SPEAKING MINISTRY: ILLINOIS CHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATORS – MAR 2023
A great time of sharing the truth of God’s Word with families!
I had the opportunity to travel to Carol Stream, Illinois to speak at a conference put together for homeschool families by the Illinois Home Educators Association. I teamed up with Pure Life Ministries, and one of their staff members, Brooks and I traveled up to the Chicago area to take part in the conference, called “Engaging Culture: Pornography.” I had never spoken to a mixed crowd of teens and adults on purity, so this conference was different than anything I had been apart of in the past. It was a different dynamic, but it ended up being a blessed time of ministry.
A brother in the Lord named Brad shared a powerful testimony of the work that the Lord had done in his life to open the conference. During my first session, I shared my testimony and also talked about God’s design for sexual intimacy. I shared many Scriptures, starting in the book of Genesis, to talk about the boundaries that the Lord has set for sexual relations. Then I spoke about what the Bible teaches about sexual sin and the dangers of trying to experience sex outside of God’s boundaries. This is a message that is desperately needed in our day.
The second session was about how to get free for those who are struggling with sexual sin. I shared from the life of David and pulled principles about repentance from Psalm 51. At the end, we gave a call for anyone who needed prayer to come forward. Several responded. There was a sweet atmosphere as we spent time seeking the Lord and sitting in His presence. Some of the attendees had driven several hours to attend the event, and they came ready to receive from the Lord. I believe the Lord ministered to many hearts that afternoon and several shared with me personally about how He had been dealing with them.
The last session was about how to protect our lives and our families, not only from sexual sin, but also worldliness in general. I shared five principles from the story of Nehemiah about building a wall of protection around our lives and homes. I also talked about specific software, technology and boundaries that we can put into place in our own lives and households to keep the lustful spirit of this world out.
We closed with a question and answer session, and you could tell from the questions that people were really trying to digest and apply the principles form the conference to their own lives. I met some wonderful people and am grateful to have had an opportunity to share from the Word of God with their group. It was refreshing to be with people with a sincere desire to live a life of purity in this corrupt world.
DUSTIN RENZ is the President of Make Way Ministries, a non-profit organization that exists to see the world changed one Christian at a time. He has a passion to see the Body of Christ find rich intimacy in their relationship with Jesus and step out in faith to share the Gospel with the world around them. He is the author of Pile of Masks: Exposing Christian Hypocrisy and Something Better. He resides in Dayton, Ohio with his wife and three daughters.
