15th Oct 2012. By Natasha Kim , CM –
ConneXion International Youth Conference is a student driven movement that unites students from all colleges and universities to God and with each other. Exciting messages was preached during the youth conference.
The Spiritual Warfare
In one of the sessions, Pastor Timothy Lee from Cheras Baptist Church preached. He preached about moving away from things that dishonour God and began with a reading from 2 Timothy 2:22 which says, “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” “To achieve victory we need to have a clear strategy. Spirituality is a battle and living this earthly life is a battle. We have an enemy who hates our King and therefore he hates us”, he says.
Even when we are faithless, Jesus Christ remains faithful and he will not forsake us. We have to move to activities that can cultivate an intimacy with God instead of to the activities of the world that will hurt us. Pursue righteousness faith, love and peace. He says, “Our enemy knows his tools, simply put, he has a voice in our head and it solicits thoughts in us. Deep down no matter how spiritual we are, we are all prone to wander. The devil knows who you are and how you are wired and your tendencies. His tactic is to create an environment where he can instill thoughts in your mind and stir your affections in hopes that it will induce your will to participate in activities that will move you away from God.” Whatever you’re going through you need to find the source of it, trace it back, maybe it’s something deep in your heart, but do not let your past control you. Wisdom says this is where the enemy gets me so I have to avoid it. Pastor Timothy Lee says, “All of our hope comes from grace through faith. We must say I want to pray and that I want to flee from temptation. We have to be honest with ourselves.” After his talk everyone gathered into groups to share with each other about just how they overcome temptation themselves.
Victory and how Jesus Christ Guarantees Peace
Later after dinner, Pastor Chris Abner spoke about Victory and how Christ’s Victory guarantees peace. His sermon touches mainly on John 20:19-23 which talks about the peace Jesus brings. He says, “God has a problem because the world is at war against Him, it started the moment after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. The Bible says that sin then entered the world and its killing all of us, including everything that God has made and love. Satan is just having a field day with this.” The solution is not man trying to do something to earn Gods favour, it’s when he sends a man to die for our sins, and with Jesus’ wounds we are healed. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Jesus Christ has won the victory for us, but if we try to think about it with our minds it doesn’t make sense, because the war in the world shows the losers from war suffering and being bullied by the winners. We can rejoice because Christ took that penalty. According to Romans 5: 1, the Bible says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We sing about the cross because it’s important, it’s where all our sins have been dealt with and forgiven. In the end, Jesus Christ comes to you and says “Peace be with you.”
The conference then ended with a lively praise and worship session before being dismissed. It was definitely a great event, one that all students should attend. It was a wonderful time together sharing and learning with so many youths from different nationalities.
To find out more about ConneXion contact 03-5621 2623/ 03-5631 1294
