1997 Irish Conference Report
by Breda Sunderland

The third annual Zerubbabel Irish Conference took place in Dublin between June 13th through 15th. On the Friday evening participants arrived from Scotland, England, and from many Irish locations-both north and south. One new "Irish" participant hails originally from Italy!

After tea-time and re-unions, we gathered for our first session. The purpose was to re-cap briefly on what had been happening in our lives since we last met, and to explore why we were together for the weekend. The "brief’ re-cap evolved into several succinct testimonies. So much was there to say that eventually we broke for supper and resumed later. It was particularly evident that insights which emerged about work situations during the Easter British Conference had been put into practice and are yielding very positive results.

Saturday consisted of six superbly structured, intense teaching sessions, given by Christina, Mary, Marian, Richard, Irene and Meryl. We began by establishing that there is only one Person in the universe-God. Everything that is, was or ever will be is a manifestation of God-even if that manifestation takes a negative form. Some people who were attending their first conference were clearly excited by the clarity of the presentation of Satan as always under God’s control. God is sovereign: "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things" (Romans 11:36). Evil is the consequence of Satan’s original free choice to rebel against God. That which God determined was freedom to choose-He did not determine evil. Thus emerged the theme of consequences, which recurred in teaching and testimonies throughout the weekend.

We considered the consequences of Adam and Eve’s choice in the light of the fact that man does not have an independent nature of his own. Each person is operated by a spirit-first by Satan and then through our free choice to believe in Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit. Again the key words were choice and consequences.

Only the Cross triumphs in the face of man’s inevitable failure to keep the Law. We are doomed to live in condemnation until we accept the key truth-that there is no independent self; we are only vessels. Ultimately, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, He operates from our spirit-center. Our lives are His outpoured love for others because we are vessels containing Him: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Saturday’s teaching concluded with a lively, highly participative session on "body, soul and spirit." Later that evening as we walked along the north Dublin shore-line, our desire to relax and enjoy the fresh air soon gave way to further explication and to the sharing of insights on how what we believe changes how we live.

Sunday morning was largely devoted to the sharing of testimonies, which illustrated in different ways how living by faith, knowing that "Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:11) continues to transform lives. Later that afternoon as we left for home, refreshed by the renewing of our minds, we looked for-ward to re-uniting with each other and with our friends in the States at Summer Camp in Boone, North Carolina.