyday of our lives is supposed to be spectacular and full of adventure. We also need to focus on making decisions. Too many can't be decisive because formulating a decision means rejecting other options.
DeYoung also taught that the conventional approach to life is bad because it focuses on nonmoral decisions, implies we have a sneaky God who refuses to reveal things He knows to us, encourages preoccupation with the future, undermines personal responsibility, accountability, and initiative, and we become slaves to subjectiveness and hopelessly seek feelings. The preoccupation with the future truly betrays our lack of trust in God, which creates anxiety. DeYoung says that anxiety is really living out the future before it gets here, which involves worrying about future troubles without acknowledging future graces. DeYoung also says that nobody should ever cloak talk of their personal decisions in religious words or concepts. They should say that they chose a particular job, place to live, relationship, travel plans etc. based on the fact that they feel it is best, not because "this is God's plan" or "God directed me down this path." DeYoung stresses that this strips away accountability and responsibility for the action because those phrases create barriers that rebuff arguments.
DeYoung closed by saying that anybody who is searching for the will of God should turn to the Bible. Within the text, one will find that God wants us all to be transformed to be more like Christ. That is His true desire and hope for our future; to grow in Christlikeness. The first part of I Thessalonians 4:3 states, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified." Through sanctification, we will become more loving, humble, and pure, which are all attributes of Jesus.
Brian Chapell taught the last topic, which was The Love of God. He began his discussion by clarifying the words, "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more," which are found within Romans 5:20. Chapell said that this was not a license to sin. The gospel does not wish for people to indulge in sin. Because we are united with Christ, we share in His death and resurrection. To explain all of this, Chapell referenced Romans 6:1-14 ~ "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace."
Chapell continued by saying that God's love for us is based on your faith in Jesus and that we are all made right before God for what Christ has done. Once we are committed to Christ, we die to sin and are transformed to be more like Christ. Dying to sin means that we should no longer indulge in it. We are instead united to Christ, who was pure and loving. Our goal is to become more like Christ and to run from the slavery of sin. Also, once we are united in Christ, we are free from the condemnation and guilt of past sin. We must not dwell on what we have down, but instead strive to improve and always look forward. Chapell closed by saying that we all must remember and realize that we live before the face of God, that sin at its core is lack of love and should not have power over your life, focus on the passion of Christ, which will fill us with the love of Christ, and to live for Jesus because it's your calling and your identity. In Chapell's words, "Your calling is to remember how much you are loved and you are to live for Him who gives you power to do so."
I was very grateful for all I learned during the conference and very empowered and refreshed by each and every teaching. I am really looking forward to going again next year and would encourage you all to join me.

Friends, Fellowship, and le Tour de France

Nick and I awoke early on Saturday so that Uncle Winfred could drive us to the airport at 5am. This was so that we could catch our Air France flight to Paris. Other than the flight being delayed for 30 minutes, all went smoothly and we found ourselves in Charles de Gaulle airport by 10am. We wandered through the crowds to a tourist information booth in order to purchase our Paris Visite pass, which would allow for unlimited train travel for the next two days. We then wandered down to the tracks to hop on the B line to Saint Michel-Notre Dame. This was our first taste of French train travel, and it was pretty interesting.
Once we emerged from the train station, we found ourselves in the hustle and bustle of Central Paris. We made our way to a bridge across the Seine River, which gave us a spectacular view of Notre Dame Cathedral and Palais de Justice. We slowly walked in the direction of Notre Dame, taking numerous pictures along the way. To my chagrin, and Nick's amusement, I have very much turned into my father since I take numerous pictures of the same structure, just at different angles. We walked the perimeter of Notre Dame and I stopped briefly in a souvenir shop to purchase a Tour de France shirt for my Uncle Bob and myself. Soon we found ourselves on the steps of Shakespeare and Company, which is a local English bookshop that Nate had recommended to us. I thoroughly enjoyed this quaint little shop, and ended up buying a book by Bill Bryson on Shakespeare, which I'm sure will be hilarious.
After our stop in the bookshop, Nick and I ventured into the Latin Quarter. Everywhere we turned, we were intrigued by new sights and sounds. It began to rain, but instead of getting discouraged, we ducked into Le Petite de Cluny, which is a nice little French cafe. The food culture of France worked in our favor because by the time we finished sitting and eating our meal of a panini (Nick) and ham and cheese sandwich, the rain had cleared and we could venture on without getting completely soaked.
The next stop on our list of things to see in Paris was the Louvre. We took a train from the Latin Quarter to Chatelet, where we transferred to the 1 in order to get off at Louvre-Rivoli. If you haven't ever had the chance, I would highly recommend trekking to the Louvre because it is a spectacular piece of architecture. Nick and I could not get over how massive it was, and thoroughly enjoyed gazing at the structure. We didn't have time to go inside, and that would have been difficult anyway due to the fact that we had our backpacks with us. We then wandered off in the direction of the Arc de Triomph before veering off along the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower. Nick and I were constantly pointing and saying, "That looks so cool! What is it?" We would then get out our map and realize that it was number 15 on the map, but we were too lazy to actually look it up. (Number 15 happens to be the Grand Palais for those interested). Other sights that we walked past but refused to look up at the time included Sainte Chappelle, Conciergie, Musee de l'Armee, Musee de Cluny, Musee de Orsay, and Petit Palais. We finally made our way to the base of the Eiffel Tower and spent a lot of time just gazing up at it in wonder.
Once we got tired and realized it was getting late, we decided to head back to the train station to make our way to Massy-Verrieres, which was where Nate was planning on picking us up. This, of course, was not an easy task given that part of the C line was under construction. This meant that we could take the C line from the Eiffel Tower to Invalides, where we had to hop the 8 train to Concorde and then the 4 train to Chatelet before we could get on the B line towards Massy-Verrieres. Nate and Kaden were very happy to see us once we arrived and we had a pleasant car ride back to the apartment, where I thoroughly enjoyed the comfort and simplicity of watching Cars with Kaden and rolling a marble back and forth on the floor.

