Going Deeper Still

Over the weekend Kelly and I had privilege to attend Lifeway’s Deeper Still conference in Birmingham.  We had been planning this weekend since May so it was exciting to have it actually arrive!  We joined 13,900 women at the BJCC to listen to Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer, Beth Moore, Kelly Minter, Travis Cottrell, David Platt and others.  It was an amazing weekend and I learned so much!

We drove down Friday afternoon and tried to check in at our hotel but due to a glitch in the computers (as in, they totally weren’t working) we had time to kill and so we made the tough decision to sacrifice by shopping in Homewood.  🙂  We both found some cute things and enjoyed shopping for a few hours.  Then we made our way to Urban Cookhouse where we were meeting Lindsey for dinner.  She got stuck in traffic and so didn’t get to eat with us but we did enjoy catching up for a little bit once she got there.  And if you’re in Homewood looking for somewhere to eat, definitely go to Urban Cookhouse, it was great!

The conference didn’t start until 7 but the doors opened at 5:30.  Deciding that we needed food more than we needed a front row seat we didn’t make it to the arena until a little after 6.  But we still got what we considered was a pretty good seat in the upper deck.  They had huge screens up so I think we would have been looking at those unless we were on the floor anyway and you can worship and listen from anywhere!  Here’s the view from our seats before everything kicked off on Friday night:

We started and ended each session with worship from Travis Cottrell.  If you haven’t downloaded any of his music yet please go and get some! His Christmas cd is awesome and he has written some amazing worship songs also!  He and his band definitely brought us to the throne of God again and again.

Kay Arthur spoke Friday night and my goodness she has a lot of energy for a 77 year old woman! Really she has a lot of energy for any age woman!  She delivered a very powerful message about the future of our country and ourselves if we don’t repent and follow God and show that we are followers with our actions.  Miss Kay taught the entire book of Matthew on Friday night starting with chapter 1 and going all the way through chapter 28!  One thing that she said really stuck out to me and it was about Matthew 10:37 which is, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (NIV)  That is a verse that I’ve always struggled with because I don’t know how to put in to practice loving God more than Charlotte since I have to provide everything for her.  But Kay illustrated that point with an example of what would you do if your child came to you and told you to quit talking about God or they would never see you again.  It’s the decision to teach and follow God no matter the consequences to your relationships to others that matter’s.  I really appreciated that illustration and teaching and it helped clarify a very confusing scripture passage for me. (For a much more detailed overview of Kay’s message check out BooMama’s summary over at the Lifeway Women’s AllAccess blog.)

We started bright and early around 8 am on Saturday morning with a short devotional by Kelly Minter.  I loved getting to hear Kelly speak and play since we have done two of her Bible Studies in our monthly studies over the summer and fall.  She spoke from Exodus about worshipping God and what that looks like.  I especially loved her pointing out in Exodus 10:24-26 that Moses tells Pharaoh that “not a hoof is to be left behind” which in essence told Pharaoh that they were giving everything in worship to God and showed that the Lord was everything to them.  Kelly was great and I can’t wait to do more of her studies.

The morning session by Priscilla Shirer was, honestly, my favorite.  She spoke mostly from 2 Kings which is not a book that I’ve been taught from very much.  She focused on 2 Kings 13:14-19 about Elisha and the king.  In this account the king comes to Elisha who is on his deathbed to ask him how Israel is supposed to win in battle without him because the king recognized that Elisha had God’s favor and therefore Israel had God’s favor.  Elisha told the king that if he would pick up his arrows and fight that God would direct Israel’s arrows.  He then asked the king to shoot his arrows to the ground to show his reliance on God and instead of emptying his quiver of 5 or 6 arrows the king only shot 3 to the ground.  Elisha then told the king that he would not completely defeat the enemy because he didn’t empty his quiver before the Lord but he would only win 3 times. 

Priscilla used this account to model for us that we have to “empty our quivers” before the Lord.  She said that we beg for miracles from God but then stay out of the context where we have to have a miracle happen.  Priscilla told us that we need to get into the “faith place” or “God margin” where we are trying to accomplish a goal but we can’t go any farther on our own strengths or talents and we have to rely on God to fill the rest of the margin and accomplish the goal for us.  She asked us to watch what God can do with a little bit of our time, energy, talents, etc and how he can multiply those into fruition when everything is concentrated on serving him.  Priscilla also said that God doesn’t put his hand on us to bless and multiply our works until we “pick up our bow” and get into the position that he’s asked us to.

This message really spoke to me because there’s something that I’ve been feeling led to start for the last six months or so.  I’m not quite ready to go blog-public with this calling yet, but I’ve been running away from this calling from God because I know that I can not do it on my own.  And then I came to Deeper Still and it was like Priscilla was speaking just to me telling me that I need to quit being scared and step out in faith and watch God work!  I’m still not sure how it’s going to work out because I know that I am so unqualified for what is being asked of me but I’m willing to step out and give God my efforts and trust him to work through me!  I will share more as I actually begin this project but I would appreciate your prayers that I will have the courage to step out in faith and follow God’s leading.

