It’s Sunday night and with the the Femina Conference, the Grace Agenda Conference, Sabbath dinner, two worship services, and a huge church picnic and psalm sing now behind us, I must thank the Lord for crowding us with so many kindnesses these past few days. Tired? Yes. Blessed? Very much!
Highlight of it all was meeting Mark and Grace Driscoll. Mark addressed us twice, and he nailed it both times. We so appreciate them making the trip over. Grace looks like a much-loved woman (i.e., lovely), which made Mark’s ministry to us all the sweeter. (And she’s fun!)
Now for a few highlights:
From Pastor Mark: Are you more disposed to sin being religious or sin being rebellious? Good questions and easy to get nailed in that talk. He used the prodigal son story for that one, and he pointed out that there is a perfect Third Son who is neither religious or rebellious. He gave a talk on masculinity, the need for men to be tough and tender. Tough to outsiders who would harm the wife, the home, the kids. Tender to the people inside the home.
Doug interviewed Mark, and I couldn’t help but feel like those two have a lot in common. Rachel summed it up when she said that Mark feels like a cousin or something. Familiar and almost family.
Nate reminded us to keep our eyes open to the wonder all around us and not to grow numb to all the glory in this fantasy world of ours. Ben spoke to us on how to pray, bringing all our desires to God just like He told us to do. Pestering Him about those things just like the neighbor in the parable who needs some bread. Doug reminded us that we become like what we worship, which explains why our culture is so confused. When you refuse to acknowledge your Creator, and want to shape your own identity according to your own whims, you end up blurring every distinction. And God loves distinctions: male and female, heaven and earth, moon and sun, etc.
Heather spoke to the unmarried women about using their time wisely and the importance of connecting to community. My favorite point of hers was that when Nate made it clear to her that he was going to be living in Idaho, not near the ocean, she thought about all the best books she’d read and about the main characters she admired most in them. What would they do? So she did the same thing. The courageous thing!
Bekah urged the married women to think about what kinds of things their husbands would like them to do, or not do, that they have ignored. Rachel emphasized the role of the mother in making the home all about good fellowship with one another.
Hats off to Tora Whitling and her team who made the Femina conference attendees a beautiful and delicious lunch, and to Donna Foucachon who was such a lovely m.c. for our Femina conference.
Thanks to all of you who came! What a blessing you all were to us. And thanks to those who told us you were praying for us. We are so very grateful!
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As you know I am a big fan of Mark Driscoll. A couple of years ago I emailed Mars Hill and asked for permission to use Mark Driscoll’s Gospel message for the lost as it was point on with the bible. They said absolutely! With the help of the holy spirit I had it memorized in few days. I recite it to myself nearly everyday on my walks and present it to who ever will listen. What’s great about it’s short and to the point.
Here goes from memory! “There is one God and he is the maker of heaven and earth and he made man and woman in his image and likeness with dignity value worth and purpose, he made us to worship but we chose to sin against him to rebel against him to disobey him as a result we are separated from God and we live under this foolish myth that to some degree that we are each our own god declaring right and wrong and living our own life by our own standards, and that God lovely came into human history as the man Jesus Christ fully God and fully man, that he was born of a virgin and lived a life without sin though he was tempted in every way as we are and Jesus went to the cross and there substituted himself, our first parents in the garden substituted themselves for God and at the cross Jesus reversed that substitution and substituted himself for sinners and when Jesus went to the cross he took willingly upon him the sin of those who would come to trust him, that means me as a sinner, Jesus went to the cross and took upon himself all of my sin, past present and future and Jesus Christ God who was a man died in my place for my sins paying my debt to God and purchasing my salvation. Jesus dead body was then laid in a tomb and for three days he was buried on the third day a Sunday which is why we worship on that day Jesus rose in victory over satan, sin, death, demons and hell and he commissioned us with holy spirit to be missionaries telling this amassing good news that there is a God that passionately, lovingly, continually. relentlessly pursues us, and he ascended into heaven and today Jesus is alive and well and he is seated on a throne and he is ruling and reigning over all nations, and all cultures and all philosophies and all races and all periods of time, he’s ruling over moderns and post modern, women, men and children and the elderly and the rich and poor and the wise and the simple and the blacks and the whites and those who are living and those who are dead and those that have been born and those who will be born and he is King of Kings and Lords of Lords and he is ruling and reigning over all people commanding everyone everywhere to repent of every thing and he is coming back again to judge the living and the dead and those who have come to trust in him will enjoy eternity in his kingdom in heaven forever and those who do not will suffer apart from him in the conscious eternal torments of Hell, thats what we believe! We believe in Jesus!” You can check it out at the Mars hill website. In Christ Dad
Nancy, baby Helen and I has such a wonderful time. The Dangerous Woman conference was fantastic and just what I needed to hear. The rest of my time was spent with my sweet Beka seeing firsthand all her new haunts. Thank you so much to everyone who worked so hard to make this such a special weekend!
Sounds so great! Will the talks be posted online?
Are recordings going to be made available? I hope so!!!
Oh, I can’t tell you how exciting and satisfying it is to hear about all the loving affection that sounds to be stirred up in this communion. Praise be to God!! I would have liked to have been there. Wonderful job ladies. We are so blesses to have so many strong and faithful to learn from among us.
Sounds like the weekend was a real blessing, Nancy. We long for the Lord to give us the opportunity to visit one day. Praise be to God for his faithful word going forth from all of you ladies also. May the Spirit continue to give you the strength to glorify his name and to build his kingdom! 🙂
Love and hugs,
Luma
So glad to hear it all went well!
Would have loved to have been there, but am glad to hear things went so wonderfully! I am sure the Grace Agenda conference will have recordings available in the future – and I hope the Dangerous Women conference does too! I’d love to hear both!!! 🙂
Amy, recordings of all talks will be available for purchase from Canon Press (pre-order link coming soon). The Disoutatio video, and the interview with Mark Driscoll, will be available (soon!) for free from http://www.canonwired.com.
It was all simply wonderful!
Sounds wonderful! And like everyone–hosts and hosted–had a wonderful time. A peak at heaven 🙂
This is the sentence you get to read in place of the three paragraphs full of profundity and wit that I had almost finished when I accidentally closed the window.
The gist of it was great teaching!
And I’ll add great to see all the Femina girls again and meet so many new folks!
I thoroughly enjoyed the Dangerous Woman Conference. It was just the encouragement I needed in my calling as a wife, mom, & sister in Christ. I was so blessed by all 4 speakers. Thank you for sharing your hearts & wisdom with us. It was also good to meet you Valerie, as we lunched together =0)
Blessings!