What I have discovered is that discipline of reading the Bible is worth my time and effort. Now, it is not a magic genie in which all of my temptations magically disappear BUT it does re-orient my thinking into being more sensitive to the presence of the Spirit of God when the temptations do come.  

I realize that those of you with young children face another difficulty.  But I have found over the years that my wife guards that time for me in order to help me grow in Jesus.  As you grow in this discipline, your kids and your wife, will be sensitive to the time you have in reading the Word. 

This discipline also helps me to have a greater appreciation for ALL of God’s Word. As much as it is difficult to read some portions of Chronicles and the genealogies of Genesis, there is much to be gained by the blessing of accomplishment in reading those sections that you may not even know existed beforehand. 

One last thing, (sorry that the preacher in me is coming out in me!) the habit of reading the Word will produce in your life a longing to be like Jesus and a desire to please him in all you do. THAT is worth it all.  

My counsel to you is download the YouVersion Bible app (https://www.youversion.com), once you do look through all the plans that they have there, pick one that fits where you are in your life, and START. I love it because if I fall behind a few days, it reminds me! And I dislike immensely falling behind, it motivates me to keep on keeping on.  You can even find an accountability partner there if you wish. 

Any ways, just a few thoughts for you, friends.  If I can help you further with this, please let me know and I would love to do what I can. 

God bless you in 2021!

When I was a kid, my Dad, who was born in 1919, would tell us tales of life going to school in a one-room schoolhouse and walking there 5 miles in a driving snowstorm, uphill both ways, and having to make a fire in the boiler to heat the classroom! Amazing stuff! Dad had great stories!

The time in which you and I are living is equally amazing! But for totally different reasons. I know what you are thinking! “I’d rather NOT go through a pandemic and all the things associated with it!” I understand that one-hundred percent! It is difficult and filled with many challenges. But…if God’s Word is to be believed and trusted with everything we are and have, then EVEN pandemics have their role.

Our children’s minister at our church recently led our children in a discussion trusting God even when we don’t understand. Obeying God even when it doesn’t make sense was her theme using the incident of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22) as an illustration for our lives today. Nothing much has changed for the person who follows Jesus!

Being a Christian in the age of social distancing has its challenges BUT, it has its blessings at the same time. We have time to develop godly habits of reading God’s word and meditating on what we are looking at. We can use modern technology to keep informed of what is happening in our church through different social media platforms. Our churches are even able to carry on the ministry of the preaching of the Word, the celebration of the Lord’s Table, and baptism as well as, training in different areas of ministry. Our church has been meeting to pray with and for one another through this technology as well. Our denomination is connecting with the churches in providing encouragement to pastors and church leaders.

The New Testament gives us 34 ways to encourage one another in our walk with the Lord. Ideally, these involved person-to-person contact, eyeball to eyeball, as it were. During the COVID 19 crisis people need these 19 elements to a greater degree. I would encourage you, my dear reader, to read over the following list, think about people in your local church, and how you can serve them in these ways.

Broken, undeserved, headed in the wrong direction- are all terms that shout out our desperate need for help. They describe our situation to a “T”.

We are born incomplete but full of potential. We have a built-in sense of incompleteness that rears its ugly head in times of failure and conflict. We know something isn’t right deep down in our soul.

Humanistic philosophies of life will tell us that the answer is deep inside of us. But the harder we try, the more frustrated we become. We end up trying to medicate our souls with drugs, alcohol or experimenting with all the pleasure that the world has to offer. But at the end of the day that aching feeling just won’t leave.

This is not new, not in the least bit. The most devoted people who ever walked the planet battled with their own personal set of idiosyncrasies and challenges. The difference between us and them, is that we are reading about them two thousand years later! How would you feel if your life was written about so the whole world could read about your failure?

The night before Jesus Christ was to be sentenced by the Roman Emperor Pilate to be crucified, the group of his closest followers met together in what is known as the Upper Room. Jesus has now revealed to them God’s plan to redeem the lost human race through his death on the cross. He shares with them that all of them will flee and deny that they even knew him. They thought that was beyond the realm possibility, especially Peter. It was unimaginable to them that they could do such a thing. But they did.

