What will Heaven be like?

  Will there be sagebrush in Heaven?  And will there be tumbleweed?  And will we be able to watch replays of God incinerating the sacrifice in the first service in Israel that cost Nadab and Abihu their lives?  Random.  Don't look at me, it's Rick Holland's question, not mine....But now that I think on it, I think I'd like to check out the videos of Mount Carmel, or perhaps Jacob's ladder?  ;)

Ok, so this last week was the annual Shepherd's Conference at Grace Church.  What?  Where?   Yes, I know you know I'm a big fanboy of the doctrines of Grace; Seven point Calvinist.  The five initial ones, plus I don't approve infant baptism and I affirm a future for Israel as a country.  As John MacArthur says, "I'm a biblicist."  Grace church.  Great name.  Anyway, Dad, Kevin Weston, Kyle Stevens and myself got up early and drove down past Hollywood to the three day conference. 

Dad.  Driving.  Hi Dad

Kyle. 

Kevin.

I'm a little excited.  I didn't get enough sleep and I had too much hot chocolate.  That'll do it, y'know.

'nuff said.

I got some pictures of us standing in line for our nifty badges (though no pictures of said badges), sadly, they didn't turn out too good.

I was trying to get a shot of Kyle with a do...uh...not...-ing.  ;)  He just happened to have a napkin on his plate. :D

Breakfast was actually decent.  They had too much fatty stuff, though, like donut things.  In my defense I only had one.  Though I was nearly tempted beyond what I was able.  Man, those things almost taste too sugary.

Whoever took this picture on the Shepherd's Conference site must've taken it right when they opened up or maybe during the middle of a session.  Why?  Every other time that it was open one could barely move around in it.  Full.  Plus, they had a free gift for all in attendance of a $50 gift card for the bookstore, so...

With my fifty bucks I got a book called "Preaching the Cross" by Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, Al Mohler, C.J. Mahaney, John MacArthur, John Piper, R.C. Sproul.  For those who haven't heard of a few of those guys, Dever is pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist church in DC (incredible speaker.  If you get the chance, he has a ton of sermons online free to download.  I'd link to it but I don't have the time just now and it's really pretty easy to find); Mohler is president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (appointed president at the young age of 33, he turned the place around from an exceedingly liberal college to a more Bible based seminary); Mahaney is from Josh Harris' church, former senior pastor there before turning the reins over to Harris; Ligon Duncan...I'm less familiar with.  Those four were really close friends and wanted to do a conference called Together For the Gospel and they invited the other three (who you should be familiar with) to join in.  The book in question has one chapter from each which was essentially the sermon they preached at that first conference.  Great stuff. 

I also picked up "The Forgotten Spurgeon" by Iain Murray, a book my Dad informed me caused him to move from four point Calvinism to five point Calvinism.  Honestly, I don't see where four point...ah, forget it.  But the more I study...just saying.  I don't get them. 

I also picked up a little book by John MacArthur called "Why Believe the Bible?" Can't go wrong there. :D  I also got about a dozen free books that they give out every year (just to clarify, it is different books every year.  I'm just saying that they give out a dozen(ish) books every year, not the same twelve books every year) which I will not list off here.  

...Okay, fine, I know that's not fifty bucks. So I picked up a NASB MacArthur Study Bible.  Man, I wasn't going to.  I had thought about getting it before I went, but it was twenty five bucks and I was hesitant to spend that much.  I mean, I knew I'd use it, but I already had a NKJV MacArthur Study Bible with similar notes and a normal NASB.  Why get this one?  Why?  Uh...well, the next day they dropped it to 15 bucks.  For a book that sells new for like $50 normally...how could I resist?  Besides most of the rest of the books I was thinking about were already in my Dad's library.  Wish I could've found that two volume autobiography of Spurgeon by Banner of Truth...no luck, though.  Those sold quick, plus they were pricey and my Dad already did have them. 

Day 1: General Session: John MacArthur; Message: Why Every Calvinist Should Affirm a Biblical Ecclesiology - Or, what's wrong with the church-growth movement/'Church of the Tares'.  Great title, church of the tares.  Honestly, though, that's what it is.  Trying to build a church around unbelievers by 'finding-the-key-to-their-heart' simply for the purpose of having a large congregation is absurd.

There he is.  He may well be the top living expositer of the Bible.  He can preach, too.  Let me tell you.  Wow.  Now, I'll admit I don't agree with him 100%, but I can guarantee that even on the stuff I disagree with him on, he's studied it way more than me.  This guy studies his Bible.  If you've never heard him speak, you've done yourself an injustice.

