CROSSLIFE CONFERENCE

Years in ministry have taught me that many people endure the Christian life rather than enjoy it. They know what it is to be forgiven for their sins. They have the hope of heaven. But in between that initial experience of saving faith and that final experience of seeing Jesus there is a vast gap characterized by barrenness, frustration, and failure.

Even our churches reflect the shallow “easy believism” of our contemporary age. Instead of preaching the message of a living, reigning, and caring Lord who is totally adequate for every human need, many men behind our pulpits have watered down the truth of the grace of God, thus giving reign to licentiousness and antinomianism.

Few verses in Scripture sum up the core message of this conference like Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” So many Christians today try to live the Christian life apart from Christ; but such human endeavors are doomed to failure. Jesus made that clear when He declared with categorical finality: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Tragically, Christians still attempt to copy the Christ of history in their own strength. The fact is, only one person ever lived the Christian life; it was Jesus, and He did so to the pleasure and glory of His Father (Luke 3:21-22; 9:28-35). So the Christian life is nothing less than “the outliving of the indwelling Christ” on the principle of dependent faith. The miracle of the indwelling life of Christ is made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Life is not achieved by longing for a better life and lingering at the cross. There must be appropriation by faith of the Holy Spirit to fill life with the presence of the Lord Jesus. Following appropriation there is abiding by faith in the Savior.

This conference is designed to help each participant experience the exchanged life; the old self-life exchanged by the new Christ-life living in and through us. The exchanged life is one of abundance. The Savior promised “rivers of living water” to flow from the Spirit filled life (John 7:38).