Here is a question to think about: What would have happened if this was the end of the story? What if the disciples would have been left with the guilt of betraying the Lord with their words and with their actions? Let me get up close and personal with you, dear reader, what happens when you betray the Lord by your actions and attitudes? It occurs more than we care to admit. I’m convinced this is why we are sometimes paralyzed because we don’t realize the extent to which our actions and attitudes are revealed by the guilt we carry around.

The good news is, I should re-phrase that the unbelievably good news is that this wasn’t the end of the story for the disciples and it isn’t the end of the story for you and me. After the resurrection, the disciples are hiding out just in case the Romans start coming for them. Into a locked room, Jesus appears to them, rebukes them for their unbelief and restores them to fellowship with him. It is only after this that he issues what we know as the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel…”

What you and I need to understand is that yes, it is quite possible and probable that we have done something, said something, and even denied Christ himself in search of a better life. BUT (here is the greatest news you will hear today!) Christ stands ready to restore you back as a son or daughter of faith. We have a hard time with that because we don’t think that we now deserve it, but the fact of the matter is we can never deserve it. Our walk with God is marked by his sweet aroma of grace.

Here is my challenge to you today. Knowing that we can’t do enough to earn his grace, it’s time for you and me to accept it for what it is: the free gift of God. Allow Jesus to be the Lord of every defeat you have ever had, every battle with temptation that you may have lost, and every hope that you carry. Pray and ask the Lord to change your heart and desires that they may be centered around him.

God is so good to us! Yes, there are struggles that we deal with sometimes on a daily basis but when we walk consistently with Jesus, he shows us the next step to take!

If I can help you with your walk with God or even prayer for you,  please drop me an email at finch1959@gmail.com, I would love to be an encouragement to you today.

Yes, as much as I don’t want to admit it, I am almost a senior citizen! “Almost”, I emphasize! In all of those years of life I am starting to figure some things out. Things like, if I wait long enough and don’t get up off my chair, the chances of someone bringing me a drink diminishes by the second! I don’t get impatient, I don’t get upset, I just accept it as a fact of life. I am also learning, on a more serious note, that God often teaches us the lessons of life slowly. He is not in a hurry, like I often am.

He shapes and molds our character on a day by day basis over the long-haul of life. He has a goal in mind for every person who claims that they are his by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We sometimes wonder what God is up to. Be honest with me, now, has that question ever popped into your mind? What is he trying to teach us?

I have been studying recently in the Old Testament book of Daniel. What an amazing young man was Daniel, along with his three friends! They were uprooted from their homeland, conscripted into the King’s service, prosoltyzed to be made like the rest of the servants and challenged to give up their faith in the Lord God of Israel.

We know that the southern kingdom of Judah was being disciplined by the Lord for their disobediece to him. As a result the finest young men of the nation were conscripted by Babylon to be examples to the rest of the world of the superiority of that nation and its king. But, God had a plan, as he always does. That plan involved the three young men that we meet in Daniel 1.

We often grow suspicious in our faith because things don’t turn out like we thought they should. Oftentimes it because God has something greater in mind. What we often forget is that God sees the whole picture, we only see a small sliver of the whole thing. He is doing a million things at once, while we are fretting about this one thing. Yes, it is important to us but also we need to remember that God always has our best interests at heart. He is after something far greater than our circumstances in one particular moment. He wants us to trust him.

At 60 years of age, I can look back and see that God has been very faithful to me. He was working in situations and circumstances that I was not even away of until years later. I think back to our missionary adventure when some things did not go as planned but God used those events to make me the people he wanted me to be. I learned to trust him even when I didn’t know what would happen next.

More importantly, he was making me a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. He was making sure that our priorities were in the right spot. Hebrews 11, the writer describes what faith is when he writes,

“Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

CSB

By faith, we trust God that he knows better than we do. We know him through the pages of Scripture that he does have our best interests at heart. As we live each day to glorify him, he will enable us to walk by faith and not by sight as we obey his Word.

