Author

Peter Gowesky

Browsing
In Uncategorized

response time…

No Comments

How do you deal with difficulties?

I was reading today about Joseph and the cards that he was dealt.  This guy suffered some serious hardships!  He was:

1. Thrown in a pit by his brothers

2. Sold by his brothers to merchants as a slave

3. Made a house servant

4. Accused of raping the Master’s wife

5. Thrown in prison

6. Forgotten in prison

That is some serious stuff.  I can’t say that any of that has happened to me.  I have been through several hard times over the course of my short life, however, nothing quite as brutal as that.  I mean that is some serious stuff.  As I was reading I was wondering how is Joseph going to respond?  I’ve read it before, but still, I wondered what is he going to do.  You can check it out here at Genesis 37-47.  Check this out.  He says, “Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourself for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”  Honestly, here’s Joseph’s response in english…  Hey don’t worry about it guys.  I mean, honestly don’t beat yourselves up over it.  It actually was really a good thing, because God used it to save lives!  

That almost makes me laugh.  It is almost so ridiculous that I could laugh at his response.  But seriously, I shouldn’t be laughing.  It just seems so crazy.  Doesn’t it?  I mean am I the only one who finds it hard to believe that for years Joseph went through the incredible loss of family, friends, jobs, status, income, and peace of mind, and he woke up on the other end of it and said, “this was a good thing!”  It is incredible to me.  His response is amazng. 

I know that we are in a crazy world right now.  I know plenty of guys loosing their jobs, or at least in fear of loosing their jobs.  When things get dicey what is your response?  I know what I wish my response would be more like… …

~Peter

by
Read More
In Leadership & Calling

Amazing tidbits of news…

3 Comments

Last night was incredible.  I’ll tell you why.  Last night was Junior High youth group.  And do you know that it was the first youth group that I have been at as a youth pastor where I haven’t taught!  Last night was the first night for our new intern, Josh Adams to teach.  Josh team taught with a good friend of mine, Matt Thompson.  They rocked it.  Let me tell you what,they were funny.  If you weren’t there, they were funny, and they were serious, and they were able to get the point across.  Serious props to these guys!  

img_0803

I can’t wait to see where our Junior High ministry goes! 

Okay, and here’s the second amazing thing.  Last night sometime between 12:00 and this 8:00 am, the salt lick reached over 20,000 hits!  Amazing.  Here’s the proof.  

blog-stats

How cool is that?  Thanks to all of you guys who keep coming back and checking it out each day.  I’m excited to see what kind of a community God may be building here at the saltlick.  

Tonight we are headed out with The Refinery, (Senior High) for our winter retreat.  I am pretty pumped about this one!  I love the winter retreats.  

the-five-logoOh, and next Sunday night @ 5:00 pm we will launch our new service at FBC called, The Five.  The 5 is a worship service that encourages transformation in people’s lives and the culture around us.  We are looking to make a difference here in Doylestown.  I’m excited, I have the honor of teaching and providing leadership to this service.  So, come check it out.  5:00 at First Baptist Church of Doylestown.  

What new stuff is going on in your life?

~Peter

by
Read More
In Leadership & Calling

Pray for me!!! (Selfish I know…)

2 Comments

photo-50Since writing this post I came across another blog post by Lisa Shea.  She was writing about the need to intercede.  It’s a sweet article.  You can read it here…  I know this may sound selfish, but please copy and paste this list and print it off, memorize it, write it on your eyelids, do whatever, but I am asking you to pray.  You can’t say I’m selfish because I did say that I would pray for you too.  So, here is the repeat of the list from yesterday…  

 

