GOD IS NOT MAD AT US

Posted: June 2, 2012 in Sunshine Report
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Tracey and her brother Robert

You have had the thought that God is mad at you in times past, haven’t you? We all have an idea of who God is and how He feels about us. Most of the time we would like to avoid the confrontation with God because we know the sins we have in our life. Let me remind you God already knows about them, and He is not mad at us. Matter of fact, He seeks to save those who are lost. Right after Adam sinned in the garden in the first book of the bible, God goes looking for Adam; calling for Him to come close. Did you notice Adam had already sinned? The devil has been lying to us since the very beginning. If the devil can convince us that God is mad at us and that we have to clean up our act before we come to God, we will never come. The truth is we can not come to God without Him drawing us to Him. We come to Him broken, dirty, lost and in need of a Savior.

Another example we find in Romans 5:8 saying while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Over and over again the Bible is clear about God seeking us. Once we succumb to His advances, we serve Him out of a heart of desire for Him. We learn how this works by the example of marriage vows. We promise each other to love in sickness or in health, richer or poorer or even if you don’t do the dishes. That’s not a conditional commitment. From God’s point of view it’s all Him doing the promising; we agree with Him. God is always taking the initiative.

The point I am making is that God is looking for us and He is not mad at us. It’s important to understand this because we don’t have to be afraid of God. He isn’t a fuddy duddy who doesn’t want us to have any fun nor is he that guy that is ready to smack the fire out of you if you turn away. Matter of fact, God lets us turn away from Him so we can see we can’t do anything on our own. We were never meant to be alone or to carry our own burdens. God designed us to contain the Holy Spirit and He wants to indwell redeemed man. The way I put it to the girls in jail was this: God is so big; it takes all of us to express who God is.

Later in the law box with one of the girls I just listened and watched her cry as she poured her heart out to me about her family. It’s hard for me to get into any details with you or them because one answer comes to mind and that is to trust God. I can say it in a whole bunch of different ways. What I didn’t know was God was going to remind me of the very thing I had told them to do.

As I left the jail to go home, I checked my cell phone to find a message about my brother who was being admitted into the hospital for a suspected blood clot in his lung. My first response was that he was going to die and I began to cry. I called my brother right away because I had to hear his voice and I waited for him to tell me he was going to be alright. But he didn’t know if he would be okay or not. That’s when I heard God say to me, “Listen to what you told the girls tonight.” My heart told me that I need to trust God. Ultimately, it’s the only thing we can do and have peace. We have no control over the beat of our heart in our chest or the next breath we will breathe. No matter what we do or what we think, the tears we cry or the fighting we do….. We are in God’s will. He ordains our steps, and He will use what the devil meant for harm and use it to His glory. It’s about the glory, folks. God went to great lengths to prove to us He loves us and wants an intimate relationship with us. Listen, God isn’t mad at us. He loves you and me and it’s personal.

Written by Tracey

PRIESTHOOD OF BELIEVERS

Posted: June 1, 2012 in Biblical insight
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Gods plan all along has been for us to be in contact with him. Of course sin brought division between us but that never stopped what God wanted to accomplish it just meant the sin would have to be dealt with in order to restore the fellowship. This took the death of Jesus Christ himself, but I want to show you Gods heart on this from way back.

Back in Exodus Moses was having a pretty difficult time dealing with the Children of Israel and all the problems that arose with them. God spoke to Moses and said, “Gather for me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone.” This is of course exactly what happened, but I want you to notice how it played out.

Two of the chosen elders didn’t go to the tent of meeting. They stayed in the camp, but God still put his Spirit on them and they began to prophesy in the camp. There were some that didn’t like this and one of them was Joshua. Joshua spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” Wow! So Moses caught the heart of God. He knew God and knew his plan was for everyone to have his Spirit.

The intention all along was for God and man to be in communication with one another, or in other words in fellowship with one another. Once God had placed his Spirit upon these seventy elders they could step in and help Moses to carry the burden of all of those in need. I think this is a snapshot of what the church is all about. I don’t think it was ever the intention of God that there only are a small percentage of his people in the “ministry.” I believe he has always wanted everyone to be. After all God did tell Israel via Moses, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” His plan for Israel, and later the church too, is for us to be his means to reconcile fallen man back to him. Paul said himself “we have been given the ministry of reconciliation as if God were making his appeal through us.” How would he go about that you might ask? Well, by way of his Spirit of course.

