From The Gospel Coalition Women's Conference: Following Jesus Far From Home
This past summer a group of women from Karis Church were able to attend The Gospel Coalition's Women's Conference in Indiana. A couple of the women will be sharing what they experienced and learned this summer.
We are sojourners in this world, we are following Jesus far from our true heavenly home. We are ambassadors for Christ while we are here for a time. Sometimes we forget this and cling to this world and the passions of the flesh, forgetting our Father’s heavenly kingdom. The early Christians dealt with this same issue, living with one foot in this world and one foot in God’s kingdom. This is something that really resonated with me, the one message that stuck with me the most after The Gospel Coalition Women's Conference 2016.
The speaker Mary Wilson, was expounding on 1 Peter 2:11-25, about how Peter urged the early church to live for God’s glory in this fallen world. He tells them two ways they can live in a way that pleases God in the present time.
1. Resist the Passions of the Flesh
“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul, ” 1 Peter 2:11
He says to wage war against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, & the pride of life. These lusts of the flesh are laid out in Gal. 5:19-21, which are "sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these." Peter tells us to abstain from these because they wage war on our souls. There is a war going on each day inside, and we must fight back in order to glorify God with our lives.
2. Conduct yourselves honorably
"Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us, " 1 Peter 2:12
Peter exhorts the church to appeal to unbelievers with their lips and lives in order to reconcile with their maker. In this, we go against the grain, the natural flow of this world, and we do good, in order that some may see and glorify our Father.
These are just some of the convicting & encouraging things I heard when at The Gospel Coalition’s Women’s Conference. So many times I find myself all bound up with the world, with its worries, its false promises of security. I often forget that I am an ambassador and that I am to be at war with the flesh. It’s easy to get comfortable and forget the world that is dying around us. I am thankful that I was reminded of my identity and the role I have to play in God’s kingdom, thankful for the Holy Spirit to empower and guide me along the way.
If you want to hear more encouraging words from Mary Wilson, you can listen to her message here: http://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/following-jesus-far-from-home