Spring Conference Review Testimony

For those of you that don't know, this is a review on the conference itself and how I experienced it.

Key Verse: "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." (Mark 2:11)

I. The Work of God I Experienced

This was my first spring conference, and also the first time I had written and presented my life testimony. I was very reluctant at first to write a testimony, and continued to procrastinate and put it off because I didn’t feel like writing it. Part of that was my laziness, but another part was that I felt like I had nothing to say. I’ve been in church all my life and thought that telling about it would be boring. Instead, I was pushed to look at my life on a deeper level and really be honest with myself. I was looking at myself from the outside instead of the inside, where the real struggles are buried underneath what I do and say on the outside. I was able to analyze my life through God’s eyes and recognize my position in my relationship with God.

My key verse became Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” I have been brought up the way I have for one purpose—God’s glory. He has prepared me by raising me up in Biblical knowledge and giving a firm foundation to build my faith on, and I am meant to complete good works He has laid out for me.

Still, it was very frustrating. Every time I thought it was finished, I was forced to rewrite or revise it. First, it was completely rewritten, and then we had to take out a whole page, and then it still wasn’t finished and we had to take out more and express things more clearly and it was really one big mess. I struggled with my pride during these times; I’ve always been a good writer and although I knew it wasn’t a personal attack on my writing style, it still irked me to have to make all those changes when I thought it was good enough. It really bothered me when revising and practicing cut into the only free time I would have at the conference.

I knew God was shaping me through the writing process. A good friend told me that “sometimes, your testimony is your conference,” and I knew she was right. God was training me to humble myself and put His work first, and my year’s key verse sprang to mind: “your kingdom come, your will be done.” I still wanted to go back to my cabin and sleep, or join the Capture the Flag game, but I let my own desires fall away and opened my heart to the work that He was doing through me and through my testimony. In the end, I learned more about myself and was able to open up and really feel who I am in Christ and what his plans are for me; I even had the privilege of being witness to the struggles of my close friends, something else I think was instrumental in pushing myself to that final point of belief.

It was a great struggle, but also a great blessing to write and share my testimony at the conference, and I feel accomplished—not in myself, but in the Spirit of God. I was able to experience a great victory in my relationship with Christ and I feel like I grew so much.


II. The Word of God I Received

There were many good points from each of the messages, but two in particular stuck out to me: first, to take up my own mat and assume responsibility for my life, but secondly, to take things one at a time. Mark 2, verse 11: "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home."

I had never heard the paralytic’s story from Mark 2 handled that way before: the focus, in my mind, had always been on the faith of the man’s friends and the healing that Jesus did. Instead, the real focus of the message was on the paralytic himself. Jesus told him, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home” (v.11). Jesus had forgiven him and healed him, but now the ball was in his court, and he had to take his belongings and go home.

In the same way, I can’t be lazy about my life—spiritually or secularly. I am one of the laziest people on the planet, and if I can get by without doing something, chances are that’s the road I’ll take. I should do my very best in school so that my work can glorify God. I should take initiative to find myself a job instead of making excuses and waiting for one to fall in my lap. If something needs to be done, I should do it instead of twiddling my thumbs and hoping that it will magically take care of itself; and this includes my spiritual life.

Part of doing God’s work is waiting, yes—sometimes, instead of a yes or a no, He answers with a “not yet”, and waiting in those cases is perfectly acceptable. On the other hand, sometimes He wants things done RIGHT NOW, and instead of telling Him, “Yes, Lord, right away sir,” I sit and think and doubt. Sometimes, I even tell him no, rebuking him as Peter did (in Mark 8) and hindering the work of God.

The opposite would be to take on too much at once, and when I recognize my slothful habits at work, I want to overcompensate by taking on a whole bunch of projects at the same time—but this is not God’s model.

When Jesus was approached by the rich young ruler in Mark 10: 17-31, Jesus told him that there was “one thing he lacked” (v. 21). In fact, there were many things the young man lacked- humility, a right heart, and compassion for others, just to name a few. But Jesus got to his main problem—his materialism—and worked from there; or, he would have, had the rich ruler been open to suggestion. He knew that first, the young ruler had to do away with his love of money and possessions before he could ever truly love Jesus. In verse 25 he explains, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Jesus could have told the young man that there were many things he lacked, but instead he recognized the main problem and addressed it right away, instead of wasting time listing all the young ruler’s offenses.

In the same way, we can never tackle all of our problems at once; in fact, it will take our entire lifetimes to handle the problems we face, and many of our flaws will be go unresolved the day that we die. I may be lazy, but I am also prideful, arrogant, argumentative, and selfish. I could try to take care of them all at once, and without God’s help, but it would get me nowhere. God takes it a step at a time not because He can’t do it any other way, but because He knows the best way to break down my walls and overcome my weaknesses—after all, who knows me better than my Creator? He knows my own limits and what I can and can’t handle, and how each decision I make will affect me. I should follow His model and take things one at a time, and learn to prioritize based on God’s standard.

III. Prayer Topics

1. discipline in God’s word, and also practically in my life; specifically:
1. stop slacking in school
2. to go out and find a job
3. true desire for Bible Study
2. the UBF European conference in Germany
1. a true desire- not because I should but to really understand
2. financial support
3. situations at home to be resolved

One Word: Take up my mat of laziness and be responsible for my life as the workmanship of God.