Just as the seventy elders received the Spirit that was on Moses we in the New Covenant receive the Spirit of Jesus. Jesus promised us the Spirit and said we will do even greater things than he did. John tells us “as he is, so also are we in this world.” We are told we are the body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. We are meant to be God’s representative on planet earth until Christ returns. Our lives are to represent what God is all about here and now and that makes us “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a Holy Nation and a people for God’s own possession, so we might proclaim his Excellencies.”

Written by Louie

READING HABITS

Posted: May 31, 2012 in Testimonies
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One of our bookshelves
Photo by Tracey Lewis

I was born again in 2001. Since that time I couldn’t tell you how many books I have read. Being born again brought with it a hunger to study the Bible. I had no idea how to go about it so I went to the library and found a book titled, amazingly enough, “How to study the Bible.” It helped me immensely. It was a very simple and basic overview of the whole Bible with an outline of each book and a very basic overview. It was very remedial but it was a great start.

At some point I found myself studying apologetics. For those that don’t know what that is let me just say it is defined as “the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information.” I read books by Ravi Zacharias, Lee Strobel and C.S. Lewis. The more I read these authors the more I noticed other authors they quoted so I searched out their books too. I read things like Martin Luther’s biography, Dallas Willard’s “The Divine Conspiracy” and R.T. Kendall books. I fell in love with Philip Yancey and bought everyone of his books I could find and devoured them.

It was probably the better part of two or three years that I spent studying apologetics. I learned that there is plenty of evidence at our disposal to give us enough reason to trust what the Bible is telling us. I discovered there are numerous sources outside of the Bible that corroborate what it says. You may laugh at that and say, “Well, of course there are, and I don’t have to have you to tell me that.” I understand, but it is only what we believe for ourselves that truly makes the difference isn’t it?

Moving along my reading habits started to shift a little, and I discovered a Chinese author named Watchman Nee. He spent the last twenty years of his life in a prison for his Christian witness. He had quite a different take on things as far as I was concerned. Apologetics is the study of facts and logical thinking to prove a point. Watchman Nee introduced me to the Apostle Paul’s revelation of “Christ in You.” He spent more time talking about how it was all about Christ in you rather than you understanding it all. This marked quite the shift in my thinking. After spending a considerable amount of time reading Watchman Nee’s writing’s I discovered a disciple of his named Witness Lee. Witness Lee sort of carried on the ministry after the death of his mentor. He was a controversial figure, but who isn’t that has ever made a big impact on the world?

Soon after studying Watchman Nee and Witness Lee I came across an English author and missionary named Norman Grubb. He wrote several books during his long ninety eight year life. He lived as a missionary In the Belgian Congo and translated the New Testament into Bangala. Norman’s underlying theme to his writing is the revelation that Christ is the point. We humans are a vessel, temple and branch. The plan all along is for Christ to dwell in our vessel and express himself through us. We were crucified with Christ, buried, resurrected and ascended to the right hand of God. He said things I have never heard anyone say. He said things like, “God is the only person in the universe.” He came to the conclusion that God is the only person and everything is an expression of him. Some might think this is pantheism but he wasn’t saying God was everything but everything did in fact reveal something of God’s character to us. Of course man being the ultimate expression of God on the earth. While some may scoff at this or disagree there is no way for me to explain to you the impact his books have had on me. He said, “God created man in his own image that he might have a visible means of expressing and manifesting himself, The Invisible in visible form.”

Norman Grubb is just like the rest of us and he was also a reader. He read other authors too such as Soren Kierkegaard, William Law and Jacob Boehme to name a few. Since discovering Norman’s reading habits guess what? You guessed it I too have started reading some of William Law’s and Jacob Boehme’s works.

I could spend hours talking to you of the things I have learned from these and other writers but I won’t. I will simply leave you to dig and hunt on your own. We all have to find our own path and we will if we simply get on with it. I wrote this only to encourage you to expand your level of understanding by way of the books you read. There are so many men and women that have left us such great resources of understanding God and his universe. I would encourage you to read and read with only one thing in mind. No matter what authors or books you read never let anything but the Bible itself be the last word.

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 NASB But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.

