Ok...conference, but first ;)

The idolatry series in the post below, was talking about the phrase "if I was the only person in the world, Christ would have still died, even if it was just for me"....I have been troubled by this phrase, for a long time, because that is so "ME" centered, not about Christ dying, but about how worthy or loved I am....well.... C J Mahaney was saying, (he may have gotten this from someone else...you'll have to listen to the series so you can correct me ;).... that that only means that the sins that I have committed are SO GRIEVOUS that Jesus would have to still die for my sins (even if I were the only sinner) so that I could have right standing with God! That makes me rejoice.... Because that is the gospel.... That is about God and that puts me in the right mindset to worship God and rejoice over what Jesus did for me, instead of using it as a 'self-esteem booster'.
(this is a long post ....feel free to not read it all ;)

Conference... we left with our friends at approximately 8:30 am on thursday morning and arrived about 12 hours later in Bala Cynwyd , Pa. We settled in and got up the next morning to a specialized Muslim focus. We were in the few who arrived early to be able to do this part, the rest of the group arrived later for the 7pm start. We were very enlightened by the Muslim focus. a man that was there shared his story of conversion and the repercussions of that. Tim and I really enjoyed that casualness of the Muslim focus and the Q & A. We were able to have lunch with this man who was converted out of Islam. That was very enjoyable as well and the conversation with him was informative and we were able to get to know him, just a bit more.

That evening we started the actual 'Next Step' conference Friday nite...we were already exhausted by than and the conference was just beginning ;) :)..... to make a long story shorter, we heard several missionaries tell their stories, we were all assigned mentors to help us 'see' where we are at in the process, and worship. We also had lots of opportunities to eat with and hear casual stories from the mentors. It was an emotional time of self searching and digging. I LOVED the people there and felt no pressure from them, but internal pressure to know the answers to my 'next steps'.... the end of the conference we all shared ( I suppose there were about 23 'students' ) our 'next steps'. I am not sure where God has us in this process, but I feel like He is teaching me to depend on Him for that....but our mentors helped us to see that our next steps should be .... 1. Gather a group of people to help us in the process. 2. Go on a short term mission trip. 3. Spend more time in discussion about it. So that's it in a nutshell! :)