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Peter Gowesky

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In Faith in Real Life

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This morning I came across this verse in Acts, one which I am familiar with yet it struck me differently today…  “And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the eart, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist,” Acts 17:26-28

Have you ever been in the dark?  I mean the absolute dark.  As in the absence of any light?  One time I think I can honestly say I was in the dark.  We went on a field trip when I was in 6th grade to Crystal Cave Pa.  Apparently this is “Pennsylvania’s Greatest Wonder”.  Anyway, it was cool, but the best part was when they took you in the cave and shut the lights off.  And I mean all of the lights.  It was pitch black, dark, like devoid of any light DARK!  I can remember feeling infinitely small, and even remotely scared.  I couldn’t see.  I wouldn’t be able to find my way out, etc…  It was a strange feeling.  I would have done anything to find the light, had I not known that the guide was trustworthy enough to turn the lights back on… (Which he was…)

Back to Acts… Paul is writing here that we are to search for God, and to find Him.  I like the wording that the New American Standard Bible uses, “that they might grope for Him and find Him.”  That totally carries some great mental pictures.  Can’t you just picture someone who is searching for something but can’t find it?  Jesus calls Himself the light of the world.  Things are so much better in the light then in the dark.  Shouldn’t we do everything we can to get back into the light?  {See Ephesians 5:6-16}  

What prevents you from finding God?  I don’t mean finding God as in for the first time… I mean what prevents you from getting on your knees every day and groping for more of God… searching and seeking and earnestly looking to find out more about Him?

on my knees looking…

~Peter

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Carry the Conversation

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Good morning!  So, monday spilled over into tuesday… just a wee bit. Sorry!  Anyway, Happy Easter everyone.  I hope that you all had a great time with friends and family celebrating the Hope that we have in Jesus Christ!  If you were not able to be there Sunday for the Five, you can go here and listen to the sermon.  Then join the conversation.  As you know, I love to carry the conversation over from Sunday and really dig in and benefit from one another’s thoughts and conversation.  So, text me a question next time… You can control the conversation… It’s like a choose your own ending novel!  Let’s roll.  

I got this sweet little vibration in my pocket while preaching, asking this: “Not sure that it was God’s plan.  I think that scripture points out that this was Gods plan A.  Humanly speaking it was the disciples plan b but in God’s word this was His plan A.  Thoughts?”

I don’t believe that Easter was God’s plan A.  I actually would disagree with you.  In love of course…  See, here’s the way I read it.  Up until Genesis 3:7 Adam and Eve lived in a sinless state.  This is the stage of humanity known as the age of innocence.  Or more plainly put, it was a sin free environment.  Sin did not exist in humans hearts until Genesis 3:7.  I believe that God’s original intent, or His plan A was for humanity to live in a sinless state.  Due to our sin, we created a need for a Plan B.  Since God is a loving God one who desires a relationship with each and every one of us, He rolled out Plan B.  That is the plan that we celebrate every year, Easter.  

“When you said that you can’t find the plan anywhere in the Bible what did you mean?  The entire Old Testament is filled with references to Easter being the plan of redemption, with Jesus the sacrificial lamb, crucified, and resurrected.  Not sure I follow your first comments.”

I agree with you absolutely.  I agree 100%.  However, what I was trying to say was that in the first 62 verses of the Bible, which summarizes the entire age of innocence, we do not find one illusion to the fact that this plan, Jesus death on a cross, is what was desired.  

From this point on however, it is clear that Jesus is the sacrificial lamb, the Messiah, who has come to pay the penalty for my sins.  I thank God for what He did for me.   However, I believe that it was only because of my sin that Jesus hung on the cross to die.  I don’t think that God had this as a part of His plan A.  I believe He foreknew it, but did not plan it.  I think we with our own free will messed that one up.   I came across a video on Carlos Whittaker’s Blog.  It is very challenging.  It made me really think about my sin that drove Christ to the cross.  

[vimeo 4122848]

I loved our conversation today.  Don’t ever just take my word for it…  Think for yourself… It’s okay to disagree.  That is what makes the Body of Christ so beautiful.  We are so diverse!  I can’t wait to see what God is going to do next.  You?  

I love you guys!  

