Selah!

It has been over a week since "the Well women" were "Selah-ing" at Hume Lake Christian Camps. As I reflect on what the Majestic Lord has done and continues to do in the hearts of those who attended the Women's Retreat I am in awestruck wonder of our Maker, Author, and Perfector of our faith. Glory Lord, we worship You alone! I had the privilege of serving the ladies I worship with in Fresno by teaching the Word for the weekend...what a joy it was and how humbling to minister to these precious ladies.

Selah (This was the name of our Women's Retreat)--a musical term which denotes a pause to reflect, an interruption, or a time to meditate so as to lift up the Name of the Lord...the Israelites would sing songs to the Lord about a variety of circumstances in life from great days to days they wished their lives were over, times of battle to times of peace, times waiting for the Lord to act to praising the Lord for working mightily...they would sing in the midst of their circumstances and include the Lord in their life, and selah, remember Him and exalt His name, even when they didn't understand what God was doing and why He was taking so long to do it.

My highlight of the weekend was witnessing the Body of Christ ministering to each other and working with one heart and mind to love all with the Love of Jesus Christ. As I walked around Hume, I watched ladies listening to each other, praying for one another, struggling together to know Christ more deeply, laughing together, and simply doing life together. It was thrilling to watch how God has graced each lady differently with gifts to edify the body, from worshipping through music, to administration, to organization, to exhortation, to encouragement...and...

Our theme: Jesus, Himself, is my abundant life! Once we understand that He is the One who loves us completely and has rescued us from death, then the Lord grows our hearts to believe that He works in and through us and overflows from our lives to enable us to love and forgive others by the power and grace of God. His will for every follower of Christ is that we live life to the fullest in Him. We will only experience this type of freedom and abundance, "a spacious place", when all people, places, and things in our lives are in line with the Lord. The Scripture we meditated on for the weekend was Psalm 18:16-19:

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;

He drew me out of deep waters.

He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.

They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.

He brought me out into a spacious place;

He rescued me because He delighted in me.

Here are a just a few wonderful things the Lord did in the hearts of us ladies:

I will praise you O Lord with all my heart, I will tell of all Your wonders.

Psalm 9:1

*A new sweet friend decided to give up a show on TV that has inappropriate relationships

*(exerpt from an email from a small group leader for the weekend) "...in my small group alone I saw EVERY girl make a life changing decision. Decisions from alcohol use, to facebook deletions, to change of peer groups, to investing in Godly relationships, to getting rid of guys that are a cancer to their walk, to making the relationship with Jesus personal not a punch of a spiritual time card. God is so good!!
*(from a friend) There are no words to express what God did this weekend in my heart.
*Four ladies came to know and believe the Lord as Savior and received Him in their life! Yippie!!! Praise Him!!!
*(an email) Feeling fully content (and in a season of spring) I went up the hill under God’s direction, not knowing what He had in store. I left with such a bigger image of who God is.
*(From a conversation with a friend)...knowing she needed to destroy the idol of expectation in relationships

Countless times in the last week and a half I have heard "Selah" as a greeting or salutation again and again, at Chick-fil-A, church, my home...so I leave you now with SELAH, with the hopes that you would stop right now and remember the Lord in the midst of whatever circumstances you are in and exalt His name as the God Most High, Holy, Righteous, Loving...