day 1

well, after finishing the first day at shepherd's conference, i would have to say that it is an awesome experience that everyone should get to have at some point and to some extent in their lives. people talk a lot about the singing, the the teaching is what is really impacting me. in this, i shall try and convey some of the things that i have learned today.

session one, taught by john macarthur was called, "why every calvinist must be a 6 day creationist" his reasoning is because it is clearly in the bible in genesis 1, so just read it and it makes perfect sense. also, that we must not be enviromentalist. so, "step on grass, kill and deer, and drill for oil, now". that is actually what he said in the message. he did not stress to much about being stewards of the earth, but i think that is because we are already way to concerned about that to the point that it is hurting human life, so he didn't stress it to much, though he did mention it a little.

the next one was about how to preach the Old Testament, and that mostly just went over basic bible study techniques that are forgotten and overlooked when studying the Old Testament.

the next one was about how the church is the epicenter for our christianity. we must build the church on the correct foundation and the only way to do that is to know what that foundation is and the only way to know that is to study the Word day in and day out. we must know the truth so that we can teach it to others. there is no excuse. we need to build the church as if we are building God's temple, because the church is God's temple. each believer is where the Holy Spirit is so that is God's temple. this is no small task but one that should be taken with all seriousness. the end result of this life is all the same, everyone will the bowing down to God, praising and worshipping Him, the only difference is where we will be when we are doing this. this life is on loan from God, should we not be doing what we will be doing after our death for the rest of eternity, which is praising God? so start doing what you should be doing so that we may bring God all the more glory.

the last session was again by john macarthur and it was mostly about his life and what his thoughts about the church are. all of his thoughts about the church though come from the bible, from scripture. there are things in this life that he will not budge on, in his life and in his church. we must make up our list of things that we will not change no matter what. the thing is, that this list should not change at any point in our life. it should be the same through out, for it should all be from scripture, and since scripture doesn't change, neither should our list. so make a list from scripture and follow it.