I want to take a moment to share some of the topics we heard while at this year’s Deeper Conference.  For those interested, Deeper is a two day conference held yearly by Living Waters ministries.  The past two years it has been held at First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia.  We went to the first one in 2008 and returned again in 2009.  I am really looking forward to returning in 2010!

The core group consists of Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, E.Z. Zwayne, and Todd Friel.  Johnny Hunt is the pastor of First Baptist Woodstock, and he spoke as well.   Scott Krippayne “led worship”.  (I really don’t like that phrase.  If Christ isn’t leading our worship, then worship isn’t really happening.  And why do we call singing worship as though listening to someone describe attributes of God isn’t worship? But more on that another time.) (I don’t want to diminish what Scott did for us- he did a superb job.)  For the past two years they invited additional speakers as well.  In 2008 we were treated to Paul Washer, Ken Hamm, and Marshall Foster.  This year we heard Mark Cahill, Greg Koukl, and Ravi Zacharias.

I am going to give a brief review of what each talk was about this year-just some highlights that in no way touches on all that we encountered.  I hope it will entice anyone who may want to go in the future to seriously consider it.

Ray Comfort

Ray is always a joy to listen to.  He is a well versed speaker who has learned through his many many hours of open air preaching how to hold an audience.  He spoke on “The Atheist’s Sixth Sense”- common sense.  He discussed Romans:

²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, ²¹ because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
²⁴ Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
(Romans 1:20-25, New King James Version)

Essentially he gave a brief overview of how rampant atheism is becoming today.  Sixty-one percent of psychology/biology professors at the top 50 universities consider themselves to be atheist or agnostic.  I loved his description of atheists as being “reverse idolators.”  That is, when we think of an idolator in a Christian setting, we find someone who picks out the good attributes from the bible and pieces them together so they create for themselves a god that they like and proceed to worship that god, sometimes even giving him the name of Father or Jesus.  The problem is that they don’t look at the way God describes Himself.  A “reverse idolator” is someone who picks verses out of the bible to piece together a god they don’t like and then choose to ignore it.  The problem is that they don’t look at the way God describes Himself.

Emeal (E.Z.) Zwayne

Emeal’s topic was “God of the Generations”.  This is the second time I have heard him speak, and I was greatly helped by his presentation.  One of the biggest areas I struggle with is how to raise my children to know God.  He discussed the importance of raising our children in Christ and the consequences.  He spoke on Ephesians:

¹ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: ³ “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” ⁴ And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:1-4, New King James Version)

I think one of the biggest hang ups I have had- and I know others do as well, is that we feel like we are being egotistical when we tell our children that they must honor us.  But we must do this because we are called to by the scripture.  It is our duty, especially as fathers.  He gave some great practical ways to accomplish doing this.

Johnny Hunt

Pastor Hunt spoke on “The Forbearance of God.”  It is not an easy topic to discuss (to start, what is forbearance?) but he did a wonderful job.  Forbearance means to restrain one’s self.  All of humanity should be destroyed because of our sins, but we are allowed by God to continue.  Christ came and through Him we have the atonement for sins.  It’s all about righteousness.  God revealed His righteousness to us, then provided righteousness to us through Christ.  There is more great information, and I suggest reading through it.  He provided his notes here.

Mark Cahill

I had heard of Mark Cahill, but only in name.  I knew that he had written a book (more than one, I discovered) but apart from that I knew nothing.  He gave a very convincing talk about the need to share our faith with others, and how disastrous the failure is if we do not.  He spoke on “The Holiness of God.”  He said that Holiness is a chief attribute of God, and that we are to be holy as well.  Jesus is holy, and we are made holy through Him. (Look at Exodus 15:11, Leviticus 11:45, Luke 4:34, & Ephesians 5:8).  So because of this we must “read and heed.”  We must study the word and show ourselves approved.  Ask God to search you (Psalm 139:23-24), and examine yourself (2 Corinthians 13:5).  Holiness is not an option.  If we are Christians we will be different from the world.  He then discussed and asked us to examine what was drawing us away from God.  Is it people we hang out with? The music we listen to?  Movies?  Television? (The average American spends enough time watching television to read their bible 22 times a year).  Internet? Video Games?  He also gave a quote that I love: “Do not get pleasure out of the things Jesus Christ died for.”  His website is here.

