take-aways from day two

going into this conference, i was looking forward to the books that i was hopefully going to get, the singing/fellowship/worship that was going to take place, and the teaching that i would get to hear.
the conference is now 2/3 over and i must say that i am totally encouraged to get home and start living. my soul has been refreshed over this trip and i am so excited to get home and to do my own study and reading and then live it out. i do know that after awhile, some of this will wear down but i also know that if God is willing to keep me faithful in spiritual exercises, then most of this fervor will stay with me, i pray at least.
i want to come home and serve, and through my service - lead. i want to come home and study so that i may understand the person of God so that i may love Him more, so that i can then share and explain this love to other people so that they may love Him more. i want to do that. i want to see God kill sin in my life and to make me more like Him so that i may glorify Him in all that i do. i need and want to pray more so that these things may happen. i want to come home and live with people and not just around people. i want to get involved in people's lives and to allow them to get involved in my life so that we may encourage each other towards Christ and sanctification.

i'm excited, needless to say, to live out what i have learned and i am willing to do what God has placed on my heart as long as i can. now the hard part will take place soon: going home and actually doing all of this that i want to do. i know that at a retreat like this, it is easy to think of everything that we want to do, but in all reality, we can't do it all, i know that. these are just things that i want to do. i know i can't change the world or anything really, but i can, by God help, change myself, and that is the work that i will set out to do. while doing that, i also hope to influence some other people along the way towards Christ as well. this life isn't easy and then we die, but we are not called to an easy life but to a glorified life. nothing worth having is easy to get, why should eternal life be any different. it is the most glorious, great, awesome, wonderful, amazing, needful thing that we can get, so if it is the best, then shouldn't it also be the hardest, most outrageous, difficult, going-against-the-grain thing we have to work for? God is good though, He does all the work, all we have to do it serve Him with our pathetic lives.

we serve a good God.