What an awesome retreat,”Dressing for His Glory”, written and taught by Sara. On our journey in the “PURSUIT” of excellence, we learned so many beautiful things. We began lesson one with the titile ” The Unfolding of the Rose” and we were asked if a ‘goal of excellence’ was worth pursing? This is a beautiful lesson filled with powerful scriptures. This lesson was an awesome foundation to build God’s garden.
Elizabethan garden photo by Debi
Lesson One’s objectives : 1. DETERMINE IF WE WANT TO PURSUE EXCELLENCE. 2. DEVELOP AN APPRECIATION FOR EXCELLENCE. 3. DEVOTE OUR INNER SELF TO PURSUING EXCELLENCES. These objectives made me stop and think “how does God see me?” Is God happy with what he sees? Am I working to pursue excellence or am I getting chocked out by the world’s weeds.
(photo of Tammy&Wendy by Rena)
skit written by Wendy and performed by Wendy and Tammy
God’s word teaches us how to be excellent through Jesus Christ who was and is excellent. The above objectives make us accountable. #1. DETERMINE IF WE WANT TO PURSUE EXCELLENCE…… We have to decide whether we want to pursue excellence or not. Pursuing excellence is not going to happen overnight. We are not going to wake up in the morning and YELL Oh I’m excellent in God’s eyes I don’t have to pursue it any longer. No, it doesn’t work like that. It’s ongoing. It’s a life time pursuit. It ends when our heart stops beating and our lungs stop breathing. It’s a lifetime race. IT’S DAILY WORK!! #2. DEVELOP AN APPRECIATION FOR EXCELLENCE……. To develop. If we don’t research and study excellence, we will never develop it. This will take time and energy to study excellence and to learn to appreciate it. This doesn’t happen over night. As we learn about excellence and appreciate it more, it encourages us to work toward it. This appreciation drives us. It makes us want excellence. Of coarse, if we didn’t put time and dedication in studying God’s Word and trying to understand how to receive it we wouldn’t really care if we pursued excellence or not. #3 DEVOTE OUR INNER SELF TO PURSUING EXCELLENCE…. Devotion! Commit our inner selves our heart and souls to work for excellence. This also takes work. It takes focus, awareness and commitment. Why is this important? We are God’s garden, His children, His family, His church, His vessels, His army, His devotion, His pursuit, His development, …… He loves us. He wants the best for us. He wants excellence for us and He deserves nothing less than EXCELLENCES. #1 We must Pursue excellence for God our Father. #2 We must develop an appreciation for excellence. #3 We must devote our inner self to pursing excellence. Our Father in Heaven deserves Excellence.
Every lesson was so unique and beautiful, like every flower in a garden. So full of detail and information. Each very important and building on the one before. What a beautiful retreat and what an honor to be able to spend four days with these beautiful women of God. Each one detailed by their unique personality that God blessed them with. Each one using their talents and gifts for His Kingdom. Each one watering God’s garden with God’s living water. Each one on the pursuit to excellence. Praise the Lord!!! Now are we ready to dress for His glory and to pursue excellence. When God the Father looks at us what does He see and what does He hear?????
NOTE: double click on pictures for a better view
thedailylily.com 
This” Spiritual EXPLOSION” that has occurred as a response to the Retreat, DRESSING FOR HIS GLORY is so exciting! As I am reveiwing the book and the lesson 1, I was led in a personal direction to re-study the character of God to see what HE is wearing using the Scriptures and study guide that Sara gave us in her book. If I am going to dress for His glory, in His Image, then I need to know what He’s wearing these days. We found out in the first lesson that He dons Mercy every morning. He never fails to put on Mercy in the morning when HE arises. I also discovered in Lesson I that He wears forgiveness, healing and patience with blessings for obedience as His cloak. One of His accompanying accessories is Goodness and…oh, yes, of course, Righteousness. The overall effect of God’s Costume is MAJESTY and over all that is LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. Our God seems to dress in layers and that corresponds, to my thinking, how Sara chose the unfolding of the layers of the ROSE to help us study the Majesty and Glory of the Lord God.
