Deeper Still

This past weekend all the Family Group girls took a road trip down to Orlando for the Deeper Still Conference. What a wonderful and Godly adventure it was! The conference was at the Amway Arena with thousands of women filling the seats. It was so incredible to see literally thousands of women together in the same place worshiping God. In this world that can seem so crazy at times, it was calming and reassuring to see so many women there and to hear 3 great teachers of the word. We heard from Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shrirer, and my all-time FAVORITE women's speaker, Beth Moore! The theme, "Deeper Still" was an illustration all 3 speakers used to challenge us not to be surface Christians, but to desire God on a deeper level and to continue to go deeper with him on a daily basis - something in which we all could benefit from!

Kay Arthur was the first woman we heard from at the conference. She is such a true woman of God and boy does she know her scripture! I bet that lady could recite the whole bible to you if you asked her to! :) While she really spent a lot of time going through the book of Hebrews, the main message I got from Kay was this... In all things, are you going for the approval of others or the approval of God? When it comes down to it, God is truly all that matters. We are here to live our life for him and only him. We are not here to be accepted by others, after all God the Father was certainly not accepted by most. He sacrificed his life for us, why can't we do the same for him? We must "Rest in Faith" as Kay said over and over again with the bible against her head because without faith, it is impossible for us to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)

Priscilla Shrirer was the second woman we heard from at the conference. I had actually never heard of her before this past weekend, and I have been missing out! Her message hit home to me more than any other (Sorry Beth! I still love you!) She spent time taking apart 2 verses - Ephesians 3:20 and 21 which say, "Now to HIM who is able to do immeasurably MORE than all we could ever think or imagine, according to HIS power that is at work within us, to HIM be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen." I can just see Priscilla now as she took this verse and acted it out on stage (which I did later in the weekend back in the hotel room, but that's another story!) What hit home the most about this message was that God is capable! Of course I know that God is capable, but sometimes you need someone else to remind you of this every now and then. Not only is God capable, but he is capable NOW. Right NOW he can do amazing things in our life - in the here and now, which I need to remember on a day to day basis! Being at home and not at work full time makes me feel like I don't have a purpose at the moment. But, I have to remember that God can use this time that I am at home without a baby to do MORE than I could ever think or imagine. I just have to spend time resting in him and let him lead & teach me. ... I think this is such an important message in the state that our country is in as well. There are so many people without jobs right now and so many uncertainties, but we have to remember Ephesians 3:20-21. HE is ABLE to do immeasurable MORE than whatever we could ever think or imagine. How reassuring is that?!? Just knowing this is the foundation of our faith. One other thing she said is that when she prays for something she says, "God, you are able and I pray for you to do this in my life, but if not, then do something BETTER!" Just because God doesn't do what we have asked doesn't mean he doesn't care or doesn't love us. Gods thoughts are greater than our thoughts and his ways are greater than our ways - he can see the BIG picture when we can't. Trust in the Lord your God for he will not forsake you. Our God is so great. Don't forget that!

And finally, Beth Moore, who is so near and dear to my heart. If you have ever done a Beth Moore bible study you know what I'm talking about. She is a woman on FIRE for Jesus and it is so evident in all she does. God is using her to reach women around the world and she is so obedient to him. I just LOVE her! Her message this past weekend was on how to become spiritually discerned - listening to our spiritual gut! Have you ever just had "that feeling" deep inside where you knew something was right or wrong? Well, if we are in the word daily, that's our spiritual gut. But, the key point here is being in the word. You cannot walk in the spirit without walking intimately with him; in a RELATIONSHIP with him. This was such a reminder to me about how our Christian faith is NOT a religion. It has nothing to do with religion at all - just go ahead and take it out of the equation. Our Christian faith is about a relationship with our maker. Thank goodness for that!

I want to end with a quote from Beth. She said, "The sense of God's presence in my life is EVERYTHING I live for!" What an encouragement. God created us to live for him and nothing more. Our soul purpose on this earth is to love him and love others. I pray for God's presence in my life so that I can be an example to others; so that they might see Him through me.

Thank you Lord for an amazing weekend! Until next time...