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Tuesday’s Thoughts

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crazy-love

I can’t stop thinking…

“God put me in Simi Valley, California, to lead a church of comfortable people into lives of risk and adventure.  I believe He wants us to love others so much that we go to extremes to help them.  I believe He wants us to be known for giving- of our time, our money, and our abilities- and to start a movement of “giving” churches.  In so doing, we can alleviate the suffering in the world and change the reputation of His bride in America.  Some people, even some at my church, have told me flat out, “You’re crazy.”  But I can’t imagine devoting my life to a greater vision.  We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God.  You’ve probably heard the expression, “I believe in God, just not organized religion.”  I don’t think people would say that if the church truly lived like we are called to live.  The expression would change to “I can’t deny what the church does, but I don’t believe in their God.”  At least then they’d address their rejection of God rather than use the church as a scapegoat.”  {Francis Chan, “Crazy Love pg. 21-22}

What if OUR church looked like that. 

What if we looked like that…

or…

What if I looked like that?

See, it starts with me.  It starts with you!  

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO DO IN ORDER TO SEE THIS HAPPEN?

~Peter

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Carry the Conversation

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So, yesterday if you missed the Five, you missed an awesome time!  I was really excited to see everyone hanging out and enjoying dinner…  It sure was good too!  MMM…  I could eat mexican food any day of the week.  So, with that being said… if you missed the Five, go over here, and give a listen.  Also make sure you check out this video interview with Joe Drenth…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9EADK-nW1A]

We were talking about trust last night.  So, it made me think… What is the hardest thing about trust for you?  

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Fatherhood

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Yesterday and today I had the privilage of watching both of my kids close their eyes and enter into a time of rest.  Much like their dad, they like their back rubbed in order to fall asleep.  (to Noah’s future wife: I’m sorry, if this is setting you up for countless nights of back rubs…)  So I was gladly rubbing their back and watching my little 3 1/2 year old and 2 year old fall asleep.  It really was amazing.  If you aren’t a parent you may be wondering why this is so inspiring.  I didn’t get it till I became a dad.  (so, hold onto your hat…)

There is nothing that disturbs me more than when my child is distressed.  Crying in fear, crying in pain, and crying in panic.  I hate that.  I want nothing more than to wrap my arms around them both and protect them from feeling that way.  So, as I watched their tears turn to calm steady breathing, turn to resting, it was a beautiful picture; one which I will not soon forget.  

Noah and Grace, it is a joy to be your daddy.  I love you both so much.

At The Five, we are in a sermon series called Plan B.  This is looking at what do we do when life doesn’t go our way?  How do we react and respond?  I couldn’t help but think about how God must feel when we are all in a panic, and we are running around like crazy people.  Don’t you think that if God created all of our emotions, and we are made in His image, that we must be feeling a portion of what He would feel?  I wonder… if God gets as much joy and pleasure out of watching us rest in Him?  I’m willing to bet He does.  

Take a break.  Quit trying.  Rest in God.  

~Peter

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Carry the Conversation

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Yet again, I forgot entirely to mention the text your questions bit… So, we didn’t receive any questions.  So, nothing to answer today… However, I choose to blame the fact that there were no questions on the rediculously beautiful weather that we had yesterday…  (until about 6:30)  Seriously, I don’t blame all of you who skipped church.  Those of you who set aside your time being with God in order to enjoy the great outdoors!  I’m just messing around.  Anyhow, if you weren’t at the Five last night, we missed you.  

We are messing around with a new website even as we speak.  You can link to it from here.  Last night’s sermon is up there, and also the week before too.  So, get excited… We will load up more and more information as hours in the day become available to do so!  

I’m so excited to be able to pastor such an exciting service!  I can’t wait to see what God does!  

~Peter

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Refinished

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Right now I am in the midst of a project.  I have a dresser laid out in the basement receiving its first coat of primer.  It was stained a honey”ish” color, and we are going to be using it for my daughter Grace.  So, here’s the deal.  We didn’t like the color, and we didn’t like the handles.  We liked the dresser overall though…  It has great potential.  It is in decent shape.  It needs a little love from the gorilla.  That is the gorilla glue… But, it will be a solid piece of beautiful furniture once we are done with it.  

Yesterday I sanded it down, roughed up the finish a bit so that it will be ready to accept the primer that I applied today.  

It is a work in progress.  

It is not perfect yet.

It is just like me.  

I am a work in progress.  I am not perfect yet.  

