Pastor Flack's Blog
Thursday, 15 April 2010 16:25
Note: The following post was written late Wednesday/early Thursday about Wednesday at Together for the Gospel in Louisville. I was not able to upload it until Thursday afternoon after the conference close.
Last night we sat in the hall by hometowns. In the Kansas section we met a crew from Crestview Bible Church in Hutchinson which included David Lansdowne father to worship team faithful Whitney and Matt. Just prior we ate around the fountain in the park just north of the convention center. Most of us sampled carry-out Cajun food which was a touch hotter than the outside temperature.
Consider the work and expense that goes into each of the 7000 participants having already received sixteen free books with more to come tomorrow. The stack includes an English Standard study Bible and several books by the main speakers at the conference. Our entourage has concluded that buying the books would run a tab much higher than the registration.
Today, Wednesday, is the long day at T4G. We had to leave Etown by 6:30 to park and be in our seats by 8:00 a.m. This morning’s music proved to be the most meaningful for me since the start of the conference. I had never sung “I Asked the Lord” written by John Newton. I recall singing a folk song in elementary school honor choir to the same tune called “The Water is Wide.” Newton contemplated the strange ways in which God answers our prayer for growth including trials and a deeper knowledge of sin.
The seven verses of “My Song is Love Unknown” moved me to tears. During a couple of verses I stood silent, listening to the great choir raising the praise of a Savior, “in whose sweet praise I all my days could gladly spend.” It was glorious.
I spent the afternoon at the Border’s just a block from the convention center. I checked my email and worked on my message for this coming Lord’s Day. It’s going to take an extra week to cover the bare essentials about law and liberty. I wrote the whole message and barely got back to the jump off point from last week. The Lord graciously provided the concentration to get the first draft of the manuscript done so that there’s less to finish back in Kansas.
By far the highlight of the conference to this point came this evening with the message by John Piper. Please go to the website and listen to it (http://www.t4g.org/resources/). If you prefer a manuscript you can read it at Piper’s desiringgod.org. When he finished I turned to some in our group and said that every short term missions participant should hear that message.
Piper set out Luke 18 to show that Jesus preached the same gospel of substitution as Paul did. That may seem like an obvious subject but many deny the claim. He threw us all back on Christ and his perfections in life and death. The gospel moved the many worshipers to shout his praise at the close, “Hallelujah, All I have is Christ, Jesus is my life,” the chorus of a new song by Jordan Kauflin who I will assume is related to Bob. This message and Dever’s opening talk have made the conference all worthwhile.
(note from Alan: Here is the video referred to --- )
When we returned to Antholz’s, Clint and I prepared to go back out to get gas for the van and pick up a few items in Etown. The van did not start. Soon all five guys were huddled over the engine compartment. A quick investigation revealed the need to replace battery connections. We did manage to fix the problem, but it made the blog post and bedtime later than expected.
You can peek at a couple more pictures from today. Here’s the Louisville waterfront as the Ohio River steams between Indiana and Kentucky. Then you see Ella Waters displaying her far more frequent face, a big smile.