BigMama did an overview of Priscilla’s message on the LifeWay All Access blog if you’d like to check it out there.

We broke for lunch after Priscilla’s message which was a good thing because I’m pretty sure every woman in the place had been crying since Travis Cottrell sang In The First Light before her message.  I took the break as an opportunity to go check out the Lifeway tables/stores to pick up some new Bible Studies!  Do you think I got enough?!?! Now my only problem is which to start first!

The afternoon session was taught by Beth Moore and was also a spectacular message.  She titled it “Rediscovering the lost art of treasure” and taught us about stopping to treasure our life.  Beth told us that the Lord does things that are treasure’s for us that we need to get through the tough times and the enemy will do everything in his power to steal those treasures, therefore we need to work hard to treasure/protect/guard/preserve/keep safe those treasures!  Her points were:

1. There are treasures out there!
Beth referenced Luke 2:18 where the shepherds were amazed and told us that being amazed and treasuring are different.  That amazement never comes just for amazement’s sake but the amazement comes to break us open so that God can prepare us for what’s to come next and that we have treasure that moment in order for it to help us later.

2. They’re not my treasures until they make it past my defenses
Beth told us that everything we treasure we’re wrapped up in emotionally as well and that we need to store up our treasures.

3. Treasures strung together can bring healing
Beth told us that God gives us treasures so that we can remember that he holds all of the puzzle pieces together and that we don’t need to know what all of the puzzle pieces are as long as we trust that God has the rest of them.  She said that we need to ponder (to put together) our treasure’s so that we can better understand God’s plan and be reminded that he holds us in the palm of his hand. 

4. Our treasure gets lost in the same trash as our time
Beth reminded us that it takes time to treasure and if we’re always busy on the computer or the phone or watching tv or something else then we’re not taking time to truly treasure God’s treasure’s for us.  She said that we need to add some margin’s in to our life so that we can treasure events in our life. 

5. We’ll miss our most expensive treasure if we look past the hardship and pain
Beth told us that a lot of our treasure’s are “treasures of darkness” (Isaiah 45:3) and that we don’t need to look past the pain towards the next smooth time but treasure the times of pain that God is bringing us through right now.  She also cut me to the quick when she told us that we store up offenses so easily that we don’t have room for treasure!  She emphasized that we need to surround ourselves with friends where Jesus is the reason that you’re friends and not someone that just brought you together at the beginning.

6. When you feel like you’ve lost the treasure look for Jesus.
Beth showed us Luke 2:47 where Jesus had stayed in the Temple when his family left Jerusalem (he was 12) and it says that the leaders were amazed with Jesus and his ability to (in essence) put all of the puzzle pieces together.  We need to remember that Jesus has every piece of our puzzle and has had it forever!

Beth’s message really spoke to me about making a point to stay off the computer and the phone and everything else to treasure my time with Charlotte and Jason and most of all my time with Him.  I don’t want to be someone that misses treasure’s that God has put in my life because I say I’m too busy to sit back and ponder them and store them in my heart.  I also walked again with a renewed peace at God’s sovereignty and the fact that He has my whole life planned out and has since before I was born! There’s nothing that I need to worry about because God has my whole life in the palm of his hands! How refreshing!

After so much powerful teaching we were in need of a little decompressing and so the weekend officially ended with a panel discussion with Beth, Priscilla, Kay, and Kelly Minter.  It was a light-hearted discussion about clothes and shopping and boys…pretty much like the discussion after every Bible Study! 🙂 

Before the panel we saw on the announcement board a message asking all of the Siesta’s to meet at the sound check booth immediately following the conference.  We didn’t know what was going to happen but we knew that we were Siesta’s and so were going to check it out! (Siesta’s are the readers of Beth Moore’s blog.) We headed down to the sound check booth and found a group of women waiting with us.  We even made a new friend (Hey Kristen!).  It ended up that Beth wanted to meet us and get her picture taken with us!  There were over 80 Siesta’s that went with us and we split into groups to meet Beth and hear some really sweet, encouraging words from her.  It was a great cap to a wonderful weekend!

Overall it was a God-filled weekend.  He knew back in May when Kelly and I planned this trip that I would need to get away and get rejuvenated with Him the first weekend in December.  That I would be in the midst of trying to get everything ready to host two parties at our house in the month of December and would be quite stressed.  This weekend was perfect to get my head back in the right place about Christmas being the birth of Jesus not a time of stress and worry.  I have had more energy since getting back and am trying to remember to focus on the important things of the season (God became flesh! Jesus came to save me!) rather than on how clean the house is or if the bow on my tree is big enough!  JESUS is the reason for the season and I’m working hard to remember that every minute of every day!