The Gospel Comes to Life

This past weekend we attended the 20/20 Collegiate Conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Joined by our dear friends, Kevin & Sherri, we heard 2 messages by Mark Driscoll, a message each by CJ Mahaney, Bill Brown, and Danny Aiken - all within a 22 hour period. It was convicting, encouraging, and refreshing. Nearly 1500 people attended the conference - Daniel Renstrom led us all in singing many praises to our Lord! What a chorus! It was wonderful being surrounded by such a nice group of people; surrounded for the most part by fellow Christians. Everywhere we went we could overhear people talking about our wonderful Savior and even the topic of infant baptism came up while the guys were in the bathroom. We found this to be pretty funny!! And you look out at the vast sea of people in the audience and are awed at the fact that our God graciously saved many of these people!! Our God ransoms the wicked!!!! Amen!

Some quick notes: We are called to love our cities and nations; to love our enemies because God loves his enemies (I used to be one); worship God through our vocation; suffer for the faith. We are to be missionaries and disciples in our culture; a city within a city. As Christians there are things we are called to receive, reject, and redeem for HIS glory. We are to be totally amazed at the reading of Scripture - it is more exciting and more profound than the Super Bowl! We are to proclaim the gospel and let it affect us as we share it with others. May there be tears in our eyes and great joy in our hearts as we recount God's amazing grace to sinners. Penetrate the culture with the gospel; leave a legacy; think generationally. We are called to be the most loving, kind, and generous people!!! We are to worship our mighty Creator in all arenas of our life!

I highly recommend you listen to the following:

• Seven Views of Culture (Mark Driscoll)
• Extravagant Devotion (CJ Mahaney)
• The Doxological View of Culture (Mark Driscoll)