The super big friday post does NOT leave you wanting…

It's Friday!
And what does that mean? It means I've chosen today to force myself out of my funk and update you all on what's been going on! And because I have so much to say…. I'm going to use the wonderful LJ-CUTS!
So… Lets get started, and we'll see what we end up with, ok?

Well, I know I posted a little snip-bit about this yesterday, but I thought it really didn't do the browser justice. I've been using IE all my life, and I've heard of Firefox ever since it first came out, but all the computers I've ever tried it on have been slow and evil and well…possessed by the devil. So I stuck with IE.

However yesterday, I was reading one of my favorite online comics CAD and I was going through some back issues and the author made a comment about an extension he had created for Firefox. That drew in my interest, so, being the completely bored person that I am, I pulled up a couple website and started researching it. What I found was amazing! Click here for just one of the articles I found on Firefox!

As you can see, Firefox beats down IE a million times over. So I downloaded it, and immediately went to work customizing it by downloading way cool themes and extensions for it(including the handy-dandy LJ-Hook I was talking to you about yesterday)

I guess you can say it's like my new toy. I even went into the folders and I've started creating files like the user.js and the userChrome.css files in order to fully customize and control my Firefox experience. So far so good, and I'm looking forward to continuing to use Firefox (that is, ofcourse, unless something even better and more totally awesome comes out, but I doubt it will!)

And with the end of my minipost on Firefox, I now come to my synopsis of the GCC Family Retreat.
All in all it was an awesome retreat–much better than any of the youth retreats I went on when I was in Firepower. I took notes for all the sessions except for the Sunday evening session. I had planned to take notes for that one, but the meeting was outside, I forgot my notebook, and well, I guess I didn't really connect with(or find interesting) what the speaker was saying(which is a shame because it was Joshua Harris)Overall it was a great time of fellowship, and I was able to talk with a bunch of guys from my caregroup and get to know them better than I already did(and vise versa)Also, since it was a church activity Mr. Conn let Rhema and I hang out and talk–which was cool cause it seemed like I hadn't talked with her in like, forever! LOL. There was also a baptism on the Potomac river Monday afternoon–and let me tell you, one of the most powerful things to me is seeing believers make that public declaration of turning from their sins and accepting Christ's love, forgiveness, and Lordship in their lives. And being on the Potomac river made it equally special–tempted me to want to be baptized again(lol, cause when I was baptized it was in the pool of the Pastor's backyard! hahaha!) Anyways, the theme of the retreat was trusting God, so all of our sessions had something to do with that. I've LJ-CUT the sessions for you all, and basically given you my thoughts on them, as well as included all the notes I've taken–So it's gonna be one long post!

The Saturday session was so awesome!! The message was entitled “Fret Not Yourself” (i know all the titles of every message, even the ones that weren't actually mentioned, because I was helping with the CD duplication for the retreat weekend) Here are my notes!!
-trusting God is the ultimate response to what God asks for us
-Lack of trust is the source of every misery in our lives, and the sin it causes gives us a distorted view of God.
-Psalm 37:1-9 talks about trusting in 'Yahweh'
Fret Not Yourself.
Worry is NOT allowed! David's enemies are plotting against him, so David begins verse 1 with a reminder not to worry.
–We fret over people almost every time we fret(fear of man!) but fretting over non-human things is sin too!
The fruit of Fretting is evil! Where evil is present, fretting isn't far. More fruits–envy and anger!!
The root of fretting is the desires of our heart. When we fret, we put ourselves as the person who will obtain those desires, but it is GOD who wants to (and will) give us the desires of our heart.
The problem is never in the act of trust, but in the object of trust. When we fret(i.e., worry) we say that God isn't who he says he is, and that we know better than Him.
What is one way to trust God? Verse 5 gives us the answer–we can delight in Him!
Remember the story of Bob's son not wanting to jump into his daddy's arms from the cliff–he was afraid because he didn't know if his dad would catch him! One reason we fail to trust God is because we don't know God well enough–we're unsure of God's reliability to take care of our situation.
One final note– Jesus stated in matt 6–Can worry add a second onto your life?…Seek the Kingdom of God…

