Dr. Jim Jeremiah
Dick Kroese
Kerry Blount started off our men’s retreat by stating that he and Pastor Ron Gannett have been organizing our men’s retreats for the last eight or nine years, but we did miss the last two years because of COVID. Pastor Ron then started our men’s rally by giving all of us some Empowerment Basics, which is how our men’s groups study the Bible and God’s word. Then some of our Empowerment leaders gave their testimonies as to what Empowerment and studying God’s word has done for their life.
Pastor Ron Gannett then introduced our guest speaker, Dr. Jim Jeremiah, who then started off by giving us mandates to guide us each day in a world that seeks to gain influence. He told us to stand firm in our faith, be courageous, and do everything in love and to watch for those that distort the truth to gain influence. He told us to guard against temptation and to be courageous and to have confidence in ourselves. Dr. Jeremiah then gave us the principles of love: be patient, kind, not jealous, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not selfish, do not keep score, find no joy in evil, rejoice in truth, always protect, always persevere, never fail.
Dr. Jeremiah then talked about God’s goodness, and there can be no limits to His goodness and with no boundaries. We need to live confidently and be filled with love in our heart. Always know that God cares for me, and He wants me to be successful. He then pointed out as to why it is better to trust God than man because God is Holy and man is unholy; God never fails and man is not dependable; God cares about character, while man tends toward reputation; and then God honors our trust. He said to stand firm for what is right and do not give in to what is wrong, and if we do, we could set a new standard. He pointed out over and over to enjoy the Lord, for He is our strength and salvation. One of the other things that Dr. Jeremiah pointed out is that a good leader gets excited about others’ success in business and the good things that they are doing.
All of us walked away from having attended our men’s rally and Dr. Jeremiah feeling like he had given us so much insight to God’s teachings, His love for us, and learned that God never gives up on us. It was truly a wonderful day for all of us.