G3 Conference Day 3: Final day, Final Thoughts
By Elizabeth Prata
I waited two years for this conference. That’s 730 days. It was over in a heartbeat, just 2 and a half days. That’s just 0.34% of the time of the last 2 years.
But it was everything! It was 100% edifying. 100% eternal. 100% joyous.
We started the day with an altered schedule. Last night just as the movie The Essential Church was to begin its showing, a bomb threat was called in. The building was evacuated. Many of the speakers were staying at the next door hotel, and as police pushed people further and further back, and when it became obvious they were not going to be able to return to the building, they gathered in that hotel lobby – and began singing praises to the Lord.
Religious conference proceeds Saturday after bomb threat
The morning’s first speaker by video would have been John MacArthur, but since the building had been closed all night, the GICC crew needed extra time to clean it, which hadn’t been possible the night before. The day would start an hour late. So the video sermon sent in by John MacArthur was canceled and the second slated speaker was now going to be first in order. It was Ken Ham and sermon titled God’s Sovereignty in Creation.
Ham spoke passionately about the attacks on God starting in Genesis 3. The man is 71, and I was thinking after, I pray the Lord gives me as much passion and articulation within my niche as He has given Ken Ham all these past 40 years of beating the drum for Genesis 1-11. Answers in Genesis, Ham’s organization, offers an INCREDIBLE mount of material for all ages on all types of platforms. Homeschool, Sunday school curricula, videos, books, kids’ books, you name it.
“God made the animals according to their kinds, but He made man in HIS image. Man is not an animal.” ~Ken Ham
After a short break we listened to Mike Riccardi speak on the Sovereignty of God in Particular Redemption, expositing the answer to the question “In whose place did Jesus stand in absorbing God’s wrath?” He is an articulate man whose theological precision is only equaled by his clarity. I’ll put a link to these men’s biographies and where you can listen to them in the future.
Steven Lawson was closing the conference but I couldn’t stay to listen- our hotel checkout time was noon.
Our checkout experience was smooth and soon we were on the road to home. After a group photo of course, of most of the ones from our church who came to hear these wondrous things.
G3 (Gospel, Grace, Glory) 2023 national conference speakers
Now all that is left is to pray that the Holy Spirit would apply these truths to me in His inimitable way.
These people are precious to me: some of the young people from our church who traveled to the conference. Is there anything sweeter than seeing young people dig into their Bible with all eager attention?
Points I’m pondering:
–I loved the seminary-level teaching at G3 from seasoned and credible men of the faith.
–Many of the doctrines they taught that were related to Election were the SAME we have recently been taught in my own church. So: the blessing is there is seminary-level teaching at my home church as well! I love my pastors.
–I loved seeing the excitement of the younger people we traveled with and the new friends I met there. God ALWAYS leaves a remnant and a next generation for His name.
–I loved meeting my social media friends. It was a great reunion!
–I’m getting old. Leaving home was a struggle. Absorbing all the firehose of teaching for 8-9 hours was also a struggle. I ain’t a spring chicken. Where does the time go???
— The best part was when the bomb threat occurred, the men lingering in the hotel lobby and deciding to praise the Lord in song. They do not just preach God’s sovereignty, when tested, they showed that they LIVE it.
If you ever have an opportunity to attend this conference, please deeply consider it. Josh Buice said conferences aren’t real life, and he is right. But getting away once in a blue moon to refresh and reset by and with the word of God given by top theologians and singing with 8000 other people is a foretaste of heaven. It propels a person forward even as we step back into the mundane day by day tasks.
Blessings to you and thank you for reading!
