Renew Conference getting closer

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Well, it just dawned on me that we are a little over 5 weeks away from our RENEW conference. I was "underground" for about 2 weeks with family travel and grad studies. Now that I've resurfaced, I am finally catching my breath and starting to work in a semi-methodical fashion. I'm glad that we have such a great team of people assembled to make this conference a reality!

The conference focuses on worship and mission. If you track the typical flow of scripture, here's what usually happens: (1) chaos occurs & people need help; (2) God acts in an amazing and mighty way; (3) the people worship and praise God; (4) God sends them on a mission.

Worship is a response to the mighty acts of God. It's hard to worship if you've never needed God's power. Those who are self-sufficient have a hard time knowing how to worship. This is ultimately the problem with legalism. It infects people with an unhealthy breed of self-sufficiency. They think God doesn't need to do anything. Instead, it's all up to us. So why worship a God who isn't doing anything? Worship in a legalistic context can become rote and empty. But for those who have experienced God's salvation, worship is a natural response.

This conference takes the fact of God's creation and turns it into the object of our praise and adoration that it should be. Actually, it doesn't make creation the object of our worship. We want the Creator to be the object of our worship. He has taken chaos and ordered it, creating beauty and order where only darkness and disorder reigned. He is a mighty God whose outstretched hand shaped the universe. When we stop to consider his creation, we realize how small we are. So why does he think of us? Why does he care for us? The proper answer is to praise him.

O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

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