GLORIETA, N.M.—Stay close to God, to the Bible and to friends, speakers challenged participants at the annual Retired Ministers’ Retreat, held recently at Glorieta Conference Center.
Madge Bond (left) and Virginia McNeese (2nd from right), members of the Goldenaires Choir from First Baptist Church in Richardson, visit with (left to right) featured speaker Russell Dilday, Richard Faling with BGCT retiree ministries and Bible study leader James Semple at the Retired Ministers’ Retreat at Glorieta Conference Center.
|
Larry Allen
|
“We must share the doctrine of God and the Bible with new generations,” said James Semple, retired director of the Texas Baptist State Missions Commission and conference Bible teacher.
Worship leader Russell Dilday emphasized the Bible as Christian’s guide for living.
“The Bible is to be taught, preached, and lived,” said Dilday, former seminary president. “We do not need to defend, debate, or quarrel about it.
“To say close to the word of God, we should memorize it, meditate upon it, and obey it.”
Friendship is a valuable commodity for individuals and for churches, he said. The Bible, with its examples of friendship, is a resource book for that practice.
“Don’t let your knowledge of Jesus stop with your conversion,” Dilday said in his closing message.
Sign up for our weekly edition and get all our headlines in your inbox on Thursdays
“Like the apostle Paul, you say, ‘Oh, that I may come to know him and be like him in his death.’ You can know the power of his resurrection and to handle suffering as he did.”
The Goldenaires Choir from First Baptist Church in Richardson sing at the Retired Ministers’ Retreat at Glorieta.
|
Semple introduced his new book, Bible Truths About God, during the morning Bible study. He said: “The universe was not created out of pre-existent material, and the physical material is not God. The universe was created by God out of nothing…Humanity has been given stewardship over creation, which means that the human race is to manage to keep God’s creation for his glory and not to trash it and tear it up.”
Semple urged retreat participants to consider the characteristics and nature of God.
“God is eternal. God is Spirit. God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent,” he said. “God is truth. He is righteous, holy and he manifests his glory.”
James Semple, retired director of the Texas Baptist State Missions Commission, leads Bible study at the Retired Ministers’ Retreat at Glorieta.
|
Attributes of God’s compassion, Semple stressed, include love, mercy and grace.
“Today, God feels toward his creatures—including the sick, the fallen, and the sinful—exactly as God did when he sent his only begotten Son into the world to die for humankind,” he said. “We must be submissive to the word, and be faithful in little things.”
The Goldenaires, senior adult choir of First Baptist Church in Richardson, provided special music for the retreat. The next Retired Ministers’ Retreat will be Sept. 27-Oct. 1, 2010.
We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.
Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.