A somber day, but God!

A day that should be a happy day, is not. 14 years ago today I married my sweetheart. On that day we both never thought we would be divorced. I really did not think my life would be anything like it is today. My life is a great example of how our ideas and God's ideas are not always the same. If you asked me what my life would look like back then in 14 years I would say that I would be a youth pastor or even a pastor right now. Working side by side with my wife.

Now my sin has played a huge part of where I am today. The pain of realizing that it was me that caused the divorce haunts me on a daily basis. As a pastor would say during our separation I am living the consequences of my sin. Sometimes I feel the consequences are to burdensome. It gets where I feel it's to much. One of the worst consequences is separation from my family. There is of course other consequences but that is the worst.

Realizing I might not be in full time ministry again is hard since I still feel called to do that. 

Today I thank God for His forgiveness. I know He walks with me even through the consequences of my sins. I am not the same person I was because of Christ. I have been struggling with my health most of my life. Even before I started drinking. It is easy to get frustrated about the limitations my health has on me. 

I want everything to be fixed now. But God does not always work that way. My idea of ministry has changed. I have become more willing to join God in what He is doing. It is still easy for me to wonder if what I do for ministry is reaching anyone. The last couple of weeks I have been wondering if my podcast is reaching anyone.

It's easy to get discouraged and want to just give up my podcast. I have been doing it ten months now. I think if what I am doing does not fit my idea of ministry than it must not be a real ministry.

That is a bunch of crap, but that's where my head goes. Ministry just does not happen at the church. It does happen on my podcast and maybe even on this Blogg. 

The idea of when we sin or fail that God can never use us again is very false. I failed my marriage and so I lost it. Is it lost forever? God only knows that. But God uses the messed up to reach others.

By reading Gods word the last few months had really showed me God is not done with me yet! Walking with God is more important to me today than it ever has been. From the gutter to Grace. Through His Grace He has forgiven me my past failers.  

If God can use a sick sinner like me He can use anyone. As today is a sad day for me I need to realize how God had changed me and how He continues to use me!

Keep walking, Peaches

Be a part

This weekend has been a really good one. Another busy weekend. In the town I go to church, Gilbert had there town festival. It was cool how our church was allowed to be a part of it. This weekend has made me very proud to be a part of Grace Bible Church. As church's we should be willing to be  a part of our community. The community will notice. They might even be amazed if your churches willingness to be a part of the community.

Romans Road

	The Romans Road

 

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

—Romans 3:23

·         What is sin? Sin is missing the mark. Disobeying God’s Laws (Ten Commandments). If you have disobeyed one of God’s Law you are a Law breaker or a sinner.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

—Romans 6:23

·         This is the bad news. We all deserve spiritual death. Christ came to die in your place.

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

—Romans 5:8 

·         This is the good news!

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

—Romans 10:9-10 

·         Ask Jesus to be your Savior and Lord! Tell God that you realize you are a sinner and ask Him to forgive you. Receive Christ as Savior today!

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

—Romans 5:1 

·         When you ask Jesus into your life you are now a new creation. When we ask for forgiveness our sin is as the east is from the west. 

Gone are the days of being a comfortable Christian

What is keeping us personally and as a church from revival? It comes down to one simple yet not so popular word, SIN. We have given in so much as Christians that we have watered down the gospel of Christ. It seems everything goes even as followers of Christ. I am as guilty as the next person.

I am so sensitive and want everyone to like me. In today's world it seems I have two choices, to be liked by the world or to follow what Jesus says and to proclaim His truth. After all Jesus said people will hate you since they have hated me. Wow, what a truth and one we seem to not hear qouted offten or at all at many churchs. This does not mean to be a jerk so people will hate you. No, it means if we stick to Jesus and the truth in the Word of God then people will not be as friednly to you.

Here is a silly example. Silly becuase it really is not that big of deal. The last few weeks I have been taking a stand against same sex marriage. I feel I have been dealing with it with grace, but still speaking the Truth. So people have been unfriending me. At first my feelings got hurt then I examined what I had been saying to make sure it was true and graceful. While feeling sorry for myself God put in my head that it's just Facebook and it's not a big deal. And if I stand for His Truth some folks will not like it. It was said last weekend that gone are the days of comfortable Christianity. So don't be mean on Facebook but take a stand!

As Americans we have become so sensitive and if you don't agree with me then you must hate me and I must hate you. That should not be so. We as Christians need to Stand with Jesus. If you share the truth in love than its not our responsibility on how people react. We are told to share the good news, we don't save people that's the Holy Spirits job!

So Christian let's read our Bibles, confess our sin to God and use our words to tell people about Jesus! Let's be united together in Christ and then see what Gid can and will do!

Hope for America comes through only one way!

We are in a political fever here in Iowa. Democrats and Republicans are flooding the state this weekend. All together there will be 15 candidates here this weekend. It might has always been this way, but there is an extreme difference between the two parties this time around. But like always the Republicans are pandering to the Evangelicals. I am sure the battle cry at the Family Leadership Summit will be let's change America. The Des Moines Register quoted:

" Spirituality will be at the heart of the GOP conference. Don't be surprised if you hear a lot about revival. Evangelical Christians and conservatives are increasingly realizing that solutions they seek to America's ills are not political, but spiritual." said Drew Zahn, communications director for the Family Leader. Heart Change, not policy change. Just winning elections isn't going to cut it. It will  take cultural transformation. 

