May 5, 1999
Singles urged to greet
millennium with forgiveness, not fear
___By Reagan Graham
___For Texas Baptist Communications
___HOUSTON--With "Facing the Future" as their theme, leaders from across the country gathered at Houston's Westbury Baptist Church to teach, encourage and motivate single adults to "walk with confidence into the new millennium."
___The 27th annual Texas Single Adult Conference, sponsored by the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, drew singles from throughout Texas and surrounding states.
___The past does not determine the future, keynote speaker Dianne Swaim told the conference. Swaim, who was victimized by a serial rapist in 1981, described the power of forgiveness.
___"We'll always be bound to the people who hurt us," she said. "Forgiveness is a gift for us. It frees us to move on."
___In Swaim's case, it allowed her not only to forgive the man who assaulted her, but also empowered her to go into prison and minister.
___Singles cannot hide from the future, nor can they charge blindly ahead and hope that God will bless their actions, said worship leader Cindy Still of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
___"We've got to realize our future is not bad or scary. We've got to get rid of those attitudes and face the future with our eyes wide open, without fear and with confidence," Still said. "The future is here, and so is the presence of God."
___Worry is a hindrance to walking with confidence, said seminar leader Joe Giaritelli, associate pastor of Lake Arlington Baptist Church in Arlington.
___"In a worrisome world where people are focused on catastrophe, we should not be walking around paranoid ... because it betrays what we are all about," he said.
___Putting aside worries also means freeing the mind and spirit to let God work, said Larry Garner, director of church services with Metro Baptist Association in Jackson, Miss.
___Focusing on spiritual gifts rather than talents and skills allows a believer to see God move, he said, adding, "A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability given by grace, empowering believers for service and displaying the presence of God in our lives."
___Human limitations are no excuse for powerlessness, Garner said. "Jesus gives us the power to do everything he did by the power of his presence, the Holy Spirit and the Father."
___Reagan Graham is a journalism student at the University of Houston
___
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