Written by Louie

GRACE

Posted: May 30, 2012 in Biblical insight
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“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB

Meridith Bub’s crosses
Photo by Tracey Lewis

The grace of God is so good it seems untrue. I mean, to think God saves us simply because of who he is and not because we deserved it or earned it in anyway. That is utterly amazing, don’t you think? That is how good God is. He loves us so much and wants good for us so much he made the first move to rescue us from sin, death and hell. The truth is he has made more than the first move he has done it all. All we have to do is receive it.

Grace means our peace, joy, salvation, and our very life is a gift given to us from the hand of a God who is indescribable. He is a giver by nature. He loves because that’s who he is “God is love.” Love by nature gives freely, even to those that we think didn’t earn it or are unworthy of it. If there is absolutely no way to earn this grace then there is also absolutely no way to keep it either. He is the giver of grace and the one and only that keeps us in his grace.

I want you to notice the part of the verse that says, “It is the gift of God.”  First I want you to see what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say it is the gift FROM God but gift OF God. Whoa, God himself is the gift! This isn’t something God hands to us as a separate object. It is He giving of himself to us. Now that is entirely something different than him handing us something that we might misplace or break– it is his very self that is the gift.

When a couple gets married there is usually a part of the ceremony where they exchange vows. They say something like, “I promise to stay with you  for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health till death do us part.” Notice this is a promise not at all based on any requirements of the one this is being said to, rather it falls completely on the one making the promise. This is the type of promise God makes to us. He says, “I love you and it isn’t because you are lovely but because I am Love.” I am going to love you no matter what you do, say or think. I am going to be ever-present in your life no matter what. I love you even if you don’t love me!

The grace of God is astounding. As long as we understand it has nothing to do with us or others deserving it; we will start to see how good God really is. He, by way of the cross, has chosen to be a God for others. He always is about the other person. This, in time, becomes truer of us also the more we see how God really is. The more we come to realize we don’t deserve God’s favor the quicker we will share it with others. Most of us start with the idea that some deserve favor and others don’t, but once we truly see how God loves all of us the same it becomes easier to allow his grace to flow out of us to others.

Let me finish by sharing Colossians 2:6 NASB “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” It really is that simple. We have received Christ by grace through faith and that is how we walk. Sometimes people take a while to understand this. It seems most realize we can’t earn our salvation, but we tend to think after we are saved we have to maintain it. Grace is not only the way we are saved it is also the way we are kept. All of it is the gift OF God.

Written by Louie

HEMMED IN

Posted: May 29, 2012 in Biblical insight
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“You hem me in—behind and before; You have laid your hand upon me.”  Psalm 139:5 NIV

God has a way of getting us where he wants us. It may be a little different for each of us. I’ve always thought it was sort of God’s prescription for our healing. We have a disease called “sin” and he has the only cure. He has the perfect set of circumstances for us in order to get us to be willing to receive the cure; which is Jesus Christ.

For some it’s getting placed in jail or a hospital and for others it’s divorce. For me it was drug addiction, burying friends and getting divorced. I wasn’t in jail at the time, but I was definitely in a place of confinement. I had no employment, no wife, no friends and no direction in my life. I found myself sitting on my couch one day thinking to myself. I don’t know what to do. I don’t have any college or military training. How am I going to pay bills? I found myself completely at a crossroads in life. This was where God hemmed me in. I found myself in a place of complete despair and I had no logical or rational way to get out of it. Until this point I had lived by my wits now I found myself at wit’s end. People like to say, “We always have choices” and that is true in a sense. But at this point my options seemed to be either curl up and die or I start seeking help from someone.

Until I reached my point of hopelessness it never occurred to me that there even was help out there. I mean, I thought being an addict was just my lot in life and this is how it is going to be until I die; which couldn’t come quick enough for me. I was done! I couldn’t go on the way I was going any longer. I had to finally come to the end of trying before I reached out for help.

What seems like the end is really the beginning. It isn’t until we come to the full realization that our way ends in destruction that we turn and try another way. God of course already knows this; so he waits. He wants us to be completely worn down because he knows that is the only way we will ever be truly convinced his way is the only way. We have to give everything a try until we are convinced it won’t work.

Several guys in jail have said something like, “being in jail is God’s way of sitting me down, so I’ll be still and listen.” That is so true. While sitting still and listening may be our last option it is the way we finally hear from God. As long as we are running around living as if God isn’t God and we are; we are in for it. I thank God he knows how to get us where he wants us.

