WHAT DO YOU THINK??
Wow.
God out did himself, if that is even possible! The LHLM 1st Annual R.S.V.P. Conference was more impactful than we could have ever imagined. Our team began planning and praying back in September 2021, and the Lord began pulling things together. First the idea, then the venue, the name for the conference, and finally He blessed the conference with amazing speakers. All three women who agreed to speak, agreed on the first ask. They come from all walks of life, yet have one huge common thread, they each have a very intimate and very deep relationship with Jesus.
Early Saturday morning as we were finishing last minute set up in walked a very beautiful woman with an extremely kind smile. She was very humble, almost shy. She was casually dressed in a t-shirt that read, “Jesus love you”. Turned out, she was the first lady of the church where the conference was being held (whom I had never met), Amber Strader. She and I sat close to each other in the sanctuary and very quickly began to chit-chat. We found that we had some common experiences in the education realm. She was quite easy to talk to. She would be up first in our speaker line up and I was now even more curious to hear her speak.
Amber began her talk on having a Christ Centered Life, and immediately I could feel how close she truly is to Our Lord and Savior. She had given all of us in attendance a worksheet to guide us through her talk. Centered at the top of this page was a blank oval with the question over it:
Over the past month, what have you been thinking about most?
---YIKES—
Or as Homer Simpson might say: DOH!!
2 Corinthians 10:5 and we are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ
Even those of us who believe we have a deeply committed relationship with Jesus, when asked a question such as this one on the spot –if we were being honest(let’s hope we all were since we were sitting in a church) would have to sadly admit our immediate response would have been something other than Jesus. She continued and gave us so much spiritual insight backed by scripture after scripture. She was captivating simply by sharing God’s truths about us, about Him, and about a relationship with Him. She touched on 5 major points in terms of making Jesus the center of our lives, focusing only on His promises rather than our problems.
Amber posed another question midway through:
How do you fall more in love with God?
The objectives Amber shared with us really were very, simple but made such an impact on my thought process not just for myself but also in how I would disciple to others from this point on.
These were the objectives she touched on; TIME-KNOW-LOVE-OBEY-DESIRE HIM.
Time is where I think most of us fail. Busyness keeps us away from giving our time to Jesus and this brings us back to Amber’s original question.
What have we been thinking about most? What we think about most is usually where we spend most of our time. She pointed out that the more time we spend with God, the more we will know Him. The more you know God, the more we will love Him and when you love someone so much; Don’t you want to tell everyone about it?!?!
Thank you so much Amber for your message it has reminded me to capture every thought and give it to Jesus!