Tom Nettles
Jim Elliff
With two trips to the airport today, one this morning and the other this afternoon, our conference speakers were on their way home after a truly rich weekend.
Tom Nettles from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary opened the conference Friday night with a tribute to James Petigru Boyce. It was a study in a man’s faithfulness to God through the most imposing opposition, persevering until he at last established one of the nation’s truly important seminaries. The focus was on Boyce’s commitment to Calvinistic doctrine, and the need to rain men well to pass that on to the generations following. Informative and truly challenging. If you are struggling with despair in the face of huge odds, this presentation is for you.
Jim Elliff, President and founder of Christian Communicators World Wide – followed with the first of two parts in the life of George Muller. Dispelling the myths about Muller’s mysticism while demonstrating his Biblically rational faith all along, all of us began to desire such a prayer life as Mullers’, but chided ourselves for not possessing the courage to trust God quite that fully.
Saturday morning reconvened with Tom Nettles unpacking the life of Andrew Fuller, by putting the spotlight upon Fuller’s view of human depravity as the axis of his theological system. To see how Fuller did that and made it cross over into a foundation for God’s greater glory was a magnificent treat.
Jim Elliff gave us Muller part 2 with many pictures we had never seen before. In truth, without these, you simply cannot grasp the magnitude of the work. The sheer size of the buildings and the complex of the orphanage – housing 2000 orphans at a time – and this without ever making known his needs but to God in prayer. This was simply amazing.
After lunch, Dr. Nettles moved us to consider Jonathan Edwards and Edwards’ commitment to preaching. His thought and systems were all slaves to his desire to get the Gospel communicated in the best possible fashion to his hearers. This was a different approach, well worth our consideration.
Jim Elliff closed the conference with an exposition of Philippians 1 – setting our eyes on wanting lives like Paul’s – like Muller’s – where they become grand experiments in seeing how the reality of God’s existence can be modeled to the world by how we live. It was powerful, moving, convicting and exciting.
Sorry you couldn’t be with us, but CD’s (or cassettes) of any one session are $2.00, or a DVD for $5.00 Or, get the whole conference (all six sessions) for $10.00 on CD (or tape) or $20.00 for the DVD’s. If you want any – let me know!
Next April – It is Jerry Bridges, and Phil Johnson. Don’t miss it!
ResponsiveReiding 