The Keswick Convention (held in the beautiful Lake District) runs over three weeks each summer and sees thousands attend from all over the UK. This year was a special celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Convention. The theme was Transformed.
Each week a different preacher led the main Bible readings. Dane Ortlund was the main speaker for the final week, which I attended (best known for his book Gentle & Lowly).
He looked at five key passages of transformation in 2 Corinthians:
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Looking Up (At Christ) – 2 Corinthians 3:1–4:6
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Looking Ahead (Heaven) – 2 Corinthians 4:16–18
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Looking Around (The Church) – 2 Corinthians 7:2–16
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Looking In (Our Weakness) – 2 Corinthians 11:30–12:10
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Looking Everywhere (The Trinity) – 2 Corinthians 13:14
In the last session he unpacked the Trinitarian blessing very powerfully. Ortlund said we are swimming in an infinite ocean of God’s love, but we are like minnow fish who can only see 100 feet in front of them. He simply challenged us to believe that God loves us and then open the vents of our hearts to receive His love and enjoy Him.
The indwelling Spirit enables us to do this by giving “sweet and plentiful evidence and persuasion of the love of God to us, so that the soul is satiated with it” (John Owen).
This is all grace which comes streaming to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Ortlund used another image in his first session: sunflowers grow by turning their heads throughout the day to face the sun. Likewise, if we want to be transformed, we simply need to keep beholding the Son.
He ended by re-reading 2 Corinthians 13:14:
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”
and asked the question:
“What could you ever face now and for the rest of your life, that this one sentence does not overwhelm?”
Wow!
Seminars
Before the main morning sessions, various seminars took place. John Hindley spoke very helpfully on Being Transformed Through Weakness and Disappointments (cf. his book Dealing with Disappointment).
His first session looked at the example of Jesus Christ who came to us in weakness: a dependent baby, born in a manger, a nobody from Nazareth, to His point of greatest weakness—His death on a cross. And yet, in Kingdom logic, this is also His moment of highest glory (John 17:1–2).
Hindley said it would be strange therefore for the followers of Jesus to pretend they are strong and impressive (as the world does). In 1 Corinthians 1:27–29 Paul writes:
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
It struck me that we are to embrace being “the things that are not”, because our weaknesses make us totally dependent on Christ’s transforming power and magnify Him!
Similarly, Ortlund said in his fourth session (2 Corinthians 11–12) that our weakness is precisely what qualifies us. Paul gladly boasted in it as being
“combustible, where God’s power ignites!”
Conclusion
What a mind shift—to embrace our weakness and rest entirely in God’s surpassing power and limitless ocean of love. All praise to our glorious Triune God!
If you would like to hear any of the main sessions, seminars or evening meetings you can find them all on YouTube or at keswickministries.org under resources.
Fiona Steward