After MacArthur, we went down to the basement to listen to Rick Holland.  That was one of the seminar sessions.  There's about 8 general sessions that everyone goes to and four seminar sessions.  Actually there's probably twenty-something seminar sessions, however you can only go to four.  They have about 6 options for each timeslot and we opted for Rick Holland.  I'd heard him speak on mp3's from the archives of Shepherd's conferences past, and it was well worth it to hear him live.  He was speaking the first part of a series they had going on (by four different speakers) on preaching.  Holland's was the first one and dealt with preparing yourself before the sermon.  He also had a great line, dealing with interpretation, "It (the passage) never means what it never meant", though I think he was quoting someone else who's name escapes me. 

Tom Pennington, former assistant to MacArthur, now serving in Dallas(?).  He was speaking on Psalm 1 and the way of righteous vs. the path of the ungodly (which is like chaff which the wind drives away).  Unfortunately, this one I was having trouble concentrating on because of my lack of sleep the night before.  I later fixed the problem with caffeine via pepsi cans (free, I spent no money at the conference).   My notes suffered as a result also. 

After this we went to the hotel and checked in, hung out, chatted about what we'd learned, ate pizza and hung out...again.  Then we headed back for the evening session, or, in my Dad's case, by way of the book store.

Christopher Parkening!  Good stuff.   

MacArthur spoke(after some special music, some good, some...well, as my Dad always says (I think), "It's not what I would've chosen.")  I'm not going to get into the whole praise and worship music debate.  Personally, give me the old hymns.  But without arguing either way, I have one question: Why, when the drum with the backbeat comes in do several dozen hands suddenly find their way into the air?  Not to dwell on the subject of hand raising, I don't have anything in particular for or against it, but I find it interesting, to say the least, that those hands do not go up during hymns, rather, during praise songs with a drum and only when said drum has started doing it's thing in a big way (which it does tend to do, doesn't it?).  Maybe I'm being legalistic.  On the other hand, to quote Rick Holland, "Most people who say something is legalistic really mean that it's convicting to them."  To close positively, hearing three thousand pastors singing hymns with a small orchestra early in the morning of the first day was an absolutely wonderful way to start the week. 

MacArthur spoke (you knew I'd get here eventually) on the story of the widow's two mites in Luke.  MacArthur noted that given the context of the passage (blasting the lawyers and pharisees), and given that Jesus did not praise the widow for her action of giving all she had (or condemn the rich for giving less), it's entirely possible (if not likely) that Jesus was concerned about the widow's action being foolish given that she may have believed it was giving her some reward in heaven.  He compared it to modern day older women giving their money to faith healers and prosperity preachers on the promise of some return or favor of God.  Not sure I completely agree, but he had an excellent point on the context and what Jesus actually said about the widow. 

That night, we went back to the hotel and Kevin, Kyle and I went down the gym and worked out.  Or rather, they worked out while I watched...jk.  I actually did do a little bit. 

Next morning....

There's me...coming out of the shower.  Yeah... I look it. 

Rick Holland spoke on Nadab and Abihu and their error in presenting strange fire before the Lord.  Now, he's the associate pastor at Grace church...but don't let that give you the idea that he's in any way unqualified for general sessions.  He was a great speaker with a great message.  It dealt with the idea that (particularly at times of new instructions) God did not accept disobedience or indifference to his specific instructions.  We must be careful to do only what God instructs us, not deviating to what we consider is best.

MacArthur had a Q&A session after this where he answered questions ranging from his pen collection (he has no computer and writes all his notes by hand) to the token question on the doctrines of grace (which, for some reason, I can't remember right now).  After he finished, another guy got up to give a quick note on his website where he helped people with their tax info which, I don't remember why in particular it was important, but anyway...about 10-20% of the crowd walked out while he was talking.  This is a pastors conference, but they actually all left while he was still speaking (not at the same time, more gradual).  As he finished, one of the assistants there went up to close out in prayer and remarked that he'd better hurry before everyone left.

I can't blame them too much, I s'pose, with In'N'Out Burger serving free lunches to one and to all.  And man, was that line long.  Plus they were giving out the free bag of books in the parking lot (which I talked about earlier).  Honestly though, leaving early to get in line for In'N'Out? 

Thursday afternoon, we had two seminar sessions.  First was by Bill Barrick (part two of the preaching series) in which he explained how to perform a proper exegesis of a passage.  It was mostly info I'd heard before, but we got a pre-typed set of notes on the subject with good steps for studying the Word.  That seminar was in the Worship Center where all the general sessions took place and we loved hanging out in there so much that we stuck around (skipping part three of the series) to listen to Mark Tatlock speaking on the War of the Worldviews today.  Biblical vs. Unbiblical, Heavenly vs. Earthly, etc.  It was pretty good.  He dealt with the problems of having a secular rather than a biblical worldview and the modern idolotry which even christians fall to.

In the evening, after more music, we got to hear Al Mohler.  Brilliant man.  Unfortunately, I wasn't in a note-taking mood so I don't remember quite as well about it, but he was dealing with why preaching expositionally is important and biblical.  He had a great example about a fellow who was taking a shower and read the instructions on the shampoo, "Rinse, lather, repeat."  "He's still repeating it," Mohler remarked.  There's a blonde joke there somewhere.  He related that to reading and studying the Word of God and speaking on it.

