Writing down my thoughts has always been helpful to me as a I think, pray, and plan. That’s one reason why I have this blog. This post is one of those opportunities to think through writing, specifically writing about key truths I learned at this past week’s conference. It will be helpful to me, and I hope that others might benefit as well, so I am including my reflections here.
- Fear hypocrisy, not hypocrites. This point was made in a couple different sessions, one on fear and one on integrity. Rick Holland preached on this theme in Luke 12:1-12. One of his quotes stabbed me to the heart: “Hypocrisy is hiding your sins from the faithful, and your faith from sinners.” Am I honest about who I am, or am I trying to project an image to other Christians or to non-believers? Prov. 28:13 and Ps. 25:21 are significant passages in this regard.
- Have a life worth defending. John MacArthur spoke on integrity from 2 Cor. 5:11-21. His emphasis was on the fact that God knows the truth about me. If I have lived a life that has integrity in the court of my own conscience and the court of God’s judgment (2 Cor. 1:12f), then my life is worth defending before others. So live with integrity before God and others.
- One of the elders from Grace Community Church, Chris Hamilton, spoke in the Youth Ministry track on what he wants to see the youth pastor do. I think it equally applies to both Pastor and Parent, though. He took four thoughts from 2 Tim. 3:10-4:4. Be a godly example; teach the Bible; confront sin in my child’s life; challenge and test their faith, both by helping them to examine themselves to see if they are “in the faith,” but I would also add to help them experience challenging situations to grow in their faith.
Those would be my top three take-aways from this conference. If you attended, what are some significant truths that you took away?
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