“When I would read Genesis before this past college conference, sometimes I would be surprised at how short the account of creation is in the first two chapters, given that it was something so monumental. But this past weekend, I learned that while the first chapters of Genesis do give an account of creation, the main point in these chapters is actually to unveil God's purpose in creation and His heart's desire to us. Starting at Genesis 2:18, we see that Adam was shown all the animals that were made according to their kind and yet, he could not find a match for himself. As such, God created a counterpart for him by building a woman from his rib. Genesis 2:18 says, ‘...It is not good for man to be alone...’ and Genesis 1:26 says, ‘...Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...’ We see here that man was created in God’s likeness, as a vessel to be filled with the Lord and to express Him. And just as it is not good for man to be alone, so also it is not good for God to be alone. God’s placement of man in the garden of Eden and in front of the tree of life was because He desired to have man filled with Him, that man might grow and express Him to match Him as His counterpart. Learning this was so sweet to me and makes me more and more thankful for life and excited to pray to be filled with Him even more!” — Josh Z.
“One point that really struck me during the college conference is that life is directly tied to our dependence on the Lord. The speaking brother shared that to choose life and experience life is simply to be dependent on the Lord... not for us to do the ‘right’ thing. Many times in my experience when I find myself in a dry or dead state, I complain to the Lord, ‘How did I end up here? What wrong decision did I make?’, but am not able to really pinpoint anything outwardly wrong. However, this word at the conference showed me that it really isn’t about my right or wrong choices. When I find myself in a dry or dead state, it is due to the fact that I had drifted away and become independent of the Lord, even for that moment. But praise the Lord that He is always there waiting to receive us and dispense life into us! All we need to do is simply turn our hearts to Him and depend on Him in our situations, and we will experience life!” — Caleb K.
“This spring college conference, I appreciated how important it is for us to simply grow. In Genesis 1, there is a clear progression in life— all of the plants and animals mentioned represent different stages in our spiritual life and indicate to us that we never graduate from growing. We always need to look to progress from our current situation. Even our being useful to God hinges directly on this matter of growth. If we don’t grow in life after we are initially saved, Christ’s life in us is like a toddler’s hand in an adult-sized glove. So, how do we grow? One simple way is for us to simply eat the Lord (to enjoy Him)! In all of our situations, obstacles, and problems, we can learn to eat Jesus, and this causes growth! This really struck a chord with me— as someone who stress-eats a lot, I see food as a way to ‘solve’ my problems in the wee hours of the morning when stress levels are high. So I was touched to see that Jesus is the solution to all of our situations! We simply eat and enjoy Him, and as a result, we grow and are transformed to fulfill God’s purpose.” — Grace L.
“I really enjoyed seeing the matter of the fourth day lights during this past college conference. Genesis 1:16 says, ‘And God made the two great light-bearers, the greater light-bearer to rule the day and the lesser light-bearer to rule the night, and the stars.’ I was impressed to see that the greater light-bearer, the sun, refers to Christ, who, as the Sun of righteousness, has healing in His wings (Mal 4:2). The lesser light-bearer, the moon, refers to the church (Gen 37:9, Eph 3). And just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, the church is a reflection of Christ (2 Cor 3:18). Finally, the stars are the other believers (Dan 12:3). In our Christian life, sometimes we experience periods of time when the sun seems to be gone and the moon is dim— this is when we have the stars shine in our experience, bringing light to us in the night. We can pray, ‘Lord, I don’t care what is going on in my life. I need some stronger light. I need the sun, the moon, and the stars!’ How we need all three lights in our Christian life for our growth in life!” — Christine R.