In Lesson 1, we also learned that since God is Supreme and Integrity personified, GOD DOES WHATEVER HE PLEASES and the good news about that is that He pleases to love me….and you…and that pleases me, to an astonishing and astounding degree. There’s much more in Lesson 1 for me and I will keep on digging to see what else He is going to divulge in Lesson 1.
Chickenfarmer, I will never ever forget my “Shrimp and Grits” that you made for us from your Mother-in-law’s recipe. What is the name of her restaurant in Georgia? If hers are as good as yours we need to make a trip to Ga. for dinner!
Needles made an awesome pasta salad as well as banana pudding that was a afternoon knock out! MG did her famous garden salad and jello mold. Jamie sure knows how to bake sweet potato biscuits! I must say the food at this retreat is some of the best I have ever had at a retreat. We need to publish thedailylily.org recipe book.
Thanks to all that gave freely of the gifts and talents that God has given each of you. As Chickenfarmer said,” Each one detailed by their unique personality that God blessed them with. Each one using their talents and gifts for His Kingdom. Each one watering God’s garden with God’s living water. Each one on the pursuit to excellence.”
Thanks to all the lilies for the giving of their ‘love gifts’ that I received. Your gifts, love and support are a real encouragement to me to continue to work and develop more studies, blogs and wisdom to connect to your gifts.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “… but I want you to have the good that comes from giving.1 It is like a sweet-smelling sacrifice offered to God, who accepts that sacrifice and is pleased with it.” Philippians 4:16-18 (New Century Version)
I pray for each of you that you will receive from God much good from your giving as it is a sweet-smelling sacrifice offered to God and He is pleased with it.
We learned in the lesson 1 ‘The Unfolding of the Rose’ that chickenfarmer wrote about above that the meaning of the word ‘excellence’ was from a Greek word (diaphero’) transport or differ and from a ‘Hebrew word translated excel (‘a lah) to ascend.’ We were ‘encouraged to ascend, or transport, carry above the norm – to differ through the qualities of virtue and goodness’. As eacgh one’s rose unfolded, it was such a blessing to see and ‘smell’ the fragrance of each one excelling in their giftings.
Though beautiful in its stage, a rose bud doesn’t have fragrance. It’s when it’s open that the fragrance is transported by the breezes to lift someone’s spirit. I have read that a rose’s fragrance is strongest on warm, sunny days when the soil is moist. ‘Lesson 9 – The Sundial’ instructed us to ‘Count only the sunny hours’. ‘Lesson 7 Mid-Term Exam – Earthen Vessels’ taught us that we are the lilies and the flowers and we all need watering by each other to thrive.
In Lesson 3 “The Beauty of Jesus” we learned the beautiful character of Jesus – being holy, truthful, gentle, meek, humble, forgiving, patient, righteous, and obedient. We learned we are in partnership with Him. His yoke is easy as we read Matt. 11 – 28-30 Can you believe it He is in partnership with us. He is the strength and all the above role modeling the character traits we should be taking on. With Jesus as a partner we can do anything He ask us to do.
With out each doing their part and Jesus in partnership we accomplished a lot together. Thanks for all the wonderful comments of each team member for Jesus.
I want to thank the master-planner and chief educator, Sara, for her insight, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, her knowledge of God’s Word, for her prophetic gifts of the Holy Spirit and her giftings in the five-fold ministry to the church of pastor, teacher, preacher, evangelist and prophet for the building up, PERFECTING and edification of the Body of Christ….”Till we all come into the unity of the Spirit and the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a PERFECT man…that is into the measure of the stature of the fullness of CHRIST.
