For those of us who were able to (and dare I say ... willing to) attend / participate in / be blessed by, while at the same time being a blessing to others at this year's Nor Cal Calvary Chapel Men's retreat, we now know that (at least for many of us if we were paying attention) have now experienced something that our lives and our souls have been longing for for a what may have been a long time, maybe even a very long time.

We were able to experience true surrender of our will, our flesh, our wants, and then in exchange through that surrender, receiving God's will, and for at least 3 men who stood, receiving God's Spirit and exchanged lives, receiving what our lives truly need.

We were able to experience genuine fellowship with our ReGen brothers, and experience immediate connection with each other, but even better, that connection and fellowship with all of God's men whom we met there for the first time.

 

Over those couple of days and nights, there were the BIG things that God did for the entire group of attendees / participants as a whole, and then there were the very cool things that He did just for us, His ReGen men.

A great example of this is the following; in years past there wasn't a problem as to where we as ReGen would meet for what is called "The Church Breakout" time. It's that time where for about an hour and a half it's only us guys, (the men of Regen). It's that time when we come together to share some of the things that God has shown us (is showing us), or when we just want to / need to focus on how He wants to use us and bless us, and how we can bless each other.

This year however due to the number of men at the retreat, (not the less than 300 men that were there two years ago, but the over 460 men this year), our place to meet for the "breakout" was unfortunately double booked, at least "unfortunate" to us (but not to God He had another, better plan), we temporarily found ourselves kinda scrambling for where we were going to meet with our 40 guys ... I just have to highlight that once again ... 40 guys signed up for this year's retreat ... amazing!

Anyhow, there we were with no place to meet. We considered sitting out near the lawn as it was a beautiful day. We were offered a small chapel, which would have been way too small for our 40 GUYS!! (sorry got carried away). Then we were offered a place called "The Cathedral Grove" along with the description given by the host leader in charge of those kinda things; "I'm really sorry, it's outside, kinda dark, and your men will probably need their coats! That's all we have available, sorry again!"

Eric and I took a short walk over to the grove, a place we hadn't been or seen yet, and when we walked into "it," under the canopy and enveloped by the beautiful redwoods, we both were in agreement that it would not only suffice, but it was exactly where God wanted us for that time, and for those of you who were there, I think you will also agree that it was awesome was it not? What a blessing!

Pastor Matt used that surrounding, that place to remind us that the Redwoods are some of the tallest trees in the world but they are also trees with a very shallow root system, and so what is it that keeps them (that kept them) from falling on top of us? it was the joining together of the roots from the other Redwood trees. "This tree's roots are intertwined with that tree and that tree with that tree!" It was a great teaching and again a greater reminder of who we are in Christ and our relationship as God's men with each other.

All of the weekend's teaching was amazing and will be available on the CC Fremont website soon. But as we sat amongst all (at least the majority) of those 460 like-minded men, we considered and then were shown through God's word a glimpse of the life of King David. Pastor Guzik's teaching took us back to the beginning of David's life, back to his initial call, his struggle, and innocence, but ultimately his love for God ... the time before ... his kingship and kingdom ... before ... the horrible choices he would make later in life, and then hearing in a very clear way of what and how David could be considered and was known as "a man after God's own heart!"

Many of us who were there were again blessed by God and His Word. We saw the moving of His Spirit, and many were touched and convicted to forgiveness and repentance, cleared and "cleaned" once again of mind and flesh and sin, at least for the moment, but equipped and admonished to continue to keep short accounts, to continue to ask for forgiveness and to repent as none of us is perfect.

Psalm 34:8-9 says;

"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him."

Paul tells Timothy;

"Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." 2 Timothy 1:13

My prayer (as well as the other leaders), for ourselves first, and then for all of you, is that we would "hold fast" to what we heard, experienced, said, and prayed this past weekend.

That we wouldn't be so quick to return to the ways, behaviors, or the attitudes that we had that Friday afternoon before driving up Highway 9 to BC, but that we would again "hold fast" to the truths, convictions, and blessings we may have carried back with us down the mountain. Love you guys!

In HIS Grip,

Tony