Student Retreat

A few weeks ago, a group of 14 of us had our student retreat 1.5 hours away from Trondheim. It was a great time getting to know each other, to relax, and to receive encouragement from God. We had two topics that the weekend was focused on: Grace and Identity in God.

Cortney opened the weekend Friday night talking about the grace of God. She used Acts 14:26 that tells how Paul and Barnabas had been sent out from Antioch and “committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed” in their missionary journey. Like them, we too must be committed to the grace of God in all we are and do.

Grace is too often misunderstood in our individual lives. By definition, God’s grace is unconditional, but we often do put conditions on grace in our lives. By believing in conditional grace we have a misunderstanding of God’s character, we put up walls in our lives, and we live with fear, guilt and shame. Living with this mindset restricts our freedom to live a joyful life.

If you truly understood that you are committed to/dedicated to/covered in Grace, how would that change the way you live?

“…the opposite of depression is not happiness, but delight. Grace fuels delight. Grace is that which tumbles into our lives, and we are spontaneously surprised by the goodness and beauty of living.”
-Terry Hershey (from Sacred Necessities)

To understand unconditional grace, we must begin to understand that the Cross is God’s message of Grace to us. Through the cross we receive God's grace that truly allows us to live our lives without inhibition and with increased freedom.

In great connection to the message of grace, I (Brett) continued with the topic of Identity in God. We all have an identity, that is, we all have a view of who we are as a person. Our identity is influenced by many things outside of ourselves like people, culture, success, mistakes, hurts, etc. Our view of ourselves affects our thoughts, attitudes, behavior, self-image and much more. Like our view of grace too often our identity is equal to what we do, not who we actually are.

The first step I believe in talking about identity does not start with who I am, but whose I am—God’s (John 1:12). Acknowledging that I am a child of God is the first step into viewing myself for who I truly am.

We are created in the image of God and are a naturally beautiful reflection of God’s glory. But we live in a fallen world, and no longer always are a reflection of that glory. The wonderful act of the Cross, the grace of God in the Cross, that Jesus would die for me, for who I am, sets me free to once again see myself for who I am and reflect God’s glory the way I was originally created to. Through Jesus Christ we are completely accepted and constantly transformed to be his reflection in this world. There is a great and wonderful power behind the natural world--there is a power that caused it to exist. And when we say yes to the Grace of God that same power is released in us causing us to reflect the Lord's Glory.

2 Cor. 3:17-18 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

There's nothing quite like a 14 player game of Ligretto :)