Yes, at times we will be hurt, and we will cry. But God will use those tears to make us more like his Son if our hearts are right before him. Keep drenching your heart with his Word, continue to trust him every day, allow him to shape your character to reflect his and love him deeply as Christ loves you!

Hang in there, my friend! God is not done with you yet, he has so much more for you to know and to accomplish as you strive to live for Him.

For His Glory,

Pastor Bill Finch,

finch1959@gmail.com

Now that we have arrived at the twelfth month of the year, we look back at the year that has been and have been witnesses to God’s faithfulness. No doubt, there have been some rough spots personally and in other ways in this year. But His faithfulness is obvious. Even though, we do live at times as if he was not there, and whether we consciously are always aware of his presence or not, he is faithful all day, every day. 

Christmas reminds us that God desires an up-close, personal relationship with you and I. Think of the extreme measures he went through to even make that possible. Even though he created us to love him, we blatantly turned our back on him and accepted the offer of the evil one. We choose to deliberately walk away from God’s offer of unconditional love and his eternal care.

Not that God was caught by surprise, his Word tells us that his plan of redemption was drawn up in eternity past. His Son was sent to carry out that plan. He was born of a virgin; he lived a sinless life in order to die a death that would redeem us from the power of archenemy of God. You and I are redeemed by faith in what Christ accomplished on the cross when he shed his blood to pay for and cover our sin.

God in his faithfulness prepared the scene. As you read through the Gospels this Christmas season and get a sense that none of this happened by chance! Not one thing! From the opening chapters of Genesis right through the book of Revelation, God is unveiling his plan to welcome you into his presence.

He has not forgot about you. He is continuing to call you to know him and to grow in your relationship to him. He is patient enough to allow you to sense your desperate need of him on a daily basis. You see, even though we are surrounded by so many rivals, none of them can match what God wants to give us through Christ. Yet…we keep trying to find that “something, or someone else better”. We try to logically argue that this God thing is a figment of our own imagination. We attempt to rationalize that this “Jesus thing” was created by a bunch of right-wing wackos who are seeking to control our lives.

Not only has he not forgot about you, the gift of his presence in the person of Jesus Christ, seals the deal. I love the New Testament story of the Prodigal Son in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15. It illustrates perfectly what God did at Christmas. Those who rebelled against God, who wanted their inheritance now, who tried to deny their Father’s existence, found themselves eating at the pig trough, only to find out later that there was a banquet fit for a king prepared for them. That is grace! That is the gift of presence.

You may be new to the faith. You may be running from the faith. You may have already attempted to deny the faith. God still loves you and is ready to welcome you back! My only word of advice is, don’t wait! His presence is waiting to embrace you again with his eternal love and unrelenting care.

You may have followed Jesus for many years. Please my friend, don’t let his presence become a thing of the past. Don’t let it become something that you are so accustom to that it is no longer a wonder that it took you so long to find it. Let his presence renew your heart and your hope this Christmas season!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Pastor Bill Finch

finch1959@gmail.com

Tom* had a goal.  

I first met him a few months after beginning my ministry in Chatham, Ontario.  By the time I came on the scene, he had been diagnosed with brain cancer.  The suddenness and the seriousness of that diagnosis led him and his wife to search for answers for the here and now, as well as for eternity.

He was an ordinary, country type of a guy.  He loved to hang out with his friends and have a few pops and shoot guns at the local gun range.  He was the “life of the party”, and thoroughly enjoyed being with other guys.  He met a young lady who would become the love of his life and they set out on life together.  They had a baby boy and the priorities of life changed a little bit.  Not as much partying and not as much drinking.

Tom did not grow up in an overly religious home.  But when he received his diagnosis, he began to search for the answers to life’s most serious questions.  Something inside of him told him that he needed to know.  It is funny (not funny “ha-ha” but funny strange) that we humans don’t naturally ask such questions unless we are faced with literal life and literal death.  In his search, Tom and his wife began to drive in their car to search  for someone who could answer those questions.

