{"id":6315,"date":"2015-03-18T16:02:16","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T20:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=6315"},"modified":"2015-04-28T13:31:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-28T17:31:07","slug":"men-retreat-and-then-grow-in-prayer-313-15-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=6315","title":{"rendered":"Men Retreat, and then Grow in Prayer (3\/13-15 2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our United Methodist Men’s Fellowship held our annual retreat during the weekend of March 13-15.\u00a0 For the past 14 years we have consistently held an annual retreat, and like the previous 13 retreats, we held this year’s retreat at the Black Rock Retreat Center in Quarryille PA (Lancaster County).\u00a0 About 20 of us traveled to Black Rock and spent the weekend in a time of serious reflection, prayer, worship, and- well- fun.<\/p>\n

Our speaker was Chris Johnson.\u00a0 Chris spoke to us during our fellowship gathering in January<\/a> (2015).\u00a0 Here is a brief bio…
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Chris Johnson is a missionary to Mexico through the \u201cTo Every Tribe\u201d organization. He is married to Michele and they have two boys; Malachi who is 3 and Josiah who is 1 \u00bd.<\/span><\/p>\n
\"Chris<\/a>

Chris Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

They have worked in small villages spreading the Gospel and as the Lord will\u2019s, planting churches were there are none. They have worked in the Northern part of Mexico as well as the Southern part, in the State of Oaxaca. They have been back from the mission field for a little over a year now. They are in the process now of planning to returning back to Mexico and hope to be there by the end of 2015.<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

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\"UMM<\/a><\/p>\n

Retreat Topic:\u00a0 A Praying Life<\/span><\/h3>\n

Chris used the book\u00a0\u201cA Praying Life\u201d by Paul E. Miller to help us take a deeper look at our prayer lives.\u00a0 The weekend topic was entitled:<\/p>\n

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A Praying Life – Stop talking to yourself and start talking to GOD!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0Here are a few of the topics that Chris led us to consider…<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Prayer is a Relationship Issue…<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Click here to learn more<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
We often get caught up in the mechanics of prayer; who do you pray to, when do you pray, what formula do you follow, etc.\u00a0 But the real key to prayer is that it is based on our relationship with God.\u00a0 It all boils down to a faith and trust issue:\u00a0 Do you believe that God hears you?\u00a0 Are you willing to be totally honest with Him?\u00a0 Are you willing for Him to change you?<\/p>\n

A life of prayer flows out of a love relationship with our creator.\u00a0 Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together for good, but look at verse 29:<\/p>\n

“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son<\/span>, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”<\/span>\nNLT<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, our goal should be God’s goal:\u00a0 That we become molded into the image of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 When we have that attitude; when we desperately want to please God and to be like His Son, our prayer lives will become vibrant and flow out of our heart felt relationship.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

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Prayer is both spontaneous and planned…<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Click here to learn more<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
To live a life of prayer, we need to always be on the lookout for God’s activity; a full moon, a sunset, a “coincidence” where someone just happens to show up and say the right thing at the right time.\u00a0 Paul said that we must “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thess 5:17<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n

And yet, we also need to carve out a time where we can get away from the day to day routine and just be alone with our creator.\u00a0 That takes some planning and setting of priorities.\u00a0 A life of spontaneous prayer requires the cultivation of a mindset.\u00a0 A regular time of quiet purposeful prayer requires priority and the cultivation of a habit.<\/p>\n

Is this your excuse: “I just don’t have time to pray regularly<\/span><\/strong>“? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then think about this:\u00a0 If you had more time, what would you really do with it?\u00a0 Would you use it to pray or would some other activity fill it in.\u00a0 For most people, the problem isn’t a busy life.\u00a0 The problem is a busy heart. <\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/blockquote>\n