Kirk Cameron

Kirk spoke on “Keeping the Foundations Secure” and how vital it is to protect our marriages.  He gave us three principles  to strengthen our marriages, and they were: “The Heart of the Problem is always a Problem of the Heart”, “You are either ‘Singing Sinatra’ or Dying to Self” (there is no middle ground), or “Learn to burn bridges and build alters.”  Identify sin and wage war.  He used the movie Fireproof to make some great points about what his character did in the movie, and why it is so important for our families.

Ravi Zacharias

We were blessed to hear Ravi Zacharias speak not once but twice.  His first discussion was on “The Veracity of God.”  No other question shapes your life more than “Is there a God?”  He also made a point that you must examine your world view.  So many people will claim to be Christians, and give textbook answers to some big questions, but when you ask them “Why?” they are clueless.  Why, Christian,  is Christianity better than Islam or Buddhism or Atheism?  He discussed what it would mean if, as Frederick Nietzsche said, “God is dead.”  What if there is no God?  If we know right from wrong, then there must be moral law.  If there is moral law, there must be a moral law giver.  The question of evil only comes about persons, but never about inanimate objects.   We are the cause, and looking to ourselves as the determiners of what is good or evil will lead us to make moral decisions only on what feels good.  As long as it doesn’t hurt others.  Yet, chosing to do something that doesn’t hurt others assumes infinite knowledge because how can you know the results of your actions?  His second talk was on “The Uniqueness of God.”  I have listened to quite a bit of Ravi Zacharias through his podcasts, and I have read one of his books, but this talk was entirely different from anything I have heard from him before.  The most valuable thing in the world is Truth.  He discussed Professor Dallas Willard “Three stage argument” for the existence of God, and how Jesus brings all of it together.  It was wonderful, and I have to say I am going to have to listen to it again to get the fullness of it.

Todd Friel

Todd spoke on “The Stunning Kindness of God”.  So many people want to know what about those who haven’t heard the gospel?  Wouldn’t it be cruel of God to send people to Hell for not believing in Jesus but then not letting them hear the gospel?  However, we are not sent to hell “for not believing in Jesus” we are sent to hell for being evil in our nature, for lying and blaspheming, and creating false idols and false gods to worship among the many other multitude of sins we commit.  Todd went into several ways God’s kindness leads us to repentance, how he gives us common graces, through general and specific revelation, and for sending His Son.  A great discussion.  For more check out Wretched Radio.

Greg Koukl

Greg Koukl is a Christian apologist who discussed “Evil, Suffering, and the Goodness of God”.  While most people try to ponder the question of “If God is so good, why hasn’t he taken care of evil?”  It is a problem that must be dealt with for everyone, not just Christians.  But Christians have the best answer.  The fact that evil exists proves that God exists.  Wish you could have heard the explanation, because I had never looked at it like that before.  A wonderful talk not only on evil in our world but the amazing things that God has done to deal with it.  During the breakout session he spoke on “The Trinity: A Solution, Not a Problem.”  For the sake of keeping this post short, I will just say it was an excellent talk.  You can check him out at Stand to Reason.

But I’m going to cut off my discussion there.  This is just a taste of what we discussed.  I missed Mark Spence’s discussion on “A Glimpse of Jesus” because I went to listen to Greg Koukl’s talk on  the trinity.  I have only touched a fraction of what was discussed, and you had to experience the musical worship (piano and vocals led by Scott Krippayne).  My only disappointment was that we did not take part in communion as we had the year before.  Overall, every speaker was outstanding.  I was given much to be thankful for, much to ponder even more deeply in my studies of God’s Word, and blessed by the time spent with other believers and my wife (without children!)

If you are interested in hearing or seeing what we did, the CD’s and DVD’s for both Deeper Conferences are here.  If any information comes up about Deeper 2010, I will post links here!  Hope to see you there!