PCRT 2008 - Day One

So, the sun sets on the first day of PCRT 2008. Here are the highlights...

1. God blessed the day with excellent weather. It was a joy to spend the day in the city.

2. It was fun to hang around with Julian all day and to get to know him a bit more.

3. Got to say hi to Steve Burlew at the Banner of Truth table.

4. A delightfully refreshing lunch. :)

5. Plenty of friends are attending so I'll get to spend some more time with them for the rest of the conference.

6. (With help) refrained from buying any books (including a particular sweet set, The Christian's Reasonable Service).

As for the teaching, it was excellent.

Joel Beeke presented several great messages and certainly did not disappoint. In particular, I appreciated the message on persevering in joyful humility and prayer. He made several good points in noting that we pray far less than we should and that we should be seeking to grow in our prayer. Also, he made an excellent point regarding keeping ourselves humble. While noting that we need to labor under the conviction that we are servants, he noted that we need to remember Christ's love for the church. He said that we can be too open in our criticisms of the church and that it can come out of a prideful heart. Not that we should refrain from criticism of the church, but that we should not be unable to criticize the church with dry eyes. In other words, we should be crying out to God that our church would reflect the character of Christ. Not out of a hard heart but out of a heart that desires to see souls conformed to the image of the Son.

Also, I was convicted regarding the lack of seriousness and priority I give to prayer. I desire to see prayer as something that is ingrained in my life. My action item for now is to seek to carve out more specific time around my morning devotionals so I am not so apt to finish my reading, do a quick prayer and get ready from work. I want to draw something out of Scripture and bring that to God in prayer.

It was cool to see R.C. Sproul preach. He has a good way of explaining things and yet, due most likely to fatigue, I haven't really processed his message too well yet. Hopefully tomorrow I can read over my notes and discuss it will some others who were there to get a firmer grasp on some of the ideas he presented in explaining why the cross was necessary.