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We must come to God dirty…<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Click here to learn more<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
Prayer must be genuine, and to be genuine we must come to God as we are.\u00a0 To recognize our sinfulness and helplessness requires a lot of humility.\u00a0 But this also means that we don’t have to clean ourselves up before coming to God.\u00a0 We don’t need to put on “Sunday go meeting” clothes to be in God’s presence.\u00a0 In fact, we’re totally incapable of cleaning ourselves up.\u00a0 That’s a humbling experience. The goal of prayer is to open ourselves up and to allow God to change us, not to somehow earn His favor.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
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God wants to hear the mundane…<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Click here to learn more<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
Is it wrong to pray for a good parking spot?\u00a0 Is it wrong to pray for good weather?\u00a0 Are we bothering God if we pray for help in finding our lost keys?\u00a0 What if you approach your street and you hear fire trucks and see smoke.\u00a0 Is it wrong to pray that your house isn’t on fire?<\/p>\n

No!\u00a0 In all of these things, God wants us to be honest.\u00a0 To come to Him like a child.\u00a0 To crawl into our Daddy’s lap and tell Him what’s bothering us.<\/p>\n

He may not answer things the way we may want.\u00a0 God is not a genie who grants any request we make.\u00a0 God wants to work things out for our good, but His idea of “good” is that we become like Jesus (Romans\u00a08:29<\/a>).\u00a0 He loves us and wants our fellowship, and Jesus is the door to that relationship.<\/p>\n

When we’re honest with God and we open ourselves up to Him, we open ourselves up to change.\u00a0 If we pray for a good parking spot\u00a0at the mall, God might give us the sensitivity to notice a mother struggling to get her packages and small kids into the car that is parked in that spot that\u00a0you wanted.\u00a0\u00a0 After praying to find your lost house keys, you might remember to pray for those who have no home.\u00a0 Your initial thoughts may be that it’s not your house that’s on fire, but after coming to God He’ll give you the passion to pray for the person who’s house IS on fire.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

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Waiting for an Answer can help us to Grow…<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Click here to learn more<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
God doesn’t usually answer prayers as quickly as we might want. Prayers may not be answered the way we want them to be answered, but God will answer all prayers in His own timing.<\/p>\n

While waiting for an answer, we are led to one of the following places:<\/p>\n

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  1. THE DESERT<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0 When hope has climbed above reality, the passage of time leads us into the “Desert Place.”\u00a0 We struggle with God’s will.\u00a0 But we soon discover\u00a0 that the best gift while we’re in the desert is God’s Presence.\u00a0 The desert can be a place of growth where we learn to wait for God and to lean on His love.<\/li>\n
  2. DETERMINATION<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0 When we try to turn the Reality we have into the Hope we want by relying on our own resources, we loose our faith.\u00a0 Sometimes God’s answer to our prayers is “no.”\u00a0 Our reaction has to be one of obedience and acceptance, not of forcing our own way.<\/li>\n
  3. DESPAIR<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0 When Reality isn’t what we want and no Hope remains, we enter into despair.\u00a0 God doesn’t want us to be there.\u00a0 When we’re in despair we turn inward and shut out God.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div><\/div>\n

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    Retreat Purpose:\u00a0 Hanging out with the Guys!<\/span><\/h3>\n

    In addition to the serious discussions about our prayer lives, we also took time just to get away from things and hand out with friends.\u00a0 Yes, even adult men need to have some time away from serious things.\u00a0 We ate pizza, watched movies, and even had a great discussion around the fireplace on the validity of Pluto as a planet!<\/p>\n

    Take a look at the following pictures to get a taste of the weekend at Black Rock…<\/p>\n

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    \u00a0============================<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    To learn more about our Men’s Fellowship, Click Here<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Our United Methodist Men’s Fellowship held our annual retreat during the weekend of March 13-15.\u00a0 For the past 14 years we have consistently held an annual retreat, and like the previous 13 retreats, we held this year’s retreat at the Black Rock Retreat Center in Quarryille PA (Lancaster County).\u00a0 About 20 of us traveled to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,19,26],"tags":[79,107],"class_list":["post-6315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evrpt","category-fellowship","category-men","category-umm","tag-friends","tag-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6315"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6336,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315\/revisions\/6336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}