  1. Pray for a place for my wife, kids, and I to live.  We have been living with a family for the last several months.  We are craving our own space.  The family has been greatly generous and loving towards us.  It has nothing to do with them.  Just everything to do with the desire to be together again as a family unit. 
  2. Pray for me to lead the ministries that I have oversight with, with integrity of heart and skillful hands.  But pray in that order.  Integrity first.  Skill second.  
  3. Pray for me as I am taking on leading and teaching “The Five”.  This is a new service here at FBC that is seriously trying to make a difference here in this community by unashamedly preaching the Bible in a real life changing culture making way.  
  4. Pray that God would give me great creativity as I teach and lead.  I don’t want to reinvent the wheel.  I want to discover teleportation!  
  5. Pray for Godly guys that would surround me and hold me accountable.  
  6. Pray for my wife
  7. Pray for my kids
  8. Pray for me as I still deal with the loss of my Dad.  It continues to be something that weighs on my heart!  
  9. Pray that I would be a great husband to my wife and dad to my kids.
  10. Pray for times of refreshing and encouragement in my life!  It seems easy for Satan to find things to discourage me with.  
  11. Pray for all the details to work out for my potential enrollment at Biblical Seminary starting this fall!  (finances!!!)

 

Seriously, how can I pray for you?  But don’t write Unspoken!  

Thankful…

~Peter

by
Read More
In Faith in Real Life

Soles 4 Souls

1 Comment

s4s

That is what I am looking at on my computer right now!  Also, in print format we made the front page of the paper!  How awesome is that!  I believe that God was and will be honored in this shoe drive!  I’ve said it publicly and I will say it again, I truly believe that God wants to use these 2700+ shoes (as more have come in even this morning!)  I believe that God uses that efforts of His people.  GOOD WORK CHURCH!  GOOD WORK STUDENTS!  I’m proud of both of you!  

photo-49

Let’s see what God has in store for us next!  Let’s keep being the Church!  Here’s the link for the paper.  

Beaming…

~Peter

by
Read More
In Faith in Real Life

Honesty

5 Comments

photo-48

Let’s be honest with each other today!  

What have you been dealing with?  

I read Pete Wilson’s blog, as I usually do, and I was struck by this one post that he wrote about going first.  Here it is.  You should read it.  How many times have you heard someone say, “I have an unspoken prayer request”?  I am always a little annoyed by the “unspoken”.  It’s kind of like, I want to really do life with you.  I want to know what eats you up, and what destroys your heart, and your soul.  What squashes the fire?  And you respond with Unspoken.  Well, let me go first today.  

You can pray for me, and believe me, I would be honored if you would pray these things for me!

  1. Pray for a place for my wife, kids, and I to live.  We have been living with a family for the last several months.  We are craving our own space.  The family has been greatly generous and loving towards us.  It has nothing to do with them.  Just everything to do with the desire to be together again as a family unit.  
  2. Pray for me to lead the ministries that I have oversight with, with integrity of heart and skillful hands.  But pray in that order.  Integrity first.  Skill second.  
  3. Pray for me as I am taking on leading and teaching “The Five”.  This is a new service here at FBC that is seriously trying to make a difference here in this community by unashamedly preaching the Bible in a real life changing culture making way.  
  4. Pray that God would give me great creativity as I teach and lead.  I don’t want to reinvent the wheel.  I want to discover teleportation!  
  5. Pray for Godly guys that would surround me and hold me accountable.  
  6. Pray for my wife
  7. Pray for my kids
  8. Pray for me as I still deal with the loss of my Dad.  It continues to be something that weighs on my heart!  
  9. Pray that I would be a great husband to my wife and dad to my kids.
  10. Pray for times of refreshing and encouragement in my life!  It seems easy for Satan to find things to discourage me with.  
  11. Pray for all the details to work out for my potential enrollment at Biblical Seminary starting this fall!  (finances!!!)

Seriously though, if we can’t live life together and be honest….  Come on…  Let’s not have the unspoken.  If you leave a prayer request in the comments, I will commit to praying for it!  Let’s be able to develop a community here!  

So grateful!

~Peter

by
Read More
In Leadership & Calling

Privilage

3 Comments

WOW!  

What a privilage it is for me to serve as Pastor to such an exciting group of students!  I am so proud to be apart of God’s plan for this ministry!  It is incredible to watch as God unfolds incredible things… one after another after another.  