As my title indicates I think this is a no duh. What we need here in America is another Great Awaking. First the Church needs a great revival through the Holy Spirit. To go back to the basics. Keeping the main thing the main thing which is Jesus Christ. We also need to hold up the Bible as the Word of God and truly do what it says. Watering down the gospel of Jesus Christ has done no good. Trying to look like the unsaved world while trying to save them through Jesus Christ has gotten lost through translation.

I am going to the Family Leadership Summit with much skepticism. My question is does the GOP candidates share the same view as Drew Zahn and myself? I would guess a few of them would, but what about the front runners that will be there? It is easy to agree to an agreeable crowd that America needs God. It's easy to say that we need to go back to the basics, but what happens after the fan fair leaves Ames? As Christianity becomes less and less popular in America how easy it might be to abandon this call of spirituality and revival.

The fact is that if you have not put your head in the sand you know that we are in a cultural war. It might have been a battle years ago, but today it is a war all round us. The question is what do I do as a Christian? Well, first of all let's be involved with the political process. We are American's and we need to be involved in the process by voting for a man or women who has our values. More important than that let's start acting like the person we represent. I am not talking about politicians, for they represent or should represent us. The person we represent is Jesus Christ.

What did Jesus do while being tempted by the devil in the dessert? He quoted scripture back to him after each time the devil challenged Him with out of context scriptures. So, we need to know scripture! We need to read and memorize scripture. The Bible is God's Word to us. We then need to pray. We see that Jesus prayed and he prayed often. This is not hard things to really do. But we have walked away from the basics. We have replaced the basics with colorful programs and busy work within the Church. If we as Christians want to gain ground it is not by our power at all. We need to cry out to the Lord in prayer asking Him that the Holy Spirit would do a great work. It is only by the Spirit that we can accomplish anything.

Yes we need a revival! And then we need a great awaking here in America!! Let's pray, read and watch what the Lord can do if we have willing hearts.

Note: I will be doing live podcast from the Family Leadership Summit all day on Saturday July 18th starting at around 9:45 am. You can listen at http://www.spreaker.com/show/gary-eaches-peaches-show

Help me to press on Lord!

I woke up this morning not feeling very good. Then I started to feel better but must have over done it. It's so hard to be sick all the time. My pneumonia is still kicking my butt! I pray daily that God would take it all away or take me home! Take my type one diabetes and all the complications. But for some reason He still wants me to be around. Some days just seems to much for me to take! Just venting I guess.

Reading His Word

This is an article I wrote for my church about reading God's Word. I challenge you to take this Bible challenge. 

God’s Word

The Extreme Bible Reading Plans!

I came across a Sunday school lesson I did when I was a youth pastor. It was a lesson about the importance of reading the Bible. This lesson has been tucked away in my things for quite a while. Three months ago God put on my heart to read His Word like I have never done before. I of course tried to ignore this nudging of the Holy Spirit. I kept having the same thought in my head for days. “Gary, have you ever really read through the whole Bible?” The answer was quite simple, I don’t know. Then after that thought came “you have the time so you better start reading!” This whole thing seemed pretty ridicules to me. I went to Bible College so I studied the Bible and I know the Bible. I even was a teacher of the bible and a preacher. So I gave God as many excuses and answers to prove that I of all people did not need to read through the whole Bible. Especially all of the names and Old Testaments Laws. Then God reminded me of some things. First I have for many years encouraged people to read through the Bible. Second I say I believe what the Bible says, but don’t read it like I should. Third, if I really want to walk as Jesus did I need to read and know His Word. So, I finally gave in and read through the Bible and now I have a passion to encourage others to do the same.

How can we as Christians live godly lives if we do not read His word. Below I have verses that talk about reading God’s word and how it is powerful. These verses talk about how by reading God’s word we can live more godly lives. That when we read and know God’s Word we sin less. Do you believe that these verses are true? If so we all need to be reading God’s word more and purposeful. I want to challenge everyone to a Bible Challenge. We have three options. 90 days, 6 months or 1 year. Now if you have a smart phone you can get a great Bible app called YouVersion. You can get that in your app store. You can also go to www.bible.com which is the same thing as the app. You can read or listen to the bible with the app or online on there website. There will also be hard copies of each plan if you don’t have access to these two things are would just like to do it that way. Another app and website for the Bible is www.biblegateway.com If you sign up to do one of the plans and finish the Bible reading plan you will be presented with a certificate from the Church.

We all have excuse to why we don’t daily read the Bible. As a Church we believe in the inerrancy and inspiration of scripture. If we really believe those two things then we must read His Word! Anything good for us seems hard to do. Pray and give those excuses to God. If you get the YouVersion bible app or use www.bible.com you can add friends and you can use your friends to help you stay on track. We can encourage each other to read God’s Word. I believe revival starts in two important ways, prayer and reading God’s Word. I truly believe if we commit to do these two things as a Church our spiritual tempter will rise to heights that none of us have ever seen.

There will be sign-up sheets for each plan and plans available on the first part of July. If you decide to accept this challenge we will check on each other once a month to see how we are doing. Probably will add it to P.F.C. If you need help accessing any of the apps or websites I will be happy to help you. After each plan is complete we might even meet together to celebrate together. I will also add a facebook group called, the extreme bible reading plan. In that group we can check in with each other and talk about what we have been reading. Let’s commit to do this together! Each week or even daily we can check in with each other on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/gbcgilbert?fref=ts Will you join me in this so important challenge?

·       ⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 1 Timothy 3:16

·       ² For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

·       ⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

·       ¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children,talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. Deuteronomy 11:19-21

·       ²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22

·       How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
    By living according to your word. Psalm 119:9

·       I have hidden your word in my heart
    that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11