Student Life Conference 2005

Hey y'all! I just got back from Birmingham, Alabama where I went to the very first student life conference of this year. It was AWESOME! The theme was "when love takes you in". The reason I went this weekend was because I met up with a bunch of people I spent the summer with in Ukraine. Birmingham was a kind of middle ground for us, so we met up there and stayed with our friend Deb. I had such a great time. I stayed up late and ate pizza and looked at pictures. We even got to call our friend Sveta all the way in Ukraine! Shane and Shane were the worship leaders, and they sound even better in person than on the CD. David Nasser was our speaker (he actually didn't tell his testimony this time. I was amazed. :0) We talked about Ephesians 2:1-10. I won't give it all away for those of you who haven't been yet, but it really opened my eyes to a lot of things. These are the verses if you want to read them:

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

There are two distinct pieces of this passage. There's the beginning, which talks of our previous life, or rather, our death, and the sins we commited when we were dead, and there's the second half, which talks of the grace of God and our new life. Both are equally great, and David Nasser talked about both, but it really touched me when he started talking about God's grace. He said something that really stuck out to me. "If you're a Christian, you are as righteous right now as you ever will be." He didn't mean that you can't become more Christ-like and give up more sins and habits, he just meant that God sees you as righteous. Christ covers us and there's nothing we can do to make God love us any more or any less. It's as simple as that. So many times I see my walk with Christ as conditional. I always think about my sin and feel guilt all the time and think that I can't have good fellowship with God because God's mad at me. Not that guilt is a bad thing. I mean, the Holy Spirit's there to convict you, but a lot of times I focus way too much on the bad things I've done and it keeps me from enjoying the joy that God wants to give. It's like I read the first three verses and miss the other seven. But God really showed me that when you repent of your sins, it doesn't latch onto you as baggage, it's gone. (as the song goes, like summer break is gone, like saturday is gone...) When we become alive in Christ, God wants us to leave our life of sin, not dwell in it. I'm so glad we worship a God like that. :0)