Men of Cedar is our new name - a tad less dorky than that D-Men thing. We just weren't that "D" enough. But let's not talk about that.
The new name is simple, but with a double meaning. Men of Cedar says just who we are - Men from Cedar Hills. However it also has a deeper meaning that Cedar conveys - strength, roots, growth. Cedars in the bible are symbols of steady strength. Psalm 92:12 says,
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
But Cedars were also trees that symbolized dangerous pride and arrogance if one's trust was put in them alone. So they remind us that we can't stand alone, we can't put our trust in ourselves. We are meant to grow strong with deep roots in God.
So together, as Men of Cedar, we can . . .
Build Character
Build Passion
Build Strength
Our Retreat is coming up fast! It's April 17-19 at Rockaway. Pay by March 1 or the price goes up (I think it's still $85 til then). Our theme this year is Beyond the Daily Grind, and we'll be discussing the book Dare to Desire by John Eldredge. It's only about 130 pages, so you can absorb it before the retreat. It seems to be out of print but you can get copies from Amazon's used site, and I've found it on Half.com and a place called Alibris. Each of these sites have the book for about $2 plus shipping, but it takes perhaps 10 days to arrive. So order it soon and actually read it! (see sample page below)
There's a couple of options for you if two nights away just seems to go too quickly. Neither of these are "mandatory." Just options:
Option 1: The retreat officially begins Friday night. But if you're up for some camping, I'm going to spend Thursday afternoon and night at Nehalem Falls Campground. It's one of the most beautiful spots I've seen and is not far from our weekend house. Let me know if you want to join me and I'll nab some extra spots - they're first come, first nab unless we want a big group site which I could reserve. I've got plenty of tents (like 4!) and some extra snoozerbags. There's a great river, places to hike and God shows up there often. Join me!
Option Two: At the end of the weekend we have the house for an extra free night. So you're invited to stay over Sunday to Monday if you wish. There won't be any agenda and we'll just eat leftovers, but it's a nice time to relax and enjoy each other.
I'll talk more about the retreat theme in upcoming posts. Check out the "poll" below too. It will have a different question about the retreat each week so we can customize it for you. I highly recommend signing up now! It's going to be great.
- Curtis
Sample page from Dare to Desire
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