It is quite evident that this is the goal of Sara’s mninistry, the art of reconciliation and equpping of God’s people to bring them into a greater and higher, as said above, an excellence wherein we will display the glory of the GOD we serve and be fruit and drink for thirsty and famished souls who need the Lord. That’s what this is all about. SOULS for the Kingdom.
Devote, commit, faithful, I believe these words go together? I’d like to reiterate some scripture we shared at the retreat, read with me: Matt. 25: 14 -30 “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who was going to another place for a visit. Before he left, he called for his servants and told them to take care of his things while he was gone. He gave one servant five bags of gold, another servant two bags of gold, and a third servant one bag of gold, to each one as much as he could handle. Then he left. The servant who got five bags went quickly to invest the money and earned five more bags. In the same way, the servant who had two bags invested them and earned two more. But the servant who got one bag went out and dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money. After a long time the master came home and asked the servants what they did with his money. The servant who was given five bags of gold brought five more bags to the master and said, ‘Master, you trusted me to care for five bags of gold, so I used your five bags to earn five more. The Master answered, ‘You did well. You are a good and loyal servant. Because you were loyal with small things, I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my joy with me. Then the servant who had been given two bags of gold came to the master and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of gold to care for, so I used your two bags to earn two more. The master answered, ‘You did well.You are a good and loyal servant. Because you were loyal with small things, I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my joy with me. Then the servant who had been given one bag of gold came to the master and said, ‘Master, I knew that you were a hard man. You harvest things you did not plant. You gather crops where you did not sow any seed. So I was afraid and went and hid your money in the ground. Here is your bag of gold. The master answered, ‘You are a wicked and lazy servant! You say you knew that I harvest things I did not plant and that I gather crops where I did not sow any seed. So you should have put my gold in the bank. Then, when I came home, I would have received my gold back with interest.’ So the master told his other servants ,’take the bag of gold from that servant and give it to the servant who has ten bags of gold. Those who have much will get more, and they will have much more than they need. But those who do not have much will have everything taken away from them. Then the master said, ‘Throw that useless servant outside, into the darkness where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.”
Needles, this parable says a whole lot! But, the result of being useless by not obeying, working skillfully and wanting to gather and build for the Kingdom of God has a very scary result according to your last sentence.
The one man that did not invest for his master had the audacity to tell his master that he had done wrong in his life and blame him, his master, for his own lazy useless self. The useless servant sure could run his mouth and complain and blame but invest his talent in God’s Kingdom he did not.
I love the part that we may only have little compared to many others but we can still receive a great reward on our little if we invest it properly.
BTW…thedailylily.org retreat was supposed to elicit some super recipes from the lilies. We need the shrimp & grits and the chocolate delight and the pasta salad and the sweet potato biscuits. So? Where are they?
Here are the footnotes for verse 15, from my Bible: ” The master divided the money among his servants according to their abilities. No one received more or less than he could handle. If he failed in his assignment, his excuse could not be that he was overwhelmed. Failure would indicate only laziness or hatred toward the master. The bags of silver represent any kind of resource we are given. God gives us time, gifts, and other resources according to our abilites, and he expects us to invest them wisely until he returns. We are responsible to use well what God has given us. The issue is not how much we have but how well we use what we have.”
Sara, I believe these footnotes support what you have said here: “we may only have little compared to many others but we can still receive a great reward on our little if we invest it properly.”
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MG,
For my pasta salad, I just bought the multicolored pasta, (cooked as directed), mixed in cut up cucumber, diced carrots, red peppers, chopped broccoli and Paul Newmans’ low calorie balsamic vinegarette salad dressing. Oh, and some grape tomatoes and fetta cheese.
Chickenfarmer, you did an excellent job on this blog. It sure encourages me to want to attend the next retreat!
Thank you Sara, but I can’t take credit. The Lord wrote this blog, not me. This excellence came from Him. I was just a willing and obedient vessel in my Master pathway. My vessel was empty of worldly trash and was filled with the words to this blog. I poured out these words to the lilies in the garden, hoping one word would water their soul. Now, my vessels empty waiting at my Master’s feet to be used once again. I pray He fills me everyday and I pray that I will be willing to obey.
