The SGC ladies packed their bags for a road trip to Tennessee to participate in the the Knoxville Church’s Legacy Women’s Conference on February 17-18. Guest speaker Elyse Fitzpatrick shared material from her book Because He Loves Me to a group of women eager to comprehend the Savior’s love for them. Elyse’s down-to-earth manner and humorous style brought familiar biblical truths to life in a new way for everyone in the audience, especially for the 29 ladies who had traveled from Woodstock.
Jesus loves me; this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.
Elyse began the 2-day seminar by reciting the words to this classic children’s song. Encouraging us never to move on from the simple truths found in these lyrics, she traced God’s love story for us through the Bible from the incarnation of the babe in the manger to the ascension of the Sovereign King Jesus.
During the four sessions, we studied the 5-parts of the Gospel (incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, and ascension). We were reminded that Christ is the Wrath Bearer, Who bore ALL of our sins, past present and future. In light of this, we need to “school our souls” when we are tempted to doubt God’s love for us. If we are believers, God views us as His children who are clothed in the righteousness of Christ—no matter what.
God the Father has a perpetual disposition of love toward us and never disciplines us punitively. He never punishes us because He has already punished His Son. When the inevitable trials, disappointments or failures come, Elise encouraged us to view them as the voice of the Savior saying, “Come away with me! I long to share my love with you.” Regardless of our sinful state, Christ invites us to run to Him and receives us with open arms.
As only God can do, the message of His love met our hearts in different places. At the same time, the shared experience brought us together as sisters in Christ. In addition to spending quality girl time by taking over a famous Knoxville eatery, having “roomies,” getting shushed by hotel workers, and carpooling, we shared something even more powerful. We experienced God together—a gift that will
serve to build us together as the body of Christ here at Sovereign Grace Church. The following sound bytes provide a taste of the ways in which God used this conference to affect our hearts…because He loves us.
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"As someone who "grew up Christian" in a very legalistic, self-righteous way—it has truly changed my life to better understand God's love for me—not because of anything I've done but because of His great mercy. To realize that God poured ALL of His holy wrath for ALL of my sin for ALL of eternity on Jesus relieves me of the great burden of trying to be "good enough." For myself and for others—it is now simply to His cross that I cling, nothing in my hands to bring."
~Katie White
“I was convicted by these two truths from the Saturday morning session: 1) ‘You always talk about what you love.’ 2) ‘Self-condemnation is your desire to approve of yourself more than accepting God's approval. If you're feeling condemnation it is because you are not loving God, but desiring something other than His love.’” ~Kimberly Snell
“Because of my increased awareness of my Savior's love for me, I see Him more clearly acting on my behalf in my everyday happenings. This fuels a heart of gratitude for all He's done, and I can look ahead with eager anticipation to what He will do in the life of my family. All in the name of His love!”
~Emilie Windham
"One thing that really encouraged me was that I shouldn't be motivated to
obey God or pursue Him because of punishment or reward. Instead I should be motivated by His great love for me, especially how it was displayed through the Cross."
~Courtney Williams
“God allowed me to go to the conference by handling the obstacles preventing me from doing so. He also allowed me extra time the whole week following the trip, so that I could meditate and pray and really absorb the truths that were spoken. Elyse's message really made the gospel more real and God's truth somehow more understandable. It gave me a taste of the freedom that I haven't been experiencing and caused me to seek/desire all that life CAN be in Christ!”
~Monique Sanford
