Focus points toward true faith for a true witness
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___ARLINGTON--It's a "tremendous tragedy" for a believer to go around the world for Christ and then preach "less than the whole gospel," Louie Giglio told 3,700 college students at the annual Focus conference.
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LOUIE GIGLIO uses plastic containers to illustrate how Christ impacts a person's life.
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___Christ's resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit have brought about the good news, or gospel, that Christ can actually be in a person, not just with him, Giglio said. "We've got to know what we're proclaiming."
___The conference, sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas collegiate ministry, moved to Arlington Convention Center this year and attracted a larger crowd than in recent years, said Joyce Ashcraft, program coordinator. An overflow hall was used to handle the larger crowd.
___"I think your generation has got it," Giglio told the students. "It's not up to us to look back at the generations that have gone before. ... Your generation has awakened to the task" of taking Jesus to the world, "to finish the job" begun by others.
___Anne Marie Warren, a senior at Stephen F. Austin State University, had spoken before Giglio about her work as a summer missionary in Bangladesh.
___"People going to Bangladesh," Giglio said, "sounds crazy" to people wanting to build a house in the suburbs.
___However, "it is not just enough that we go," said Giglio, founder of Passion Conferences. "That is not the bottom line. ... We're to be making disciples." And to make
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CHRIS TOMLIN and his band lead worship during Focus.
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disciples requires that the "right gospel" be preached with the "right power."
___Speaking from Colossians 1:27, Giglio said the "mystery" Paul wrote about was the gospel--"Christ in you, the hope of glory."
___Prior to the coming of Christ's Spirit after the resurrection, Scripture tells of Adam and Eve, Moses, Enoch, David and others walking with God. The "consummation" of that, Giglio said, was when God sent his Son, who was called Immanuel, which means "God with us."
___Now, Christ is actually in those who receive his life into their own, he added.
___Giglio used plastic containers of varying sizes labeled "you," "sin" and "God" to illustrate how a person goes from being in sin and having sin within to being a person in Christ and having Christ within.
___"Please do not go to the nations if you don't know where we are, who we are, whose we are and how to get there," Giglio said. "God is saying: 'Hello, Christian. Wake up. This is who you are.'
___"Don't try harder. Die, surrender. Stop with your effort and ask God to open your eyes of understanding" that the Spirit of God has "taken up residence" in your life.
___In a small group session, missionary Kandy Persall made a similar point regarding development of a prayer strategy for a student's college campus.
___"You do not have to plan a prayer strategy for your campus," said Persall, a Southern Baptist International Mission Board missionary in Taiwan. "It's not your responsibility. ...
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PARTICIPANTS prayed and praised at the Focus conference in Arlington.
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Only the actions initiated by the Spirit will be effective in kingdom work."
___Scripture says Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father "praying always for the saints," Persall said. Jesus also is "in our hearts. ... What do you think he's doing in there? The same thing."
___That understanding "revolutionized my entire prayer life," she said. "When Jesus is within you praying constantly for the saints, you're doing it too. Your role is to listen."
___The key to prayer is found in 1 John 5:14-15, Persall said. Simplified, the verse says that when a believer prays according to God's will, God hears it.
___She noted several ways of praying in such a manner.
___"Praying for the laborers is something the Lord regards very, very highly," Persall said. "Ask the Lord to send out laborers into the harvest to speak his truth."
___Prayer for the lost is another priority, she said. Ask God "to bind Satan from the work of deceit."
___Also, ask God to prepare the hearts of non-Christians to receive truth and to "open their spiritual eyes," she said. Then, "ask the Lord to activate faith within their lives."
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