Kyle has already spoken about Steven Lawson on his blog post, but I have to reiterate it again.  He looks so calm when he goes up, but this guy is a literal volcano.  He may look dormant, but put him in a pulpit and he just erupts.  It doesn't hurt that he had a great passage to speak on, "The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword" (paraphrase). 

My Dad had warned us that he was often the best speaker of the week, but we didn't believe it till we saw it.  Incidentally, we all agreed.  How does a guy like this get kicked out of his church?  Preaching the Bible too strongly.  Far too many people don't want to be convicted in church.  Sad.

This post is getting lengthy...but as Henry VIII said to his fourth wife, "Don't worry, I won't be keeping you long."  We're nearly done, anyhow. 

That afternoon, we heard Alex Montoya (who, incidentally, went to Talbot seminary at the same time as my Dad) finish up the fourth in the series on "The Powerful Pulpit".  He spoke about how to preach the powerful sermon.  Hilarious guy with a lot of good points on what not to do when you preach.  Getting bored?  Well, as Montoya said, "Where are you going?  Sit down, I'm not through yet!"  Given that his message was right before lunch, he was taking no chances that his audience would leave early to get in line.

We had hotdogs for lunch.  We (read: me) also had more pepsi to keep my eyes open.  Let's just say that hotel rooms aren't ideal for sleep.  "There's no place like home", but we'll be there soon. 

Phil Johnson, director of Grace to You and editor of many of John MacArthur's books.  He's also a member of the "Pyromaniacs" webblog and runs the website, "spurgeon.org".  Ironically, he even looks a bit like Spurgeon and I found myself wondering during the sermon what Charles Spurgeon's voice sounded like. 

He spoke on Acts 17 and how post-modernists use it erroneously to prove their faulty arguments.  Acts 17 is Paul speaking to the Areopagus on Mars Hill in Athens.  Post-modernism is a denial of truth.  Truth is whatever you think it is and it's a rather relative subject.  It essentially is a denial of absolutes and has a lot to do with contextualization in the church.  Their argument was that Paul goes to Athens, looks around first to see what they believe and then engages in a discussion on their philosophical level in order to reach them.  Johnson replies to this by noting that Paul is not in Athens on a mission trip, rather, he's meeting Silas and Timothy after being chased out of Thessalonica.  He notes with disgust their idols and, rather than philosophically discussing it with them, he challenges their beliefs and preaches many ideas that are repugnant to them.   Far from being respected for his 'respectful tolerance' of their beliefs, many of the Greeks mock Paul after his address.  Paul is not trying to act like them to reach them in a type of chameleonesque evangelical tactic, rather, he preaches the truth the way it is and allows God, in His sovereignty to work through it. 

After this, we were off until evening.

Kevin and Kyle (waiting in line?...I don't remember). 

Coming back from the car, I caught this shot of them almost by accident.  It was just there, so I grabbed it before it ceased to be...Apologies for the blurriness in all my shots and special thanks to the Shepherd's Conference for posting a lot of these pictures on their website.

Orchestra, choir (more members in the choir than there likely is in a lot of these pastors' churches; roughly the same size as ours, 90ish) and 3000 pastors (give or take) singing hymns and giving glory to God.  Does it get any better than this?  We generally sat at about left center field (assuming the choir loft is the batter) in the second to the fifth row usually.  Took a lot of early line waiting to get that kind of seats for four guys, but it was worth it. 

John MacArthur - preaching on the lordship of Christ and our position as His slaves.  A copy of this has got to be around out there and I could not summarize it and do it justice in this already full blog post.  This is a sermon which I would class in the "must hear" category.  He is dead on in everything he says and it gives one a clear understanding of one's place in God's universe. 

Who knew three days could be so impactful?  When I was very young, I found 30 minute sermons incredibly long.  While listening to these men speak, in most cases, they could have kept going forever without complaint.  My only regret was not seeing Dever or Sproul there, but, as Kyle noted, who would I have replaced to fit them in?  Tough. 

Well, I better stop now.  I've spent more time than I have available on this post, frankly.  Now the question comes what to do next?  Priorities include studying for a test this weekend that I'm nearly ready for, writing a paper on Job for school, reading an autobiography on Spurgeon or Preaching the Cross (mentioned above; these two are more desires rather than priorities, strictly speaking), preparing the month's study info on Ephesians for April and working on a sermon on Hebrews 11:6 (Without faith it is impossible to please God)...Okay...well, there's got to be some logical outlet for this information overload I've just gotten.  Seriously, though, with a list of goals like that, deciding the priorities is a job anyone should be so blessed with.

Thanks for reading. :)