BIBLICAL COUNSELING CONFERENCE - Day 1

The first full day (Monday) of the conference was a full one. Sessions began at 8:15 a.m. (for my track) and lasted until 7 p.m. One session follows another, with breaks and lunch scattered into the schedule. Probably the most significant thing that happened on this first day was what took place over a late dinner. I have some pastor friends in Ohio that I try to get together with on a regular basis. One of them called me last week, wanting to get together because he was going out of town and it had been a while since we talked. I was just too busy trying to get ready to go out of town myself. When he asked where I was going, and I told him about this conference, he laughed, and said: we are too! So, although this couple has not been able to meet with Teresa and I in Ohio, there we were, having dinner here in Indiana! That wasn't the best part. This couple, in ministry, who I count (even more so now) as great friends, were the gift of encouragement and exhortation that God knew I needed at that very moment. I am so grateful! Perhaps I will write more on that another time.

Let me share with you some quotes that were given in one of my sessions yesterday (day 1). A pastor from Kentucky was teaching the session entitled: Practical Steps for Killing Pride and Putting On Humility. The whole session was great. But, what really caught my attention were some of the great quotes he used. I will include some here, hoping that they may serve as helpful mediation for you, as you seek to humbly live before and serve our great God.

Charles Bridges: "Pride lifts up the heart against God and contends fr the supremacy with Him. How unseemly moreover is this sin? A creature so utterly dependent and so fearfully guilty, yet proud in heart."

John Stott: "At every stage of our Christian development pride is our greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend."

R.C. Sproul: "The grand difference between a human being and a supreme being is precisely this. Apart from God I cannot exist. Apart from me God does exist. God does not need me in order for Him to be. I do need God in order for me to be...we are dependent, we are fragile...no human being has the power of being within himself. Life is lived between two hospitals. We need support systems from birth to death in order to sustain life. We are like flowers that bloom and then wither and fade, and this is how we differ from God. God does not wither. God does not fade. God is not fragile."

Gary Thomas: "I have a theory: behind virtually every case of marital dissatisfaction lies unrepented sin. Couples don't fall out of love so much as they fall out of repentance. Sin, wrong attitudes, and personal failures that are not dealt with slowly erode the relationship, assaulting and eventually erasing the once lofty promises made in the throes of an earlier (and less polluted) passion."

Paul Tripp: "God's grace is most powerful and effective at the moment of my greatest weakness. How practical and life changing is this? One of the most significant problems in marriage is that there is no economy of grace. With all their obvious difficulties, what is most shocking is the profound gracelessness of their marriage. There is no willingness to look within and confess deep seated sins, so they never find sweet forgiveness. There is no vertical hope to carry them in dark and discouraging times. There is no rest that comes from entrusting each other to the God of grace. There is no faith that He will give them all they need to respond to each other in godly ways. As a result, their relationship is reduced to human demands, human performance, human failure, human judgment, and human punishment. There is no hope or power for change. And because they are not daily soaking in the fountain of God grace, they do not extend it to one another. "

Mike Renehan: "Men do not like to admit their faults, nor confess they are sinners. I am guilty on both counts. But the sooner we admit and confess, the quicker we can deal with our pride. The taxonomy of the problem looks like this. Premise: All men are sinners. Upon further examination we find that sinners fall into two distinct classes, those who admit their sin, and those who don't. Those who admit themselves to be sinners fall into two more classes, those who do something about it, and those who do not. It is only those who deal with their soul's true dire need before God who may make progress out of their sin."

C.J. Mahaney: "At the end of your time close your Bible and say, 'God, what I just did makes absolutely no contribution to the basis of my justification, but what I just did is a statement of my need for you and dependence on You.'"

Richard Baxter: "Pride is a deep-rooted and a self-preserving sin; and therefore is harder to be killed and rooted up than other sins. It hinders the discovery of itself...It will not allow the sinner to see his pride when he is reproved; neither will it allow him to confess it if he sees it; nor...to loathe himself and forsake it...Even when he recognizes all of the evidences of pride in others, he will not see it in himself...If you would go about to cure him of this or any other fault, you shall feel that you are handling a wasp or an adder; yet when he is spitting the venom of pride against the reprover, he does not perceive that he is proud; this venom is a part of his nature and therefore is not felt as harmful or poisonous..."

C.J. Mahaney: "And don't be put off when a friend's observations may not be 100% accuarate. I've found that there's truth to be gleaned at times even from an enemy's critique. Humility doesn't demand mathematical precision from another's input. Humility postures itself to receive God's grace from any avenue possible."

Terry Lindvall: "Laughter is a divine gift to the human who is humble. A proud man cannot laugh because he must watch his dignity; he cannot give himself over to the rocking and rolling of his belly. But a poor and happy man laughs heartily because he gives no serious attention to his ego."

C.J. Mahaney: "We also want to continue throughout the day expressing gratefulness for the innumerable manifestations of God's grace. It's as if God is placing sticky-notes in our lives as daily reminders of His presence and provision...how perceptive of them are you? An ungrateful person is a proud person."