Over and over throughout the scriptures we read where God says to his people “Be still.” I think this is a lost art in our world today. It seems most people always have to be on the go or have noise around them all the time. Sitting still in the quiet is not a common practice. I heard someone once say, “If you want to live like no one else then you may have to live like no one else.” This means if we want a relationship with God that is unlike anyone else’s we may have to live our lives unlike anyone else’s. We may just have to learn to be still and listen. Turn off the radio or T.V. for a little while and just sit. I know it sounds crazy, but God isn’t going to compete for your attention. If you want to hear from him, I mean really hear from him; you may have to take some extreme measures and learn to listen for that still small voice.

Written by Louie

God Unlimited Weekend 2012

Posted: May 28, 2012 in Slide Show
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Another fabulous God Unlimited weekend has come and gone. While the weekend festivities are over the celebration continues. Taking the Whole Gospel, to the Whole Man, to the Whole World is the overall theme of the God Unlimited Weekend at Scott and Sylvia Pearce’s. Remember the old saying “A Picture is worth a thousand words?” Without further adieu here is the weekend as told through Tracey’s camera lens. Hopefully next year you will be there too.             Enjoy!

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WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT THE CROSS?

Posted: May 27, 2012 in Sunshine Report
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Jim Seward
Photo by Tracey Lewis

Do you remember in grade school when our teachers used pictures and illustrations to better help us to understand the point being made? Well, that is what I was able to do in jail this time with help from an old friend and the use of his chart presentation. He is the late Jim Seward, whom we met 3 years ago at the Christ our Life Conference in Louisville held at our friend Sylvia’s house. He was an artist, a singer, a minister, and the list goes on. The most important thing to Jim was to be able to declare accurately what God wants to say. He did that very well. I used a 10 picture giant book illustration to make clear what happened at the cross. As I was up there declaring the gospel, there was an empowerment that came from inside me, which I knew was the Holy Spirit. He’s the real teacher you know.

You could have heard a pin drop as the ladies were listening intently. I told them the difference between sin and sins. In Romans 6&7 we discover Sin is personified, and it is a satanic spirit that motivates us before we are saved. All the way back in Genesis sin seems to be a person we’ll call him Mr. Sin. He crouches and desires which sounds like a person, doesn’t it? The satanic spirit entered Adam in the garden and we by nature inherited it from him. God made this right by sending His son Jesus.

Jim Seward
Photo by Tracey Lewis

As we receive the person of Christ, himself, we become aware of a change in our life – some kind of witness from Him that we are born again. We died when Jesus died and we were raised with Him when He was raised. “He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” God placed us in Christ on the cross; so we too were crucified with him in order for Mr. Sin to be removed from us and make it possible to receive his righteousness. What a trade off!

As I turned another page in the giant illustration book, they wanted to hear more of how God looks at us and sees His Son. It’s only when we trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior we get everything Jesus is because He lives in us. That is how we get to heaven is when Jesus, who is perfect, lives His life through us. It’s really Him; we are an expression of Christ. Think about it, God is so big; He needs each one of us to express Him.

This is really good news and I love to tell it every chance God gives me, and tonight was no exception. As a matter of fact, I have to thank God for the opportunity through Jim Seward to make clear what happened at the cross. We no longer have to listen to our old boss Satan because we have been changed into a new creature. We are not just a washed off pig but a sheep. The difference between the two is that a pig’s nature is to wallow in the mud. A sheep may occasionally get into the mud, but he doesn’t stay there because it’s not his nature. 1John 3:9 says, “no one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” We do not HAVE to sin. It doesn’t mean that we can’t sin or that we won’t sin, but we don’t have to. The seed we are talking about here is the Holy Spirit seed. He doesn’t sin. Our flesh wars with the Spirit and is meant to. The flesh can not please God. That’s why the bible says to walk after the spirit not the flesh. This fight is not two natures fighting because the old nature is dead, severed, cut off, no longer present. We get a bran new nature and technically, it’s not really our nature because we are a vessel so it’s really the nature of God and Him living in us. In Him we live and move and have our being.

I am so excited to teach and share this with the ladies in jail and now with you as well. It’s exciting to know what really happened at the cross.

Written by Tracey

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