Fall Retreat 2013 – Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, we joined about 200 other college students in the Northeast for our annual Fall Retreat in Harvey Cedars, NJ. The topic was “The Lord’s Recovery” and we enjoyed the Lord’s speaking to each one of us about what it means for Him to “recover” us.

Below, you can read about what some of us enjoyed at the Fall Retreat! We’ll be posting more later this week.

“The Lord is recovering us to our normal condition as the ‘”Lord Jesus, I love you” people’. It is God’s original intention that we would love Him. Thus, it is normal to be romantic with the Lord and say ‘Lord Jesus, I love you!'”.
Karen H., Villanova University

“During the college retreat at Harvey Cedars, I enjoyed that all believers can be in the Lord’s recovery. The Lord’s recovery is not a name or an organization. The word ‘recovery’ actually means ‘ a restoration or return to a normal condition after a damage or loss has been incurred.’ If we are enjoying Christ, then we are in a normal condition, and we are in the Lord’s recovery.”
Matt M., West Chester University

“I enjoyed the part about just telling the Lord that we love Him; letting Him know that we love Him every day. Our response to Him, whether or not we’re experiencing a good situation, should be “Lord I just love you.” When we wake up in the morning just say, Lord Jesus I still love you!
Julibeth L., Community College of Philadelphia

“On Saturday, the speaker released a message about giving the Lord the preeminence and the first place in everything. The message outline contained 18 points in total. One point that inspired me was, “To give the Lord the first place is to love him with our first love, and the best love.” Since the moment I was saved one and a half years ago, I have tried to give the Lord the first place in everything I experience, but sometimes my heart is drawn away by many other things not of Jesus Christ. I used to feel frustrated when I failed to touch the Lord, but that point from the message told me that in order to give Him the first place, I need to give Him my first love.

It’s hard to tell what kind of love is my “first love”. So after that message in the retreat I prayed: “Lord Jesus, please reveal to me what is the first love. I’m willing to stay in the flow to keep my love to you forever fresh.” After that prayer, I strongly felt that there was no need to feel frustrated, because all I need is to consecrate every love I have to Him, and to inquire in His temple. After the retreat, and I was so joyful that I had restored the freshness of my love, and all the other believers supplied me with God’s love. Praise the Lord that we can say: “Dear God, I just love you, and I love you above anything else.”
Jeff Z., UPenn