Report—Week of April 1, 2012

 

Report of High School Conference

This past weekend was another wonderful opportunity for us to leave our busyness behind and congregate with other localities in the mountains. During this high school conference, the brothers gathered at Engedi Camp while the sisters went to Alpine. From Anaheim, we had a total of 53 brothers going to the conference, as well as 52 sisters, including trainees and serving ones.

We have outgrown the “Banqueting Hall” and had to meet in a large tent outside on the gravel. As we sat beneath the tent, singing and releasing our praises to the Lord, our voices echoed into the forest and our spirits were greatly lifted up. This was surely a tabernacle experience. One brother testified, while recalling how we marched around the tent singing “I am crucified with Christ,” that this was the most enjoyable conference experience for him thus far.

The topic of the conference was the “Line of Life—The Line of Life with Isaac.” Isaac was one who drank of the well in Beer-sheba near the border of the good land and the land of the Philistines, which was a redeemed well dug by Abraham. This well, representing the source of his living, made him a burnt offering, one who was offered to God for His satisfaction. His brother Ishmael, on the other hand, drank of the well that was in the wilderness close to Egypt. This source made him an archer, one who kills life and lives wildly for himself.

As there were two persons, Ishmael and Isaac, with two wells, two sources of living, issuing in two results, we learned that we too have these two destinies before us today. One is to be a burnt offering for God, whereas the other is to become a life-killing archer.

Having been presented by a clear teaching and then confronted with such a choice before us, we feel that the brothers were exercised to practice Titus 2:6, exhorting the younger men to be of a sober mind. We pray that the Lord will have mercy to operate within the young people all things for His good pleasure, which is for the building up of His Body, for the consummation of His economy. (S.C.)