Every fall, Every Nation Campus Ministries has a regional retreat for the colleges in North Carolina. It's always a fun time to come together and meet new people from different schools while encountering Jesus together! I always look forward to getting away for a while, getting rid of the distractions, no computer, no cell phone service and just enjoying my Savior and the wonderful people that I am with!
We had a variety of speakers and we focused on the kingdom of God. The verse that the weekend was based on was out of Matthew.
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." -Matthew 6:33
Something that struck me most this weekend was the concept of righteousness... being in right standing with God.
"Pursuing righteousness is more valuable than sacrifice." Jesus wants us to be in right standing with Him. We can sacrifice things and perform a lot of works in His name, but ultimately He just wants a relationship with us. He wants to know us intimately and spend time with us all of the time!
"Jesus wants all of your junk. He gave His love freely, take it! He wants to see you enjoy it, not stress out about how to repay it."
This quote probably spoke to me most all weekend. Jesus gave His love as a gift and He wants us to take it and find joy in it. He doesn't want to see us stressing out performing work after work to attempt to repay Him for something that is priceless. He wants us to enjoy the freedom that He gave us and to be in relationship with Him.
"Don't ignore the stuff in your heart, He wants that too."
Sometimes we try to hide what's really in our heart by staying busy with schedules and doing things to try to earn Christ's love. The thing is, He couldn't possibly love us anymore than He does now. He wants to know the things we keep deep inside of our hearts, even the nasty junk that we are ashamed of. He wants to know everything about us and help us work through things. :)
Those were just a few of many things that were talked about this weekend.
Something I am going to focus more on doing is walking by the Spirit. I have come so far in this area of my walk with the Lord, but I have so much more to learn! God has my future laid out perfectly, just for me. Nothing that happens is a surprise to Him. I am looking forward to growing deeper in His love and learning to trust Him more and more each day! The Holy Spirit is powerful! I am anxious to see how I will continue to learn to walk by the Spirit each day. It will take time and discipline. My heart is to rid me of myself each day... humbling myself before the Lord and let Him take complete and total control of every aspect of my life!
I got to hang out with some amazing brothers and sisters in Christ! Here are a few pictures from our weekend adventure together!
There was a beautiful sunset at Camp Dixie as we arrived on Friday evening!
Two of my new friends admiring the sunset. haha!
Some of the most beautiful ladies I know! I have the joy of going to school with them and calling them my sisters in Christ!
They were all into "artistic poses" and interpretive dancing
The infamous "blob!" Too bad it was too cold to see anyone get launched off of it!
While waiting to go into our evening session, these lovely ladies decided to sing! I wish I would've gotten the entire thing on video. It was great!
The whole ECU gang! I love each of these people dearly! They are my brothers and sisters in Christ!
For me, the best part of this weekend was getting away and resting in God's presence. I don't believe that you always have to have a huge revelation from God when you're at a big conference like this. I just enjoyed being in His presence and around people that I love!
