Just Give Me Jesus

I went to the "Just Give Me Jesus" conference this weekend.

It was a good weekend. I have to admit that I didn't stay for the final session as a 2.5 hour ride home had turned into a three hour ride once I realized that I needed to bring my friend back her bible. So...I left early so I didn't have to drive too far in dark and rainy weather.

Before I forget.... FERNANDO ORTEGA was the worship leader. I LOVE his music and style of playing. Just ah...touches me heart it does. I even bought another CD of his music. :) I'm ah...happy with that. :)

What didn't I like? Paying for parking. Now granted, if I was a person who was really cool with driving around in an unknown city and was confident in my ability to find my way out of unknown streets...i could possibly have driven around and found cheaper parking. BUT since I was neither comfortable NOR confident I just paid parking where I found some! :) 45$ for the entire weekend. BUT... it was a good conference none-the-less.

For the first two sessions Anne Graham Lotz told the story of Jesus' crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. She is a very easy lady to listen to. She dramatically told the story so it came to life again. :) I have to admit...I didn't like when she added the "I suppose that _________ felt _______ or I imagine that _________). To me that seems too much like adding to scripture. And I've too long with my husband that I've become more sensitive to that type of stuff.

Anyways, as Anne told the story, she would interpose questions and thoughts. For instance when Judas betrayed Jesus, she interposed the thought of... what do we do when we are betrayed, and have you ever betrayed someone. If you have, who have you confessed your sin to? Just your friend, OR have you taken that to the cross and asked Jesus to forgive you. I appreciated how she did that. Made it immediately relevant. I could see the women around me just thinking which was neat. :) (what can I say, the teacher in me loves to see lights go on!)

Oh..I did dislike one thing in her message...that I thought was bad teaching. You know the place where Jesus meets Mary Magdalene in the garden, and she is told by Jesus to go tell the disciples that he is alive? Well...she said that was Jesus giving permission for women to teach men. That women are supposed to do this from now on. Didn't like that. Seemed to take scripture out of context and doesn't quite fit in with other NT scripture.

Questions I ended up asking myself at the end of these two sessions
1. What do I need to die to?
2. Is my thing that I have about feeling this lack of assurance just a feeling? BECAUSE I know when I die that I will go to heaven because I know that Jesus' blood covers me. So therefore I think it is just an emotional thing, that I want to feel "loved" completely by God, and want to feel within myself that I love "God completely all the time". And I don't feel either. So what do I do with that? Anyways, I'm feeling/thinking better about my relationship with God right now which is a good thing. It's like somehow this intellectual yet emotional mix in me somehow got answered.
3. Should I write Anne and remind her that praying for illumination means more than praying that Jesus will bless our time together? :)

Session Three: led by Jill Briscoe.

I had a hard time with this session. For a couple of reasons.
1. she mixed medias...and for someone easily distracted like I am... asking me to focus on someone talking WHILE music is playing in the background with songs that I know... well.... gee whillikers.....test a person's ability to focus. TOUGH. But I managed at times.
Jill's talk was a practicum on prayer.
Overview
Prayer is 1/2 our relationship with God and is us talking to God about what we have learned. And prayer has four basics areas.
1. Look above
- start with God
- know that when we talk with God that we are standing on Holy Ground
- treat distractions with scripture... have to admit..I really liked this one thought!
- ask God to keep you focused on him
- it is praise, it is telling God how much we love him, and for what reasons.
2. Look within
a.remember the things we did and didn't do that were wrong (sins)
b. grieve the fact that you did them and see the consequences of said action (or inaction)
c. confess these sins to God
d. receive his forgiveness
e. thank you (thank God for what he has done for you)
3. Look around
- see your families, your friends, your acquaintances etc. Pray for them. but focus on the needs of your immediate family as God has given them to you to care for and nurture and so forth.
4. Look abroad
- world leaders, missionaries, and so forth. It's the large picture of the world around us.

What didn't I like about Jill's message?
Sometimes I think that my husband has infected me...or made me more tuned into what I think is wrong when I get vibes that something isn't correct. See I've always had this sensitivity, but haven't always been able to put my finger on it. My hubbie is helping me to refine that a bit. :)
anyways, one thing that Jill kept saying and her accompanist often sang, was about being centred, that we need to Centre-down in prayer, that we need to be collected and meditate in the silence of being centred. and that just rang bells in my sensitive vibes....AHH!!!!
Sounds like eastern meditation mysticsim sneaking in the backdoor...and there were about 10,000 women there I bet...and they are hearing that message over and over again.
STRONGLY disliked that.

BUT I did like the group prayer times about specific stuff...praying for families and missionaries and stuff about God that we just love. It was neat that. One thing that prayer time did was make me realize how much I have to give stuff up to God and trust him once and for all to handle. And it was good to realize that.

Last talk that I stayed for.....
Anne did an interactive verse-by-verse study on Luke 9:10-17. FASCINATING. But you'll have to wait till tomorrow for that as I"m on my mom's dial up computer and she wants to go to bed! :) So I have to post this and I'll write more tomorrow.