Sunday, April 20, 2008

Reflections

The Together for the Gospel Conference ended on Thursday. I am still gathering my thoughts and reflections as I prepare to post the notes on these sessions. I have come away with a lot to think about and I can truly say that this conference will mark a changing time in my life. I was challenged by C.J. Mahaney’s humility and joy, Mark Dever’s charge to keep the Gospel pure and simple, John Piper’s urging for women to become sages of the church, and so much more.
By God’s grace, these sermons and the books that we received at the conference have already started to change my mind and heart. Many, many times I have been challenged to stop complaining, to take confidence in God’s promises, to mortify the pride in my life, but I have not succeeded in these things. I was urged this week, by these men, to strive for holiness in a new way. I recognize more fully that it is only through humble dependence on God that any strides can be made to come closer to Him. But He has made this promise. “Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.”
I am very overwhelmed by the experience and by how God used these men to address issues in my own life. I pray that it was the same for the 5,500 other people in attendance.
As I was preparing to relay my notes on this blog, I made the decision to post them in the form of a letter to each of the speakers. I am doing this for two reasons:
After each sermon of the conference, there was a panel discussion addressing questions, suggestions, and praise to God and the speaker. I became comfortable with this format and am using this blog to put in my thoughts as if I were part of it.
I think it will be easy to read, and may encourage anyone who reads the notes to download these or other sermons given by these gifted pastors.
Therefore, I will post each letter individually with my own thoughts and reflections on what I heard and what I hope to remember well from each session, including the panels. I hope that even in this obscure forum, God’s truth will continue to be clearly communicated.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Christie,

I look forward to reading your thoughts on the conference. As always you and Ben are in our thoughts and prayers.

Lynn McCoy