Even Deeper Still...

Well, I've been thinking for the past 2 days about finishing my Deeper Still experience, so here goes :)  First, here is a view of the arena - just remember - 20,000 women!!!  crazy...

Ok, so after Priscilla spoke Friday night, Mandissa shared her testimony. I could relate with her issues regarding her struggles with her weight (and I loved her on American Idol!! :) Hearing how she dealt with the pressures on the show was really amazing - and then she sang. And she can sing!!

On Saturday morning, after an early, early wake-up and an early spot in line to get better seats - 2nd tier on the front row this time - we had another awesome time with the praise team. Then Kay Arthur spoke. I had never heard her or read anything by her before, but she was powerful! She began by asking 'Do you know the Truth? Do you love the Truth? Are you willing to die for the Truth?"  I knew that we were in for a special message.  She delivered what she described as a message that she didn't want to deliver - one that made her sick to her stomach to have to tell us - but one that had to be said.  She began with Jeremiah 36 and told us that God's message of judgement for Israel and Judah is also meant for us - our nation is in trouble and we must do something or God will bring calamity. He doesn't want to bring calamity, but He must judge sin. 

Kay brought us through several verses in Jeremiah 36, 6, 1, and 2, Ezekiel 14, and Isaiah 59 and 5, showing the message that God sends us about turning from sin and His response if we don't. Although these books come from the Old Testament, they must not be forgotten.  She described the judgement that God is bringing upon America in the way of what we call natural disasters.  There are no natural disasters, she says, they are the wrath of God due to sin (Amos 3:8). She pointed out the slanting of the media from the Truth to evil - how as Christians, we are being forced to keep the Truth from the 'streets' and confined in the church. 

She described the responsibilities of parenting - that we can not rely on the church to teach the Bible - but we must do it ourselves in our homes. She described that the Truth has even been lost in the church - that churches are not teaching all of His word when they focus only on the parts like grace and love (which of course are essentials of our faith) but ignoring the responsibilities that we have.  Again, she said that God doesn't WANT to bring calamity, judgement, and catastrophe, rather it is the necessity of His character to bring these things when we don't listen. Are we listening??

There are 7 things that Kay outlined for us to do to uphold the Truth:

1) Break up the fallow ground (Jeremiah 4:3) Ask God to break my heart of all of the things that break His heart. Return to Him and repent.

2)A time to mourn (Jeremiah 9:17&18 and Ezekiel 9) (I'm not really sure what this one was about!! oops :)

3) Pray (Jer 36:7) Pray passionately and corporately

4) Love God's Word (Jer 20) Now is the time to know the WHOLE council of God. If you have time to shop, get your nails done, etc., Kay said, you have no excuse not to be in His word. Get busy!

5) Love others as Jesus loved them (Jer 31:3)

6) Introduce others to Jesus Christ (Jer 31:31)

7) Rest (we had to remind her to tell us this one... she almost forgot :)  If you do the first 6 things, she said, you will have done what God has called you to do and you can REST in THAT.  

Kay's message was really very challenging, and like she said, not one that is easy to hear. But, it is a message that I needed to hear. I knew what she was telling me was true, but she helped solidify the urgings that I have felt in my core. The thing that convicted me the most, I guess, was the responsibility that I have to Bennett to make sure that he is on the right path. I try, but I need to try harder. I need to parent with love, but not with a love that is spoiling and allows him to fall prey to the society that we live in. I need to parent him with confidence and conviction so that He can love the Lord his whole life. That will be the true mark that my life has been worthwhile.

Finally, after more praise and worship (and a Chick-fil-a combo for lunch thanks to Jennifer :) we got to Beth's talk. We were so excited to hear her - after all, we do consider her to be one of our Bible study members...  She spoke on John 1:14:

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only, who came from the father full of grace and truth.

She broke the verse down in to 7 parts, challenging us to memorize it before we left (I almost got it!!) So here is a brief run-down of each part:

1. The Word - God speaks His thoughts through His son Jesus, through the Word. John begins with this because there had been a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord. We NEED to have a fresh on-going Word - What is God doing in your life this week?  She also spoke here about God changing our desires, regardless of whether or not we 'want to'. We need to ask Him to heal our 'want-to'. Amen!!

2. became flesh - He took on flesh and blood over His God-ness

3. and made His dwelling among us - he pitched his tent among us (tabernacled). In Revelation 21:22, Jesus will no longer tabernacle among us, He IS the temple then. The first coming was temporary and the 2nd coming will be permanent.

4. We have seen His glory - glory means to give esteem & praise because of worth.  He is saying that when Jesus dwelt among us He was the glory (the manifestation of divine majesty). In Exodus 33 Moses asked to see God, but he wasn't allowed to see His face, and God has never been seen. John says they saw the face of God in Christ. Finally, since Jesus has gone to heaven, He shows His glory through us - we are His temple (Isaiah 60:1&2)

5. the glory of the One and only - He's either your One and only, or He's not yours. He has purposely allowed every person to let you down so that you will see that HE  is the only one that can save you. She showed a clip from 'A Beautiful Mind' where he was accepting the Nobel prize - she pointed out that Jesus is ALL the reasons.

6. Who came from the father - if you have seen Jesus, you have seen God

7. full of grace and truth - FULL. Jesus is FULL. How is it to be in relationship with someone who is full? How about with someone who is empty? Every time God gives you a hard truth, he fills you with grace too. He always accompanies truth with grace. In verse 16, John says that we are given grace upon grace. This is perpetual grace. He has never been out of grace. He is full and can not be less full. Beth pointed out that John never uses the word grace again - he doesn't need to because he's said it all.

And then the conference was over. So many emotions during this weekend. Pain for a friend who found out hard news from home upon her arrival, joy for the many blessings that I have in my life - including the ladies that I went to Atlanta with, peace with the fact that I found God in the desert and that His grace sustains me day in and day out. Thankful. Loved. Forgiven. And I can't wait to go back next year. 

Ok, and just a quick update on today's visit at the ENT for Bennett... the hole in his eardrum healed on its own!!!  The doctor told me in January that in his experience, holes of the size of Bennett's did not heal on their own. He suggested surgery but we decided to wait and see. And pray. And now the hole is healed!!  Yea!! :) And to top it all off, the free Planet Heroes DVD that we ordered a few weeks ago arrived and I thought that Bennett and his friend's heads were going to explode they were so excited... it's the little things, isn't it? :)