Long after Youth Camp…
Good thought from ANDRÉE SEU about retreats. I think that a lot of us go from retreat to camp as if something like Challenge gives us special power to be spiritual. Some spiritual giants of the past challenge us to use what information we have readily available and putting it into practice, rather than trusting in the spiritual rush of a conference, camp or retreat.
“So many of us say, ‘All right, I’ll attend another Bible conference,’ or ‘I’ll take a course,’ or ‘I’ll buy a book.’ My friends, what we need is not more instruction, we’ve been instructed to death. Where in the world is there more fundamental Bible teaching than here in Chicago? This is the Mecca of Fundamentalism. This is the Vatican of Evangelicalism. We’ve got notebooks at home stacked high that go back twenty-five years. They tell us of some new sidelight on some text or some new illustration somebody gave to point up a doctrine. But, oh, what weak creatures we are! What joyless people we are!” (A.W. Tozer, “These Faithful Wounds”)
“You may be in a dry, arid spiritual condition, and you read a biography somebody gives you. And as you read it your heart is warmed and moved and you feel altogether better and different. It leads you to a season of prayer for this blessing and great diligence in your Christian life. But that only lasts for a while. Then you read another such book and the same thing happens again. You can spend your life like that.” (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable)
There’s nothing wrong with retreats, any more than there’s something wrong with weddings. But the crucial thing is the day after. And the day after that. Tozer adds, “I believe God wants us to long for Him with the longing that will become lovesickness, that will keep us always moving toward Him.” I have that, and if you ask how I got it, it is His grace as I pray constantly and read his Word like my life depends on it.
Hit: WorldMag
