It happened in Devon – Part 3

Limmud, study, has always been a major part of Foundations. In some earlier conferences we packed in end-to-end teaching sessions, as seems to be the norm on the conference circuit, with scarcely room to breathe, let alone assimilate the wisdom being offered. Now we go for quality, rather than quantity. It’s not necessarily that our teachers are of a higher calibre, as we have tended to use the same teachers from conference to conference. But less can often be more:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

To really handle the word of truth sometimes we must allow it to marinate within us and this can only effectively happen if we give it time to do so. So, at Foundations 10, we cut back on teaching slots to just two or three key messages a day and each was usually followed by a yeshiva, a prolonged time of questioning and discussion, to make sure the message holds and is remembered … and acted on. We were greatly encouraged to find that the messages given seemed to dovetail into each other in terms of themes and even Scriptures referenced, although the teachers each prepared their lessons in isolation!

And, finally, we have berachot, blessings. Paul Luckraft actually taught on this subject early on in the week as we wanted it to be a persistent theme and a practical exercise.

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. (Proverbs 11:25 ESV)

We all consciously went out of our way to speak blessings to each other, often just a few words and, as mentioned before, many cards passed hands, for that very purpose. And, at the very end, Keila pronounced the Aaronic blessing to all of us, in Hebrew and in English. A fitting end to a blessed time for all (spoken from right to left).

eleycha       panav      Adonai        ya’er          v’yishmerecha   Adonai        y’varekecha

 upon you        His face      The LORD will shine         and He will keep you    The LORD  will bless you 

shalom         lecha       v’yasem     eleycha      panav        Adonai       yisa        vichunecha

shalom             to you   and establish      to you       The LORD lift up His countenance   be gracious to you

 These are not just my observations. Here is an excerpt of a poem, written afterwards by one of the delegates:

 Bonded together is one unity; how precious, how sweet, together to be!

Words are inadequate to describe the sublime but here is a flavour of our happy time:

The teaching was centred on God’s Word not man’s, we were exhorted to surrender to Father’s plans.

To lay down our rebellion and come out of the dark and heed the LORD’s call to join Him in the ark.

To rid ourselves of the fear of man; instead fearing Him Who ultimately can.

Throw body and soul to the fires of hell; not shrinking, not compromising, a gospel to tell.

From our advantage in Jesus far above, we can soar over trouble on wings of a dove.

And fix our eyes on our glory, our crown; keep standing in victory and keep looking down!

There was dancing in freedom, arts and crafts, timelines, evangelism and quite a few laughs!

Yeshivas, cartoons, we could show and could tell, with preaching umpired by a heresy bell.

True repentance that washes and cleanses the soul, was aided and abetted by a large fish bowl.

A man in white made a courageous stand; his garments cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.

The blessing of children, what a joy to behold; sweetness of fellowship for the young and the old.

Words won’t suffice for adequately expressing, the fellowship, joy and wonderful blessing.

All we can do is simply lay at His feet, those costly sins that His blood did defeat.

We give God all the glory, our voices we raise, our hearts full of wonder, love and praise.

So, these articles may seem self-indulgent but they were begging to be written while the events of the past week are still fresh in my mind. I sincerely believe that God gave us a tiny glimpse into possibilities. Could this have been a key to real Christian living? Could One New Man be a bigger, more important, concept than we had ever imagined it to be?

This is an extract from the book, Shalom, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/shalom-239-p.asp

Study and blessings