March 2, 2005

Shepherd's Conference: A Man After God's Own Heart

This is a first for me. I am blogging the second seminar of the conference while it is happening. Carey Hardy is speaking on the subject of "A Man After God's Own Heart".

The premise of this seminar is that when you talk about the desires of a man's heart, you are talking about who he really is. We are talking about developing a passion for Christ in our own lives in the lives of those to whom we minister.

People need to see in us a genuine passion for Christ. We are passionate for many things, but are we passionate for Christ?

He makes an excellent point, that some who have reacted to the artificial passions of televangelists that they have let themselves grow cold.

"Wrong affections do not mean that we should not have affections." Jonathan Edwards

Mr. Hardy offers this evaluation: "Sadly, some groups are known for what they are separated from, not what they are separated to." Ouch!

Mr. Hardy shares with us two facts about spiritual desires, based on David's plea in Psalm 63.

(1)They have the right object. David longed for God; not for what God does, or any number of things he could have longed for at that moment--he longed for God.

(2) They have the right intensity. David longs for God with everything he has, including his deepest emotions.

He shares with us how an overbearing love for Christ will see us through difficult times in our lives and ministries. He quotes an early church historian writing about men who were burned at the stake for their faith: "They felt the fire around them, but they felt the fire of their love for Christ even stronger within them."

Posted by Andrew on March 2, 2005 6:16 PM.