GOD IS
AMAZING! ~ For I am sure that this past Sunday morning He was
preparing me for the sermon message Pastor Ed Dacio would share
in our CICF afternoon worship service that day. As I was having
a late breakfast, I watched Dr. Charles Stanley on television.
Since Dr. Stanley has stepped down as senior pastor at First
Baptist Church Atlanta as of September 2020, he has transitioned to being Pastor
Emeritus.
But we can still benefit from his teachings via his In Touch
Ministries recorded messages. The one I watched Sunday morning was
recorded in the year 2000 and was titled "Looking Beyond Our
Disappointments." The heart of the message was: "When you
experience disappointments in your life, how do you
respond? Do you respond by blaming yourself or do you look
around for someone else to blame, maybe God?"
In his message, Dr. Stanley teaches us how to look beyond
our disappointments so that we don't surrender our God-given
goals in life. His message was based upon John 11, the
story of the death and raising of Lazarus, a
close friend of Jesus - and what Martha and Mary, sisters of Lazarus, and His apostles learned from that experience.
Pastor Ed Dacio's message last Sunday was "The God Of All Comfort" and comes from an expositional teaching through the book of 2 Corinthians.
Basically Pastor Ed and Dr. Stanley were teaching a parallel message -
not that God will keep us from afflictions and tribulations, but that He
will give us the strength to endure and become stronger for our
efforts. We don't blame God for our afflictions, but we thank Him for
the opportunity - because He has a greater goal for us. In 2
Corinthians 1:4-6 the apostle Paul tells us that God will allow our
afflictions - so that we may then comfort others who are having those
same afflictions.
2 Corinthians 1:4, "(God) who comforts us in all our affliction so
that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the
comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
That led me to my moment of deja vu. In 1987 I was 50 years young when I
became a believer at the Fil-Am Church of Irvine (FACI) in Southern
California and for several years I was a true "babe in Christ." Yet I noticed that so many of the youth and young adults in our church
fellowship were Biblically mature, and at such a young age. I
began to wonder what had happened to me.
I was in worship
service, Sunday School, and Bible study every week, read my
Bible - and yet these young people put me to shame with their
maturity. Four of those young men became
pastors and married young ladies from our fellowship - forming
young pastoral families.
So
where did I go wrong? Why was I such a late bloomer? Then God put on my heart, "Those experiences, positive and
negative, I had during all those years in the secular world - God
can use to help minister to others" just as 2 Corinthians 1:4 tells us.
Think about it. Those young people, who from a young age were
devout believers and became pastors or pastors' wives - how do
they counsel a person who has experienced the world, and likely
had taken part in some of the negative aspects of our society?
That person who, at age 30, 40, 50, etc., has been
living in the secular, pagan, have-fun-at-all-cost world.
And
now he/she wants to be a Christian believer, wants to turn his/her life
around and serve God. But there are years of accumulated guilt. How does that young pastor, or pastor's
wife, counsel such a person with questions about life and the
world - when that secular lifestyle is totally foreign to them?
Yet I could, for as the old saying goes, "Been there, done
that!" I know what it is to turn a party-hearty
lifestyle around to living a 24/7/365 day Christian life. Yes,
regardless of my life's past ups and downs - God can use my
experiences to help others who are beginning their walk toward
the cross.
And God being faithful, about 1989 through Pastor Sam
Lacanienta He gave me a Christian writing ministry which I have
been doing since. It began with doing a Christian snail-mail
Newsletter, The Good News - then doing church bulletins
with devotional inserts - and for years I have been doing my
Friends Ministry eNewsletter, Facebook dialogues and Facebook
Notes, the Bill & Dory Gray Christian Ministries blog
site, for 8 years the TimesDaily Religion Forum, and for about 4
years on The Conservative Voice online site.
God never called me to be
a pastor, only to share His Word and participate in apologetic
discussions defending our faith.
From 2007 to 2015 I posted on the Religion Forum of my Alabama
hometown newspaper, the TimesDaily. I joined because two atheists were
dominating the Religion Forum. And during those years I had the
opportunity to dialogue with atheists, agnostics, Christians of
the Legalistic, Liberal, and Conservative theologies, Roman
Catholic friends, folks in various cults, New Age and Wicca
followers, and what I call the vanilla-flavored non-believer -
those folks who just did not want to be bothered with God. In
other words, I had dialogues which ventured into many varied beliefs
and lifestyles. During those years, I learned a lot which I
apply to my writings today.
And for several years I was a contributing columnist on the The
Conservative Voice, a news and commentary online web site
founded by Nathan Tabor, who holds a Masters in Public Policy
from Pat Robertson’s Regent University, is very involved in
Conservative politics, once running for Congress in North Carolina, and active in protecting our Conservative
Christian faith.
The experiences I lived while still in the secular world have
flavored my writings since becoming a believer at age 50,
lessons I most likely would not have learned if I had become a
believer at a young age
Let me close by reminding all of my CICF brethren that we are
having worship services in the sanctuary once again. I encourage you
and your family to start joining us so that we can all move closer to
the normal we had to abandon a year ago. Let us gather as we are
admonished in Hebrews 10:25, "Not forsaking our own assembling together, . . . but (coming together and) encouraging one another; . . ."
And don't forget to share this video with all your FRANs (Friends, Relatives, Associates, Neighbors) and invite them to join us in worshiping the Lord together.
Pastor Ed Dacio - CICF - "The God Of All Comfort" - April 18, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDXxgAZLqCE&list=PL_YT3Rttutri2x3a9teQBvznVAO4IjUEt
After
Pastor Ed's message, we have a closing song by my Christian brother,
Victor "Winsky" Garrido, and his beautiful and talented young daughter,
Vanessa.
Also for your edification, you might want to view Dr. Charles Stanley's message from the pulpit in 2000.
Looking Beyond Our Disappointments – Dr. Charles Stanley, 2000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqqv6_8rH8g
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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