Gospel Centered Marriage Conference

In October, my family had the wonderful opportunity to attend a marriage conference in NC done by the NCFIC.

It was by far the best conference I have ever attended, and I am so grateful for the teaching that I was blessed to hear.

I have been pondering how to write this post for over a month. There was so much information shared that trying to process all of it was very difficult. As a family, we have been going back and listening to the CD's- some of them multiple times.

All of the speakers were exceptional in their own right, but I was especially blessed, challenged, and convicted by Paul Washer. I truly have never seen a man with more love for God. He did a message on the gospel and I was blown away. He preached with tears pouring down his face. I have never seen anything like it...

He talked about how we like to think of ourselves as good people, when we really need to "pull back our finery" and see the wickedness in our hearts. It reminded me that no matter how many "good things" I do or how much sin I abstain from, my righteousness is nothing but "filthy rags." One thing he kept saying over and over was, "I am blessed because HE was cursed."

As he preached on Christ death and what He suffered on my behalf, I felt like I was hearing it for the first time. The way he shared it was so very different from other sermons I had heard growing up. For example, he talked about how many pastors focus on the physical pain that Christ experienced on the cross. How when Christ went to the garden to pray before his arrest, that he was not frightened about the destruction of his flesh, but rather he was fearful of the wrath and rejection of his father as he bore the sins of the world. Washer explained about how martyrs for the faith went joyfully to their death, for they were honored to die in the same way that their Savior did. Why, would Jesus Christ be fearful of dying? Rather, HE knew that by taking our sins upon himself that he would be totally rejected by His father.

Another speaker I really enjoyed was Kevin Swanson. He speaks with so much passion and energy! His teachings were very informative and he gave a lot of practical advice. I don't recall ever seeing a preacher teach while running/jumping from one end of the stage to the other:)

Well, I am sure there will be more topics that I will want to share later, but this it for now. ☺

In Christ,

♥M.E.♥