In their search they stopped at a funeral home. Who else would have the answer to life and death questions like those who actually dealt with death all the time?  As Tom entered the building, he met one of the staff and honestly confessed “I’m afraid to die!” He literally thought that because his bad deeds would out weigh his good ones that he wouldn’t make it to heaven!  Unbelievable, right!  What Tom did not know was that this particular staff member was a member of our local church and was a deeply devoted follower of Jesus Christ!  This faithful follower of Jesus explained the gospel that Jesus paid the penalty for his sin, and Tom in tears opened his heart, repented of his sin and received the Lord as his Saviour.

Because of his surgeries, Tom was not able to drive himself. His wife would be his chauffeur and take him for his doctor’s appointments and to church once in a while.  During this time, his cancer was removed from his brain and he was making great progress both physically as well as spiritually.  I visited him at his home on one occasion and he expressed his desire to be baptized! He wanted to show his old drinking buddies as well as his family how much he loved Jesus!

Tom joined a small group at our church and continued his spiritual growth.  The group rallied around him and really supported him, again he expressed his desire to be baptized.  In the midst of it all, in the sovereignty of God, Tom’s cancer came back. He had to enter the hospital again but what the cancer could not do was take away his desire to show the world that he belonged to Jesus.

On a glorious Sunday morning, not too long ago, Tom obediently followed the Lord in believer’s baptism. He well knew that the act of baptism did not save him from his sins but was a public declaration that now he belonged to Jesus. What a day that was! There was not a dry eye in the church that morning as Tom’s testimony of faith was read by the very man from the funeral home who shared with him the message of faith. 

A few short weeks ago, Tom fully entered into the presence of God. His faith was now sight. His courage, bravery and obedience to Christ, will live on in all of our lives. He achieved his goal of bearing testimony to the grace of God in his life. He will never be forgotten by those who knew him. He truly was a man after God’s heart!

Tom would want me to ask you: What is your goal in life? Are you ready when your life comes to its inevitable end? Tom certainly was.

For God’s glory,

Pastor Bill Finch

finch1959@gmail.com

*Not his real name

The Scriptures paint a very bleak picture of the spiritual condition of man.  There is no soft-selling it nor candy-coating it, or even dunking it in the world’s most expensive perfume.  Take a look at the picture painted by the Scriptures, the Word of God.

Ephesians 2:1-3

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ouch!

If that doesn’t shock your system, how about this:

Romans 3:10-12

“No one is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned asid; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Even by our own personal experience, everyone of us could testify that our thoughts, intentions, plans and desires are often times not what God would approve.  We are trapped by our own desires seemingly unable to escape their consequences.

What do we do?  How do we free ourselves from our sinful human nature?

Enter the scene help from the outside. We know by our own frustrations to “dig ourselves out of the ditch”, as it were, on our own we can’t do it!  The harder we try, the deeper we feel the desperation of our helpless situation. For that reason, Easter happened.

Christmas brings us the celebration of the arrival of the hope we desperately need. Christmas would make no sense whatsoever without the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Hope was renewed at Christmas and sealed forever at Easter.  Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)  That sealed sin’s fate. It was rendered powerless. The Apostle wrote, “There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

The hope that Jesus gives us real hope, not just a hopeful wish.  Jesus actually suffered on the cross, he actually shed his blood for the forgiveness of sin, he truly died and then he was resurrected to life again. This is such great news that we read the following words, “But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15:57)

My friend, is that hope yours?  Are you tired of trying to find the solution to life on your own? Reach out by faith to the forgiveness that God offers you in Christ!

In the first ever sermon that was preached in the first church, the invitation to embrace the Gospel of Jesus was expressed by the Pastor in these words,

“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 2:38)

That, my friend, is the hope we need today! Embrace it, love it, receive it, live in it!

For His Glory,

Pastor Bill

It is God’s will for you to change!

