The Lakes Evangelical Church

Wintercon update

Posted on 30. Jul, 2010 by Adam Gregory in Blog

A week later and my head still hurts! 15 Ourimbah Christian Students joined 140 Newcastle Christian Students for a hectic week of conference in Toukley, called WinterCon. The week was jam-packed with talks, bible studies, discussions and debates, centred around the topic of ‘Relationships’.

I have come away being stretched in my knowledge of the Word as I was pushed to consider and wrestle with big ideas, some for the first time. It has just blown me away to see the sacrificial love in the relationships in the Trinity. This love extends so far that Jesus would even glorify his Father by dying on the cross. Jesus’ love for the Father brought him to serve him, even at the cost of death. God has made us in his image, which means we are made to be relational also. But our sin damaged this relationship between us and God. I am in awe of the grace of God, as now the love the Father has for Jesus is in us (John 17:25-26). We are no longer in a destroyed relationship with God. Sin is completely dealt with. Jesus is the true love!

Grasping the love that God offers in his relationship with us has been encouraging as well as convicting and challenging. The love Jesus has for us should compel us to live for him. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” We are called to live a life that brings glory to Him. Therefore my life should be centred around God, my thoughts should be fixed on Him so that I bring glory to the one who deserves my praise. This has challenged me to make every decision on asking this question: “What will lead me to love and glorify God most?” Living for God’s glory was shown at the cross and bringing him glory is what we now need to live for.

Spending a week with Christians all at the same stage of life as me has been so encouraging. It has been incredible meeting these people and reminded me of the bigger picture, that we are part of God’s great plan of reconciling the world to him. As we wrestled through the Bible and spend time in prayer together I was just so encouraged to see the passion in the lives of the uni students. It was so exciting to see and be part of the unity we have as brothers and sisters in Christ.

There was no better way to use that week of holidays, it was definitely the best use of my time.

So keen for WinterCon 2011!

See you there!

Stacey

Tags: OCS