Here’s the highlights…

Thursday’s nights “Vespers Service” was out of control!  I can’t tell you how many people came up to me and said, I NEEDED THAT!  I needed a longer period of time to just be with God and worship and pray!  The band led worship and it was humble yet entirely excellent too…  Praise God for the mix of humility yet the ability to use their God given talents to help lead us in worship.  

We just wrapped up a month long teaching series called Reflect Christ!   We looked at how did Jesus react and treat people that he didn’t know, knew, and those whom we know best?  What does He have to say about compassion.  Better yet, what did He do about the needs of others!  INCREDIBLE.  I was challenged.  This was one of my favorite teaching series so far.  

We unrolled a campaign to collect shoes for the organization Soles 4 Souls…  We presented it to our church on behalf of the student ministry, and the response and out pouring on the part of the people here was incredible.  THANK YOU FBC!  People showed up HUGE!

We sorted, bagged, and processed 2727 shoes to date tonight!  THAT IS 727 shoes above our goal!  HOW AWESOME IS THAT?  

We are going to see God do some incredible things to come!  I believe it.  We have already seen some awesome stuff, but I believe as we have sung, “Greater things are yet to come, Greater things are still to be done in this city.”  

I count it a privilage to serve as your pastor here at FBC!  I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!  PRAISE GOD…  

~Peter

by
Read More
In Faith in Real Life

Dear Christian

4 Comments

Dear Christian,

So, I know… today was a tough day for some of you to swallow.  The party voted on by “all good Christians” (emphasis added for sarcasm) didn’t put a president into office.  Well…  Get over it.  Here we stand on the cusp of a new presidency.   Unfortunately I hear too many people bantering and bickering over wether President Obama is the anti Christ, rather than how can we best pray for our new president?  Too many Christians want to cry over the fact that He isn’t like them, and he smokes!  

Well… Seriously, let’s get it together.  

I mean honestly, it is time for us who call ourselves; followers of the way,  Jesus Freaks, deacons, elders, disciples, pastors, sunday school teachers, young life leaders, FCA Huddle leaders, and most commonly- christians, to begin to be known for the things that we do than the things that we don’t do.  It is time that we are known for loving those that differ from us, than pointing out all of the differences that make us so disgusted by them.  In fact, it’s time for us to quit being disgusted by people who are different than us, and grow to love that difference.  See, it’s my prayer that one day that pot smoking hippy type will be standing next to me in heaven praising God.  

It’s my prayer that the person who I judged most will one day come to know the saving grace and the love of Jesus Christ!  Unfortunately when “we” christians make bone headed statements like, “President Obama is going to lead this nation to hell”, I have a feeling that we may be putting a roadblock in the way of that gossip girl, or that man interested only in greys anatomy.  Come on…

People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care.  

Come on Christian… Step up your game.  Get out there and love people…  

John 13:34-35  “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

I need to step it up!  Want to join me?  I hope so…

~Peter

by
Read More
In Faith in Real Life

Introducing the New Intern

2 Comments

Here’s the good news!  I am so excited to introduce to you our new intern!  His name is Josh Adams!  I love this guy.  He is an incredible young man who loves the Lord and loves students.  He is tons of fun.  I am pumped to see what God chooses to do through him!  

Today here at FBC we had the red cross in for a blood drive.  Now, it’s been a while since I’ve given blood.  So, I figured today would be the day to give again.  I checked over the whole list of things, and guess what… I qualify!  I can give blood.  So, I did.  I filled the bag in 5 minutes flat.  Just so you know, it took our intern 10 minutes.  I guess he has a few things to learn huh?  

Well, we were making it quite the competition…  The nurses were coaching us and laughing at us, and just having a good time.  All was well, until…  UNTIL… all was well until this happened…

img_0787I’m not feeling so well…

img_0785

I think I’m gonna pass out… (commotion, all around…)

img_0788

Amazing!  It was too good not to get this story on tape… ENJOY!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG1BVaX8iwE]

AMAZING

~Peter

by
Read More