Every single one of us has incredible potential.  We have the ability to be incredible or just honey colored stained wood.  God has given each one of us and incredible gift- LIFE.  What are you doing right now, today, to increase the beauty that God has instilled in you.  What are you doing to refinish your life so that it radiates God’s glory?  What are you doing today to take care of the gift that God values at a cost non of us could ever pay?

I’m working on refinishing my life…

~Peter

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Doors…

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How do you know what to do?  I mean seriously…  Life can become overwhelming when you have to make all kinds of decisions.  Especially long term decisions.  Without getting into the gory details, Tiffany and I are honing in on purchasing a home.  God has been so good to us. 

It is scary to decide your future.  Knowing that one move affects the next, and so on and so on.  

I had a professor share with us some very wise thoughts about this exact idea.  I’ll share them with you.  

When you don’t know what to do, and you are seeking God’s will, start by praying.  Pray and ask God to show you what to do.  Ask God to lead you in the right direction, to open doors that need to be opened, and close doors that need to be closed.  

Then my professor said something very simple.  Start walking through the doors.  Trust that God will close the doors that are meant to be closed, and that the ones that are meant to be open will be open.  

I’m in this particular season of life right now.  I’m turning knobs and handles.   Some doors are closed  and others are opening.  It’s hard to walk this way.  Honestly!  It’s rough, it’s stressful, it’s sleep depriving, and it’s definitely disappointing at times.  There are some doors that I would love to hack open at all costs.  BUT, it’s rewarding when you know that you are following God’s plan for your life.  

a work in progress…

~Peter

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Carry The Conversation- Plan B: Unknown Stories

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Last night we started a new teaching series at the five, Plan B.  Honestly I sit here and I am overwhelmed and excited by it all at the same time.  I feel like it is so huge of a thought to wrap our minds around that it is going to be hard for me to do it justice, yet I am thrilled to be able to help spur on thought, and discussion, which hopefully will lead to healing and restoration.  Here’s the video that we used to open up our teaching time.

  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GdGM-p9ckM]

I remembered to push the conversation through text button last night, and we did get a few questions…  So, let’s carry the conversation over…

1.  Why did God choose to send Elijah to Zarephath?  

God moved Elijah away from the brook for one very simple reason.  The brook wasn’t there anymore.  It had dried up, and it was non existent.  So, God moved him to Zarephath.  I can’t find any direct line of reasoning for why God chose Zarephath out of all the towns in the world to send Elijah to.  What’s ironic is that God sent Elijah to a Phoenician town while He was fleeing from the promoter of a Phoenician pagan theological system.    

2.  What is the difference between a Baptist and a NonDenominational Church?  Don’t we all worship the same God?

The difference’s between a Baptist Church and a NonDenominational Church are often very small.  It generally tends to come down to how do you do certain things.  As in, what is the method, or tradition, that you use in order to serve communion.  There are any number of examples that I could give.  However, to answer your question plainly, there is not much of a difference between a Baptist Church and a Bible believing NonDenominational church.  In the case of a Bible believing NonDenominational church, yes, we do worship the same God.  

The other youth group I go to is kinda dried out, what can I or the group do to try and “moisten” our hearts?

This is a great question.  You could very seriously replace the word youth group with the word church and apply this to any situation inside of the body of Christ.  From time to time, we will go through seasons of “dryness”; meaning, we won’t be in as close communion with God.  We will go through this personally as well as corporately.  Why is it that some church’s are booming today, but 3 years from now there is a few faithful attenders, but the boom has gotten up and busted?  I’m sure that there is no easy answer to this.  However, the number one thing that you can do is pray and ask God to show you ways that you can help draw the group/church back into that experience and that fellowship.  A great book to read for this is “It” by Craig Groeschel.  Here’s a link to a video done by Craig, talking about the book.  

Some of the things that you can be doing is by cultivating an environment where people are known and cared for.  This is something that we try and do at the Five.  I think another thing you can do is to make sure that what is being discussed and what is being taught are things that are relevant and important to today.  Meaning, what am I going to do with what I just heard… If I can’t do something with it today, or tonight when I get home, than….  I’m not sure it really matters.  Unfortunately that is the attitude that we too often face.  

The best thing you can do is to pray for your group, your church, and your pastor!  

Thanks for the questions… Keep em coming!

~Peter

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