What a retreat we had together this weekend! The theme of our retreat was “Set Our Hearts On Fire!” We took a journey through the book of Acts and looked at those things that set the hearts of the early church on fire to help us understand how our hearts can be set on fire. Paul was our great example as I gave four messages: The Power Of A Spirit-Filled Life, The Power Of A Devoted Life, The Power Of A Praying Life, and The Power Of A Surrendered Life. The second message was a very special experience to help us never forget how Christ has redeemed us from the slavemarket of sin so our sins can be forgiven. I spoke on the kinsman-redeemer in the book of Ruth. Then we showed a clip from the Passion of the Christ. Then, while Mary Naman played There Is A Redeemer, we each had the opportunity to come to the front and hammer a nail into the cross, symbolic of our identification with Christ - all our sins are forgiven - and we are set free. Then, each woman took a nail as a remembrance of our time together with the cross. Then we sang Shout To The Lord. We were all crying. Here you see us all pictured with the cross. Our hands are raised because our hearts are set on fire!! It was such a blessed time together.
Look at this robin! Isn’t it just beautiful. I was looking out the window and saw the red on this bird and ran for my camera. This photo is taken with my Nikon D40X. I snapped quite a few pictures of this bird, but this is the close-up that shows the red. I am just amazed at God’s creation. Just think - the Lord made the decision to put red on this bird, blue in the sky, uncountable stars, green on the trees and I could go on and on. I sometimes stop and think about His creation (I call general revelation “God’s multimedia”) and then I realize that nothing that I face today is difficult for Him. It may be difficult for me, but certainly not for the Lord. And so, I must simply trust Him.
This Thursday we had our end of the year luncheon for our women’s Bible study. We have about 400 women in our study - we meet each week for worship then divide into seven different studies. I led my new Quiet Time Experience of Run Before The Wind in the book of Acts. This book is the companion study to Set My Heart On Fire - 30 day journey. Here I am pictured with my incredible leaders who each had their own discussion group. The metaphor used throughout the book of quiet times was of a sailboat that sets its sail to catch the move of the wind so that she may “run before the wind.” That is what we want to do! Run before the wind of the Holy Spirit! And look what my leaders gave me as a gift. A beautiful picture of a sailboat in the wind. Patty Hill (one of my leaders) took the picture off the coast of British Columbia - she sails and also is an amateur photographer. I LOVE this gift and can’t wait to hang it in my office. It was such an amazing class and study in the book of Acts. We had so much fun and it truly was a “quiet time experience.”
Yes, it’s true - We are now at GodTube highlighted in two different places. First, there is a 
Right now I can tell you that I’m very much into online video delivery. And also, we here at Quiet Time Ministries are about to launch into the world of High Definition and other exciting technology. I know, your eyes are probably glazing over at this point, but soon everything is going to be HD and also delivered on Blu-Ray - everyone will have a Blu-Ray player. I was in Best Buy about a month ago and received a phone call. So I went to the television department and sat in one of their huge leather chairs seated in front of an HD television. While talking, the magnificence of the picture just blew me away! They were playing Planet Earth in HD produced by the BBC. You’ll see at GodTube that we’ve got a lot of video clips available including my 12 minute clip on “What Is A Quiet Time”, my original Six Secrets Introduction (I filmed it myself in natural lighting!), and lots of intro clips to either my video message series or books. We have DVD messages available for every single book I’ve written. In the future I hope to have a lot more video clips up here on my blog and am currently looking into a little HD camera that I can take on the road with me. Can you tell I’m excited - I just love this stuff. I have loved photography since I was a little girl with my first Kodak instamatic - remember those? Now I’m using a Nikon 40DX and just love it. Also, I’ve gone all Mac - and they tell you that once you get a Mac you’ll never go back - I think they’re right . Anyhow, that’s just a little tech update from the gadget girl :). Oh yes, and I also have an iPhone 
Today is the birthday anniversary of F.B. Meyer, born April 8, 1847. F.B. Meyer is one of the great heroes of the faith and one of my very favorite authors. In fact, if you can get any book by F.B. Meyer, grab it and live in it for awhile. You’ll come away knowing God better. Joseph Parker of London once said, “Meyer is to me ever a welcome visitor; he brings with him ever a benediction, and he never leaves me without the impression that I have been face to face with a man of God.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “Meyer preaches as a man who has seen the face of God.” I just read an interesting story about F.B. Meyer that I actually put in the book I just finished writing on prayer. Meyer lived during the time of two other great preachers - names you may have heard of - G. Campbell Morgan and Charles Haddon Spurgeon. They all preached in England. Well, as you might imagine, Spurgeon and Morgan drew huge crowds and that dramatically impacted the numbers for Meyer’s church. When F.B. Meyer went to the Lord about it, he was encouraged by God to pray for an increase to the ministries of Spurgeon and Morgan. Well, that idea wasn’t too exciting for F.B. Meyer, but he yielded to God and began to fervently pray for them. God so exploded the ministries of Spurgeon and Morgan that the overflow crowds packed out Meyer’s church. Now that’s an answer to prayer!!! One time Meyer said, “I used to think that God’s gifts were on shelves one above the other; and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we could reach them. I now find that God’s gifts are on shelves one beneath the other; and that it is not a question of growing taller, but of stooping lower; and that we go down, always down, to get His best gifts.” And here is a prayer by F.B. Meyer that is our prayer today: “O God, make the most of me that can be made for Thy glory.”