Thanks, Tammy. It fed the multitude and we did enjoy it!
I want to give a yell out “EXCELLENT” for Rena’s carrot cake and Dorothy’s bread pudding! The table settings, the clean-up, the decorations and yard work. The flora arrangements to demonstrate the beauty of God’s Garden. The praise and worship! So many other vital task that was not necessarily seen but God saw and knew and recorded just how vital each task was for the success of His Garden producing fruit.
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…”
(Ecclesiastes 9:10, NIV).
Each one being fruitful and productive right where they were in location, with their job, salary, circumstances of life and family issues. I believe each one attending this retreat did everything to the best of their ability? We were all sowing seeds for God to bring us ‘up higher-excel-above the norm”. Yes, to make a vehicle to send blessings upon blessings on each life and those they love and touch. Watch for and receive the multiplication on your sowing in His Garden! Harvest Time!
Thanks for sharing the parable of the talents Needles. I loved the analogy of the sunflower that Sara used in ‘Lesson 8, A Flower of the Sun’ where your scripture was found. She said “I’m a great believer in work. I find the more work I do, the more work I’m given to do”. Growing and using what we’re given gives us more seed which produces more sunflowers. And the skit you and chickenfarmer did illustrated another important point we learned from the lesson….when you grow the sunflowers together they smother the weeds which choke the garden and cause it to be unproductive.
Yes, Debi, on pg 44 of my workbook, Sara asked us to read the Parable of the Talents, and relate how using a talent the Lord gave you caused a multiplication of talents? I wrote “when you use the talents God has blessed you with, He can multiply them if not it will be taken away.”
It was evident that the lilies all used their talents, at the retreat. I keep thinking about Sara’s comment you have quoted here: “I’m a great believer in work. I find the more work I do, the more work I’m given to do.” The scripture that came to mind, as I was reading and commenting here is in Matthew. Read with me: Matt. 9: 37, “He said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is great, but the workers are few. ” The footnotes for verse 37 and 38 read like this: “Jesus looked at the crowds following him and referred to them as a field ripe for harvest. Many people are ready to give their lives to Christ if someone would show them how. Jesus commands us to pray that people will respond to this need for workers. Often, when we pray for something, God answers our prayers by using us. Be prepared for God to use you to show another person the way to him.”
Lord, I pray that my words here on the lily will encourage the readers to come to Christ, I pray that you guide my tongue, when others are in my company, so they may come to Christ. I pray for the children, around the world, who will be receiving the Christmas shoeboxes and dolls we made, will come to know you. Help us Lord to be willing to be used, by You, so that no one will miss their Heavenly home. In Jesus name, Amen.
Amen Needles.
Rena mentioned above that we learned we were in a partnership with the Lord. We see from the scripture you shared where His heart and investment is…and that’s where ours must be too if we are doing our part in the partnership.
Amen Needles. I totally agree with your prayer.
Amen, I agree with Needles and Chickenfarmer in prayer as Needles prayed, “Lord, I pray that my words here on the lily will encourage the readers to come to Christ, I pray that you guide my tongue, when others are in my company, so they may come to Christ. I pray for the children, around the world, who will be receiving the Christmas shoeboxes and dolls we made, will come to know you. Help us Lord to be willing to be used, by You, so that no one will miss their Heavenly home. In Jesus name, Amen.”
“Whenever two or three of you come together (as my followers) in my name, I am there with you. Matthew “18:20 (CEV)
Hey girls; I don’t know much about what you do, but I like it!
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Blessings, marcela
The Cleaning Edge Inc.
Reggie Ward
“Reggie” <tcedge@bellsouth.net
Welcome to The Daily Lily Marcela – The Cleaning Edge Inc.
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