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:17

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16

“For this very reason, make every effortto supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:5-8

“For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer for you that your love may abound more and more,with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:8-11

There can be no doubt about that as we read through the New Testament.  “Just what kind of change?” You may inquisitively respond. That is a great question. It is a radical change that takes you from where you are today and makes you into all that God desires you to become.

It is not just a mere change of a few habits or your basic approach to life, although I need to tell you, that those must change as well.  But God wants to change the fundamental motivation of your life.  Life is no longer about what you want in the here and now, but it becomes to be about all that God wants you to be and what he wants you to do.

At the core of our being is a basic selfishness. We know what we want (sometimes!) and we are wired in such a way as to put all of our thought, energy and plans into accomplishing that. BUT, when Jesus Christ comes into your life, your order of priorities gets flipped on their head.  When we  recognize why he came and what he wants to accomplish in us, we realize that the change is much more extensive that we ever thought possible.

God is not after only a few cosmetic changes like how you part your hair or whether you like chocolate or strawberry ice cream. More importantly,  He changes our fundamental motivation for why we do what we do.  As we adopt his plan and his strategy for life, everything changes.  Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you,” (Matthew 6:33).

As we begin to accept the change that God wants to bring to our life, we will begin to see life from a different perspective.  The verse that often gets misused is Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” We will see that even the tough stuff of life has a purpose to bring us closer to love God and see that he has a greater purpose than our happiness – he wants to transform us to become like his Son, Jesus.

We need him to change the perspective in which we see and experience life. We need to see that he is incredibly faithful to change us into the people who can make a difference in our own lives and in those who live around us through his grace.  What an honour it is to be in the change of character process! It means that God has greater things for us yet to do!

Are you ready?

Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Take one day at a time and rejoice in who God is and what he wants to accomplish in and through you!

For His Glory,

Pastor Bill Finch

Finch1959@gmail.com

Some practice it on an “emergency only basis.  Others “seem” to be close to ” super saints” who use such erudite, spiritual language that you wonder what planet they have been on the last ten years!

Between those two very extreme caricatures are those who honestly struggle to adopt a lifestyle that carries with it the aroma of prayer.  These are those people, like you and I, who have a God-given passion in their hearts to bring every matter in their lives to the Lord’s attention through prayer. But, the question is, how can we adopt the lifestyle where prayer is the predominant theme of our lives? With your permission, I would like to take you on a journey through the pages of the Bible to witness those people from the past who came to grips with prayer’s importance, some failed and some passed with flying colours.

1. God created us to be in a constant love relationship with him.

Before we can adopt the lifestyle of prayer we need to understand that God is much more interested and even passionate about us than we could ever be toward us.

Adam and Eve

It is absolutely amazing to read the first few chapters of Genesis and witness God’s desire to be in communion with us!  He sought to be with our first parents. You know the story in Genesis 3. God comes “in the cool of the day” to be with us. But something dramatically  changes the story. Those that he created decided that it was better to use their time and direct their attention away from God and towards other interests! Notice that it was them who hid themselves from the Lord! How dumb can you get!

We turn to the last book of the Bible, Revelation, and we again see God’s desire to be with us. Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Before we can develop and grow a life of prayer, we need to know that God wants to be with us MORE than we want to be with him. Let that wonderful thought sink in! It will change the way you approach prayer.

2. We must develop a lifestyle of constant communication and fellowship with God

Nehemiah

As we live in constant fellowship with God, he places us in key situations in which we can be difference makers for him.  We come upon these opportunities because we practice being in his presence and are ready to respond at the moment that we are aware of them.  Nehemiah was a man who practiced the presence of God to such an extent that he was ready to respond when the opportunity came his way.

Nehemiah 1 describes his response to the news he heard that his homeland was in flames! He was absolutely devasted. There was only one place, I should say person that he could turn to! How do you respond when you receive bad news?

Nehemiah 2:1-4 is the key moment in his life. He would never pray anything more important. It wasn’t long, he wasn’t kneeling, he didn’t even have time to fast.   Underline verse 4 in your Bible, “So I prayed to the God of heaven.” That’s it! There was no time to send a text the pastor, no time to post on Facebook, the moment of opportunity was right in front of him, and he prayed to God.  We know by that statement that this was a man who constantly practiced the presence of God in his life.

