Church of the Canyons College Retreat

My wife and I just returned from a most blessed retreat with a great college group from The Church of the Canyons in Canyon Country, California, under the most able and wise leadership of Jason and Steph Beals. We studied chapters from first part of The Darkness and the Glory. I had hesitated in doing this study for the retreat because I know this is "meat not milk,"and I was not sure how it would go. But I found them to be a spiritually mature group, most of whom hunger for the Word of God, so God indeed blessed His Word going forth. Elijah Vogel had even written an excellent Glory of God song based on material from the book. We hope to have it available on the website before long.

Along with what was mentioned in the previous paragraph, part of my hesitation with this topic for the retreat was that this was my first group where we did Glory of God sessions based on the book since it had been published. It is one thing to teach the material to people who do not have The Darkness and the Glory; it is another thing to attempt to teach others on matters related to the book when do have it. (Each member at the retreat received a copy).

So I came to the retreat not so much as a teacher but a learner. I prayed and still pray that God will teach me how to teach others the material He would have me do. It is a lifetime study and a lifetime prayer. The questions the students asked me and the interaction I had with them was superb. As mentioned in "The Writing of The Darkness and the Glory," I have had so few people so far to interact with about material in the book since it was only published in December of 2008. The college group sparked so many additional trails in Scripture that I want to track down and investigate. I kept coming up with additional chapters in my head that I could write as I interacted with them. Coming up with additional chapters was not my intent, it was just a blessed by-product our their stimulating comments and questions.

May God bless His Word going forth and may it be multiplied many times over. 

To God be the Glory. 

Glory Books Ministry