Next is the lust sermon for the men. Honestly, I've got a small bone over this, as all the men talked on Lust and all the women went somewhere else and talked about submission. Talking to Rhema about it, she told me it's a sovereign grace thing–that's usually the topics when they split up men and women. I think that stinks! I struggle with submission(and a bunch of other issues) WAY more than a struggle with lust! It was kinda sad really–after the message(which sounded so very familiar cause I heard it like, 7-8 years ago) we all broke up into caregroups and got to confess our sins of Lust. I was one of the last people to go and the only thing I could even think to say was the incident that happened 7-8 years ago which Pastor Barry helped me through. I haven't really had a lust problem since then. So yeah.. I'm looking forward to next year, but I hope they talk to the men about something else. Something.. more useful to me. Hahaha, but I guess that's really selfish and evil of me, huh? I mean, it was an awesome message, and I'm sure there are tons of men who got something out of it. So what am I waiting for? Here are my notes!
Sermon title: The Creature (based on Romans 1:24-25)
This chapter is sobering while talking about Gods wrath.
The punishment of Lust is more lust. Look at Gollum in LOTR–how he acted with the ring of power) It's cycle== we lust, God gives us over to the lust, and we lust more.
Lust never satisfies. You can never get enough of it–you can gorge yourself, but you will never be full.
The power of Lust can be found in verse 25. The only antidote for lust and it's lies it the Truth! Read Joshua Harris' book, Not Even A Hint. We can not be passive, we must attack back!
There are many lies that Lust tells us.
Bob stated more lies–one I found particularly interesting(just because I think there are many people who go through this) is that Being tempted to lust is not the same as lust! it's the same as any temptation–it can be overcome!!
The priority of Lust: The creator is disregarded and the creation(i.e., the creature) is being put in his place. More often than not, the creation isn't the woman, it's US! All the focus becomes our pleasure. Who fantasies about pleasing someone else? We are addicted to self. We want to be the person who is 'blessed forever' and have people slave and serve us. Only God deserves that High place. (I think it goes back to the Saturday night session–just as worrying places the focus on how we will obtain our desires, the same is with lust–the focus is no longer on God, but on us and our pleasure.

As I stated before, the Sunday evening session I got no notes on. But I will say it was an awesome evening and I was thankful it didn't rain on us. After Joshua Harris spoke, Curtis Allen got up to do a rap concert. In my opinion, there wasn't enough rap, and no sooner had the concert started than Curtis stopped and preached a huge long message to rival Bob and Josh's messages the previous sessions. I wanted a rap concert, darn it! Anyways… Monday morning was all about Thankfulness. Here are the notes!

Psalm 33:1-22 It is a call to rejoice!
Our hope is not in earthly things–it is to wait/hope in God.
Our hearts can be glad in Him because we Trust Him! The fruit of trusting God==our hearts are glad. How do we do that? Again(just like Saturday night) we Delight in Him! The psalms are full of references to trusting God, so this topic has to be really important. One way to trust God is to give thanks with a glad heart. Paul trusted God more than anyone–because he thanked more than anyone in the Bible. Remember the story of Edward Spencer–Many years ago there was a shipwreck on Lake Michigan, just off the coast of Evanston, Ill. Students from nearby Northwestern University formed rescue teams.
One student, Edward Spencer, saved 17 people. As they carried the exhausted student back to his room, he kept repeating, “Did I do my best? Do you think I did my best?” The feat left his body broken, and he never fully recovered. Unable to go into the ministry, he lived alone, hermitlike, for the rest of his life. Years later, R.A. Torry was telling this story at an evangelistic meeting in Los Angeles when he heard a man in the audience calling out that Edward Spencer was there. Dr. Torry asked him to come up front to say a few words, and he made his way to the front of the room. After exchanging greetings Dr. Torry asked him if anything in particular stood out in his memory concerning the day of the rescue. “Only this, sir,” came the reply, “of the 17 people I saved, not one of them ever thanked me.” WE HAVE BEEN SAVED FROM MUCH! Trust in God is a matter of the heart, but one practical way to show trust is to be THANKFUL!

So there are the messages. Now lets all hope my new LJ feature works!