That type of prayer can only happen for us when we have develop a life of constant communication and fellowship with God!  For that to be our experience, we need to be in the Word, and we need to allow God room to work in our life in unexpected ways even in moments of great adversity.

3. We must develop a life of constant communion with God that is forged through suffering.

Daniel

Daniel lived in constant communion with God even in the midst of adversity.  The great tests of faith come to those who are willing to pay the price in the even in the public arena.  Most Bible teachers say that he was about 80 years old at this time! He is no spring chicken! Look at Daniel 6:10, “When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, AS HE HAD DONE PREVIOUSLY.”

Listen, my friends, you and I should be in such constant communion with God that when trouble comes, we can direct our attention to God like we always have done! If we have developed a lifestyle of prayer, this too can be our experience!

4. We must develop a life of constant communication with the Lord that is an extension of our worship of him.

 The Disciples

In Matthew’s gospel (chapter 5, verses 5-13), this prayer model (known popularly as “the Lord’s Prayer) was what differentiated his followers from those who prayed in a cold, ritualistic, heartless manner.  The one who is in constant communication, by contrast, with his Lord knows the discipline of making time to worship God through prayer.  He/She knows that in order to be effective servants of God, we must park our lives long enough to re-orient our hearts in the direction of heaven.

At the end of the day the person who is in constant communication with the Lord knows that he hears you when your motivation is correct, and you recognize your greatest need is for him.

Final Encouragement

There is a constant need in our lives to re-calibrate our lives based on a life of prayer. Not prayer for prayer’s sake but prayer for the sake of knowing God better, serving him with greater faithfulness and a correct motivation. Keep talking to him, keep approaching him on his terms.  If you do, he will bless you with such a sense of peace that passes all understanding that you just won’t believe its true!

God bless you as you grow in this important matter.

Pastor Bill Finch

finch1959@gmail.com

It is very special to have “found” the Gospel of Jesus Christ when I was without purpose and no hope of every finding it on my own. I grew up in a home where the things of God were given only intellectual assent and never personally applied or taken serious. It was like knowing it was indeed true but pretending to live like it wasn’t. 

This past weekend, my wife and I were officially welcomed into the life and ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Chatham, Ontario.  It was a wonderful weekend not only because our new church family showered us with their love and promise of their prayers and partnership. It was special because of God’s faithfulness in rescuing sinners from the plight of their sinfulness through his saving grace. That was me and, if you know him personally, that was you.  If you don’t, run to him, he is waiting!

My personal journey of faith is an illustration of God being true to his Word.  I was reminded this weekend of how God places people in our lives at just the right time to share with us his message. I have a cousin who was faithful to share with me my desperate need for Jesus Christ. What she did not know was that I was battling an inner war of purpose, “What am I here for?” and “There has to be more to life than this!”  Her insistence that I needed to make a personal decision for Jesus was right on. I tried to shift the blame on my parents and others for my unbelief. She was having no of it! “You, Bill, need to make a decision for Jesus!”

In August 1977, the Holy Spirit won the wrestling match as I repented of my sins and invited Jesus Christ to come into my life.  God was faithful! The process of spiritual life commenced.

A few years later I was in Bible College, the last place I thought I would ever be.  The kid from the “other side of the tracks” was preparing to serve God full-time! There would be hi-lites and very low moments. Also, seasons of blessing and seasons of wanting to throw it all away. One such moment occurred that brought us to the lowest point in our ministry career. When that was at its worst our Pastor was their to literally pick up the pieces. His godly influence and his presence was used by God to preserve our life of service in the gospel ministry.

I share this with you to let you know that our service for God is the result of the investment that many people who God places in our path at key times.  God faithfully places people in our path that gently push us on to the next phase in our life for him. It isn’t about us in the sense that it is not for us but for God’s glory.  God faithfully calls us, shapes our character and places us where he wills.

For His Glory,

Pastor Bill Finch

finch1959@gmail.com