THE SPIRITUAL SOLUTION

If we live in the S p i r i t , let us also walk in the S p i r i t .
P a u l ‘ s E p i s t l e t o t h e G a l a t i a n s , C h a p t e r 5 : 2 5

Greetings in the Strong Name of Jesus,

THANK YOU for being a part of this family of God we call Faith Community!

It was 15 years ago this month that the Lord directed us to launch FCC. We had been prayerfully considering and looking for opportunities to minister in greater Chicago, but it was here in St. Louis that the doors were opening.

The next month, on June the 21st, Vickie and I were married. I certainly chose a wonderful FIRST LADY for FCC! (Can I get an AMEN?) (You better say AMEN!)

In July of that year we brought a group of young people from our home church to hand out invitations, and locate interested families. We knocked on 1000 doors in one day and located 75 interested families. We followed up with letters of introduction and personal calls.

In August Vickie and I moved to Edwards Place Condominiums in Maryland Heights. We lived on the 3rd floor. That was good exercise. As we drove across the Mississippi River we had an anxious feeling in our stomachs (what if we failed?), a passion in our hearts (how can we reach this city with the Gospel?), and $1,000 in our pockets (a precious gift from an older couple who are now both in arms of Jesus).

On the third Sunday of September, (the 15th) we opened the doors of FCC for the first time. We welcomed 27 souls from the St. Louis area to the Knights of Columbus hall on Aide Road in St. Ann, (the rent was $50.00 a Sunday). Besides your Pastor and his wife, Sister Daisy Eisfelder Goodrich , Sister Beverly Nelson, and Christy Matlock were among those who came that first week and who still come today. We had other great friends who helped us in those early years.

Looking back over these 15 years in St. Louis my greatest joys have been as I walked in the Spirit.

My greatest regrets have been those times that I failed to hear and to heed the Spirit’s call.

And my greatest blessing has been the realization that “it is not by might [my own ability], nor by power [the authority of others], but by My Spirit [the Holy Spirit’s providence, power, and energy] saith the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6), that God has brought us to the Kingdom for such a time as this.


WHY DO SO MANY CHRISTIAN’S STRUGGLE SPIRITUALLY?

When a man or a woman comes to Christ to be saved they are truly sorry for their sins, they confess their sins to the Lord in prayer, and they repent (literally “change their mind” about sin—they begin to hate disobedience to God and they begin to love the will of God.) In 2 Corinthians 7:10 we read, “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation .”

Repentance always brings saving faith. This is more than simply believing that Jesus existed, died, and rose again. Saving faith believes in Christ and it is absolutely convinced that Christ is right—always! Jesus said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

This true repentance and living faith ignite a passionate love for God in the hearts of believers. Jesus said, “If ye love me…,” and sincere believers testify, “Oh! How I love Jesus!”

YET ANYONE WHO HAS SERVED THE LORD FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME BECOMES AWARE OF AN INNER STRUGGLE WHEN CONFRONTED WITH THE DEMANDS OF TOTAL COMMITMENT TO CHRIST.

I like the way Dr. Richard Taylor explains it:

At first the Christian life is seen as one of unlimited receiving—joy, peace, forgiveness, new hope, new directions, new friends, easy prayer answers, blessings right and left. Now all of the sudden comes this talk about CROSS BEARING, (Jesus said, “If any man will come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24).

Didn’t Jesus die on the cross so I wouldn’t have to? Hasn’t He set me free to do my own thing?

When God begins to press on this convert’s self-perceived rights, and make claims that they never anticipated, they begin to squirm. Their old self-assertion rises up in a spontaneous impulse to defend their vaunted freedoms. When born again they sincerely surrendered to the Lordship of Christ, as far as they understood the implications of that. But the idea that Christ would claim them at the fine print level of everyday life—their money, time, associates, and everyday practices—never entered their head.

At least the hard reality of it never really registered. Subconsciously we supposed that we could go on buying and selling, moving here or moving there, choosing a spouse (if single), deciding on a career, or a change in career, totally on our own—and that of course now that we were Christian, God would just keep on blessing, and answer all our prayers. To discover that God wants to control as well as own, and that God now wants to make us an honest and submissive effort to find out what His will is, comes as a jolt.

Whatever the issues may be, all these discoveries of God’s claims superimposed on His blessings, soon unsettle our ecstasy, and begin to mix joy with uncertainty and inner conflict. Then when God asks for something which is to us, we think, dearer than life—our Isaac—we are plunged into darkness, and are tempted to wonder if after all we really want to go through with this.

This is the most crucial moment in the Christian life. And this point many converts begin to withdraw. They get quiet. Their testimony loses its exuberance. Their attendance and participation begins to be fitful.

The natural self-willfulness of the carnal mind will feel profoundly that if God’s demands are accepted unconditionally, if this or that is to be given up or undertaken or altered, true happiness will never again be possible.

It is when the Christian faces this parting of the ways, and with deliberate decision, seeing fully the painful cost, makes up his mind that he wants Christ unconditionally, that he wants holiness more than happiness, and that he is willing to say good-by to happiness forever if only he can please God, and in complete abandonment of all further selfish plans tells God so, …that the Christian will be able to say with the Apostle Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20).

When the battle of wills is settled, something wonderful happens. When we would rather be holy than happy we discover that we have happiness also—but on a higher and purer level than was ever before known. When we abandon our freedom and self-rights for total obedience, we discover that we are freer than ever before. When our fundamental inner being has been so restructured that Christ-pleasing is now the governing motive of life, we discover that pleasing Christ is pleasing self. And what a delightful, comfortable, pleasing self it proves to be.
(Richard Taylor, Understanding Ourselves, pp.93-97.)

Dr. Taylor is right. IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING THAT BATTLE IN YOUR HEART – THE CONFLICT BETWEEN GOD’S WILL AND YOUR DIVIDED WILL –THERE IS VICTORY!

IT WILL COME AT THE PRICE OF TOTAL SURRENDER! But like the man who sold all that he had to purchase the treasure hidden in the field (Matthew 13:44), or the merchant who sold everything to buy that one pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45, 46), the cost pales by comparison to the treasure – pure love, great joy, and wonderful peace!


GREAT EXPECTATIONS OF GREAT DAYS TO COME!
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, Sun, May 29
PENTECOST SUNDAY, June 12 – Hear the ALLEGHENY WESLEYAN COLLEGE Quartet AM
GREAT COMMISSION Indy, June 13-17
MEN’S STEAK-OUT, Saturday, June 18 6 PM
FATHERS DAY, Sunday, June 19 – Hear the HOBE SOUND BIBLE COLLEGE QuartetAM
VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL & GREAT COMMISSION STL - St. Louis, July 11-15
FOUNDERS WEEK Urbana, July 24-31
FCC’S 15th ANNIVERSARY REVIVAL, September 14-18
Evangelist P. L. Liddell, Evangelist Ben Crawford
FCC’S 15th ANNIVERSARY, September 18

If we can help you in any way please let us know!