I went to the NEXT conference this past weekend. The "theme" (if you can call it that) for the weekend was Jesus Christ. The speakers covered his preeminence, life, death, resurrection and return.

The fellowship was rich. We spent time in breakout sessions discussing the messages and in prayer (there was also 5mins of dodgeball early one morning).

The testimonies that were shared were sooooo encouraging. Each speaker shared their personal testimony and there were also 5 conference attendees that shared as well. I LOVED the fact that the testimonies didn't end after some of the people said things like "And from that day forward, I stopped using drugs", as though the message of the gospel is "God will get you sober". My favorite quote from the testimonies was:

"A boring testimony isn't boring to the one who got saved"

The conference was amazingly Christ-centered, gospel-centered and doctrinally sensitive, so it is with Sovereign Grace ministries as a whole. It is for this reason that i'm really excited about the church that i'm going to attend when I move up to new york city for my mba (soverien grace city church). I got to spend a lot of time with the SGCC ppl (who i already know quite well) throughout the conference (pastor included).

There was an awesome breakout session on discerning the will of God. As someone who was manipulated by people who were really big on "discerning the will of God" this presentation was a breath of fresh air. I wrote a short paragraph on a biblical view of the will of God here. The speaker (Kevin Deyoung) wrote a book called; "Just Do Something: How to make a decision without dreams, visions, fleeces, open doors, random bible verses, casting lots, liver shivers, writing in the sky, etc".

I was also blessed with several opportunities to share the gospel over the weekend. My sister actually pulled me out of a conversation to encourage me to share with some of the hotel workers who were just standing around in a hallway. Though I strive to make my conversations with people about the faith actual CONVERSATIONS, this one felt a lot more like I was preaching a sermon on the wrath and grace of God (prob b/c there were 4 guys).

My prayer for myself after this weekend is for Christ's preeminence, life, substitutionary death, resurrection and return to radically shape every area of my life.

I'm going to another conference this weekend. This conference is an orientation for all recipients of the graduate fellowship that i received.

I'm currently sitting in my room - incubating a cold. I know exactly how i got sick. There's a coworker of mine that has been coughing all over the place and i've been spending a lot of time with her in meetings as of recent (new task, still trying to figure out what i'm doing - i'm no longer working from home. I've been in the office shirt/tie/jacket every day for the past 2 weeks!). I'm pretty sure that i got sick from her b/c my big boss is her big boss (and they too interact frequently) - and he's got the same symptoms that i've got (headache, fatigue, sore throat) - and she's the only sick person that i've been in regular contact with walking around the office (so much for hand washing).

Weekend stuff:

Everyone in my saturday evangelism group had something else to do, so i found myself alone up in baltimore (charles village farmer's market) this past saturday. I don't feel as comfortable sharing the gospel with people when i'm alone, but i figured that it would be a shame to waste the beautiful day (and to waste the 30mins that i spent driving to get to baltimore) so i stayed in the city.

I had a lot of interesting conversations. My conversation with the agnostic kid (about 17yrs old) was cool. He was a blank slate and really saw no need to believe in a God. I walked with him to buy asparagus and I actually had a chance to share on the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the sufficient grace of God as revealed through Jesus Christ with both him AND HIS MOTHER (who showed up midway through the conversation after her son broke down his worldview to me).

Both of the professing christians that I met were way off. One dude was a "holiness pentecostal" (aside: i've learned to stop coming to conclusions about what people believe based on the denominational title that they give me). He was really big into God speaking through all things: people, events, the q'ran...

The other professing christian that I met was a buff (he and his g/f were walking around in their workout clothes) and successful CEO. His g/f did not want to talk about spiritual things at all (but she stuck around a portion of the conversation). Before I could say much, the CEO dude asked me a bunch of questions about myself that led me to believe that he was a solid believer. I was wrong. He gave me his business card so that we could continue our conversation. I checked out his company's website (really cool company) and sent him an email. He seems to be more interested in my education and professional experience than hearing the truth of the word of God...but who knows?

After that I got started on writing my self assessment (annual review is taking place now) in a mexican place in federal hill (short drive from where the farmer's market was - also my former stomping grounds prior to moving out to the burbs) that had AWESOME service and food. I got congratulations from 3 other people in the restaurant when i finished the entire burrito. After i finished eating I decided to write the rest of my assessment out on the inner harbor.

Here's a picture of the view from where I sat:


I took shelter under the overpass so that I could get away from the sun and see my laptop. I finished writing after about 2 hours. The yankees were in town, so there were more people out than usual. There were yankee jerseys and steretypical non-black new yorkers as far as the eye could see (NY and the greater NY area always invade bmore when the yankees come to town)



I didn't talk to anyone while I was out. The sheer number of people was somewhat overwhelming and i didn't have anyone w/ me, so i didn't even make an attempt.

When i got home, my roommate reminded me that Lecrae was doing a show at UMD's main campus, so i made my way out there. The concert was awesome. He's a really gifted hip hop artist, but I was really looking forward to what he was going to say between the songs. His songs are really Christ-centered, so he set himself up really well to preach in between songs.

Pics from the concert:





Reilly (sovereign grace band) was there as well. I knew them b4 they got big!



I actually got to meet Lecrae for the first time after the concert. This dude is actually REALLY TALL (~6'4")! who knew?



i've got some more stuff to share w/ you guys, but this blog is getting waaaaaay too long.