It was nice to have a vacation within our vacation with Nate, Erica, Kaden, and Luca. Nothing quite like spending time with English-speaking, Christians in my book. We had a lovely dinner of paninis, which Nick is very astute at creating and making, to the point that we believe he should bail on his nursing profession and open up his own little panini cafe. We enjoyed pleasant conversation and shared understanding of the difficulties in the language barrier and how sometimes you end up agreeing to things you don't mean to agree to.
Sunday morning we had a breakfast of croissants before wandering to Eglise Reformie Evangelique for church. The sermon of course was all in French and I could only understand the word "Jesus", but I still felt very much at home with my fellow believers. Apparently the message was based upon Peter's denial of Christ, which is found at the end of Matthew 26. I passed my time by copying down the Lord's Prayer and Apostle's Creed in French from the back of the hymnal for a friend back home. After the sermon, I was approached by I woman. I told her that I did not speak French, and she promptly spoke to me in English and asked me if I was associated with the language school. I said that I had relatives in Germany that I was visiting and that I knew Nate and Erica. Apparently this woman has a 27 year old daughter living in Germany that she and her husband were going to be visiting for 8 days soon before travelling to Ireland. I was then approached by another woman dressed completely in magenta. She was very friendly and apparently her name is Evelyn. We had a very lengthy conversation about how she grew up in the Champagne region of France and how they have plenty of vineyards and strict quality codes to follow in order to make champagne. She isn't a fan of the cheap champagne that is produced in California, which I can understand. She shared about her younger years, which apparently included a 3 month kabutz in Israel. She was very happy that I taught her that in English, a portable is a cell phone. She actually took out a little notepad to write this down, which I thought was cool. I also informed her that the German's call it a handy before parting ways.

I went outside to find Nick and Kaden playing on the playground. We soon wandered home for a very quick lunch of sandwiches before Nick, Nate, Kaden, and I went into Paris to watch the last stage of le Tour de France. We staked out a spot on Rue de Rivoli, just up from the corner of Rue de Moldovi, which is across the street from the Louvre. First, there was a parade of random cars advertising everything from water to lighters. Then all of the team cars and buses drove by. Then came the long wait for the cyclists. I knew that they were coming due to the helicopter flying above us, obviously filming the race. I got some pretty cool pictures and video of the racers flying by on 4 of the 7 loops that they do. We decided to bail early so that we could go to Sacre Coeur in Montmartre.
We took a train to a station that apparently has a lot of stairs, so we waited with everybody else to get on the elevator. I was surprised to see how massive this elevator was; probably the combined size of my kitchen and living room at my apartment in the Burg. We went up one floor and foolishly got off, bringing some unlucky people with us. We then had to walk up four flights of a spiral staricase before we reached the exit of the station. We were greeted by more stairs up to Sacre Coeur, but the view over Paris that we got was definitely worth it. Nick and I did the quick walking tour of Sacre Coeur and then enjoyed the street performers. There was a guy on a pedestal performing amazing tricks with a soccer ball, along with a man on the steps playing acoustic versions of "Let it Be" and "Wonderwall". We then went back down to the base of the stairs so that Kaden could end his day on a high note: the carousel.
Around 8pm we wandered back into the apartment for another delicious meal Erica prepared. This time it was sausage on a bed of white rice with tomato sauce, green beans, and French fries (my first time ever eating them in France). It was a very relaxing evening filled with fun conversation, a tasty chocolate chip cookie cake extravaganza, music, and prayer. It was a wonderful blessing to be able to gather in fellowship and pray for one another before crawling into bed.
Monday, Nick and I found ourselves on a plane back to Frankfurt. We landed around 11am, and ended up taking a scenic bus ride through Frankfurt to Süd Bahnhof because we got on the 61 bus instead of the shuttle to Terminal 1. We then hopped on the S5 back to Oberursel, where we wandered the streets of Altstadt, had lunch at the bakery, and sat and relaxed on the steps of St. Ursula's church. When we arrived back at Oma's, we were greeted with cake and coffee. Uncle Winfred and Monika were there and giving us details on the trip we will make to Koblenz tomorrow. I was also greeted with the surprise that I had actually won €27.50 when I played the lotto for Oma the previous week. I also learned that Winfred has an astute sense of hearing because he told us to be quiet and listen to the car driving by; apparently it was a Ferrari. Who knew my family was filled with such fun secret talents? The rest of the afternoon was spent lazily watching television, eating a dinner of rice and chicken in white sauce, and chatting with Aunt Edith. A very long, but relatively refreshing day.
Finally, for those interested in the score, it's Kayla 12; coffee 0.