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The Reformation Herald Online Edition

22nd General Conference Session Special Report

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
Part
Barbara Montrose
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

The Spiritual Meetings held September 10–13, 2015, in Salem, Virginia, certainly turned out to be the crown jewel of the 22nd General Conference Session.

What glorious theme could be better than: “Christ Is All, and in All?” This indeed describes our fervent desire—to be so imbued with the love of Christ that His Holy Spirit will prevail in all of our words, thoughts, actions, and relationships with others. Besides the refreshing missionary reports given from the various regions around the world, the spiritual topics that were presented included:

• Christ Is All for Me

• Christ Is All for My Friends

• All Heaven in One Gift (All in All)

• Christ Is All for My Family

• All for Christ

• Christ Is All in the Future

The meetings were live-streamed around the globe via Internet, and the conference was well attended by eager listeners from all over the world. Visitors came from the local community, as well—thanks largely to the beautiful invitations carried in person door-to-door by consecrated volunteers from various countries.

One highly successful outreach effort was the Wellness Health Fair held on September 11 by dedicated health professionals from our church. Over 300 people visited the health fair and stopped at our eight stations where they were able to check their weight and blood pressure, to taste some healthful vegan food, and to have a low cost blood draw. Over 66 people took the lab tests. The health message is surely the right arm to open doors to hearts at convocations held by God’s people.

How important it is for us to host such events! The Holy Spirit is poured out in abundant measure when we study, pray, and fellowship together with believers of like precious faith—and enthusiastically seek to win others to the present truth entrusted to us.

“The earnestness of our efforts for others should be in proportion to the value of that which God has given to us to present to the world. All who keep in a prayerful frame of mind, looking to God for heavenly wisdom, will be able, through the grace of Christ, to speak a word in season to those who are brought within the sphere of their influence.

“The necessity of a real heart work for every member of the body must be pressed upon the people. The labor should be directed right to the one end— a more complete putting away of idols, a deeper consecration, a stronger faith, and more personal effort for the salvation of others.

“My brethren, there should be a different kind of labor from what we too often see in our camp meetings. There should be more prayer and weeping, and more confession of sin to God and to one another. Let the indifference be broken up, let the complaining and faultfinding cease, and the time heretofore worse than wasted in this manner be spent in prayers of living faith for the refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Let us arouse as one man, and unitedly call upon God to send down His grace upon the souls of His people, and to revive His work in the midst of the years.”1

Reference
1 Gospel Workers (1892), pp. 224, 225.