Wonder is that possession of the mind that enchants the emotions while never surrendering reason.

- Gods commands are there to protect what life is truly about, not the other way around. Implementing that truth in our lives keeps us from losing the wonder.
- The first chronological destroyer of wonder is anything that takes away the legitimate mystery of life and of living.
- To seek wonder in sexual enjoyment apart from its sacredness is to plunder ones own body. To seek wonder through sexual fantasies is to destroy the wonder of sex itself. To do it God's way is wonder-full and lasting.
- There is no wonder locked up in wealth. The one possessing the wealth must know its real value if the possession is to bring wonder.
- When you entrust Him with your life, He generates the wonder.

• Profound Gratitude. Benjamin Franklin said, "To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it."
  
• Truth that compels the mind. The world of a child may delight in the fantastic, but the world of an adult must move from what is merely fantastic to that which is fantastically true.
  
• Love - Understand and Experience. (Love is the condition of the heart that "pumps" emotional intelligence through the blood vessels of life's daily encounters)
• True Believing in the gift of God's love and of His Son to us, more than as just an intellectual assent.
• A convinced sense of security, both in being able to accept yourself as you are and in having confidence that God has conquered not only life but also death.
  

Looking - There is a world of difference between looking at something and looking through something. We make the same colossal mistake with God's Word and the gift of print. We have books all around us. We stack them on our shelves. Yet He has revealed Himself in His Word and we let it lie unstudied, unread, and sometimes untouched. We look at it. We hardly ever look through it.

Reading - Stop. Ponder. Reason. What do we read? Is your own reading shallow or deep? The wonder that you find in the shallow end can only be for a child. Swimming in the deep is for the mature. If wonder is to be retained in our mind, reading and reading well is indispensable to the imagination and the heart. Good reading is like looking for something you have lost and finding it, but in the search finding something else that had also been lost. That is how wonder is constantly replenished.

Thinking - How to remain fresh in ones thinking? - I know of no better answer than to be in regular times of solitude and quietness before our Lord. Thinking is a dying discipline in a society that throbs with activity. Wonder is retained by wise pondering. Unless we learn to think and reflect on things above we will reflect the hollowness of a world moving fast but slow to think. Over the last few years I have made it a practice to rise early and go down to a room alone. I pace the floor, I kneel, I read ... only to listen. Wonder enriches you when you take the time to reflect and to ponder the greatness of our faith in Jesus Christ.

Talking (discussion) - F.W. Boreham said, "It puts iron into the blood to spend time with one for whom the claim of conscience is supreme and who loves the truth of God with so deathless an affection." Only noble themes life the spirit to heights of grandeur and the heights of the mind can never be exhausted.

Prayer - I do not believe that wonder can be retained apart from learning the discipline and delight of prayer. In the secret place lie unmined treasures. It is here that we win or lose. The discipline of praying is the seedbed of retaining wonder.

God is like the light. Wonder is like the shadow. If you chase the shadow you will never catch up to it. If you walk toward the light, the shadow will always pursue you. Keep your sights on Him. Spread the wonder.

- Notes gleaned from Recapture the Wonder by Ravi Zacharias.

1 Kings 2:2-3 - "I am going the way of all the earth Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. "Keep the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn ..”

Basic 3 Charges as Men - Leading - Providing - Protecting

Being Masculine
- Do the Hardest thing first (Do NOT cultivate passivity)
- Make the hard phone call first.
- Run to the battle. (Conflict is a regular feature of the Christian life)
- Do your work now! (Do NOT procrastinate)
- Keep your Domain in order. (Everything around you)
- Kill a Bear or a Lion. (Recognize the challenges God puts in your life. Face it)

Nine Areas that Men should initiate in their home.
- Vision – This where we need to be.
- Direction – This is how we will get there. Have a plan. Map it out.
- Instruction – Let me show you how.
- Initiation – Watch Me. Lead by Example. (This is the heart of Leadership)
- Inspiration – Maintain Good Morale. Be Great & thankful overall.
- Affirmation – Encourage/tell each individual, you are doing great.
- Evaluation – How are we doing?
- Correction – Make the change.
- Protection and Provision – I’ll take care of you.

Notes from the HPBC Men's retreat - 3/16/07 – 3/17/07
Speaker: Dr. Randy Stinson - The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (www.cbmw.org)