Minnesota Fall Mini-Weekend
by Vicki Bedell

This year I was privileged to have the Minnesota Conference in the party room of my housing complex. It was wonderful to have over twenty Christ-people (from five states) so close to home!

On Friday evening we all became acquainted over a spaghetti dinner, followed by singing. The two Johns (John Shank and John Jarrell) played their guitars and Jamie Ressett played his trombone. Then, Brenda Luttrull shared her testimony, which revealed the practical application of soul and spirit. Brenda explained with clarity how believing who she is (a vessel of Christ) allowed her to come to terms with a history of suffering and abuse and to deal with the resentment she had toward God about the awfulness of her past. Some of our newcomers could relate to her situation and discussion ensued. Saturday morning, Pat Mace taught on Body, Soul, and Spirit. In the afternoon, Brett Burrowes discussed how David was able to distinguish between his feelings and the Truth (Psalms 13 and 22). Brett also showed the Biblical explanation for Satan’s abuse and misuse in our past, as our perfect circumstances for God’s purpose for us now (Romans 8:18-20, Romans 9:17, Ephesians 1:11-12, Genesis 50:19-20).

Meanwhile the youth reviewed the story of Moses and discussed solutions for dealing with feelings of anger and hurt. Saturday night Crystal, Carin and Cheri Hoffman and Jonathan Shank performed a puppet show, Adam and Eve in the Garden.

By Saturday night, members of the body of Christ had spent more than a day together. By this time, God’s Spirit had exposed areas where Satan had been deceiving some of us. This was usually observed in relationships with each other, our spouses, and our children.

On Sunday morning, each of us shared what the weekend had meant to us. It was obvious that God’s focus for us that weekend was on the necessity of distinguishing between soul and Spirit and on overcoming the foothold that Satan has over us. We must be honest about what is occurring in our souls by not blocking our feelings; neither should we indulge them. When we choose to honestly feel our feelings we have the opportunity to clearly identify what we are experiencing. We can then choose to speak the truth about our feelings (that they are just feelings and not who we are) and acknowledge that these are God’s perfect circumstances for us.