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GervaisNews June 2009
June 15, 2009
Dear friends,
We want to thank you for your ongoing prayer support. Your prayers, and friendship mean more to us than you will ever know. I consider myself very blessed that I can be involved in full-time ministry. It has now been over 26 years that I have been working as a missionary and trusting in God for my income. I must say there were many months when the income was scarce and the bills were plentiful; however the bills always managed to get paid with some money left over. When I try to calculate or figure out how that happens I get baffled. My income right now is over 1,000 dollars a month less than it was just one year ago and many of our bills have increased. It is more costly to do ministry today than it was a year ago. The good news is that each month all the bills are still getting paid and money is left over at the end of the month. I don’t get it…but I like it. God has indeed taken care of our needs and has for the past quarter century. We truly are blessed to have a God who takes care of the practical things in our lives.
God has been shaking me to the core as my theology has been challenged. I don’t know if God has ever done that to you. Sometimes we think we understand the scriptures then He comes along and shows us that what we have been teaching and believing was wrong. I hate it when that happens…but I love it. I spend most of my time counseling with people who are addicted to drugs, alcohol or pornography. Some continue to struggle and fall; others attain a measure of sobriety but always seem to be close to a relapse. Still others not only get sober, but they move into the realm that I call “Freedom beyond recovery.” They believe the gospel and they believe the scriptures teach that as a Christian they can attain absolute freedom from whatever used to enslave them. Because of this I can no longer view myself as an “addict in recovery.” God saw fit to give me freedom from what once had me bound and gagged. Freedom is attainable in this life, not by self-effort, but by Faith! I am not talking about sinless perfection here; but about freedom from bondage.
I believe Satan has been stripped of his weapons and his authority. (Colossians 2:15) What he has not lost is his ability to lie and deceive. Here are his two most well used schemes: First: he tries to distort our image of God Himself. He tries to convince us that God is only happy with us when we are obedient; and that He becomes unhappy or maybe even angry with us when we sin, and as a result of our sin will withhold His love from us. The truth is that Jesus took care of our sin problem at the cross, and that God loves us with an everlasting love. In fact there is absolutely nothing we can possibly do to make God love us any more…and there is nothing we can do to cause God to love us any less. He loves us because He loves us; because He loves us! Period! Second: Satan’s second tactic is to distort our true identity in Christ as God’s children. God’s word says in 2 Peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” If we don’t know who we are in Christ we can easily be held captive by his lies. There are many believers today who are living in bondage to their addictions because they believe they are still addicts, or homosexuals, or anorexics. The truth is that they are Son’s of God, saints who might struggle with addictive behaviors but they are no longer addicts. God says they are His children and freedom from addictions has already been won for them at the cross. What a person “does” or “feels” doesn’t determine who he or she is.
Slavery in the US was abolished by the 13th amendment on the 18th day of December 1865, but many of the slaves continued to work the farms for months afterwards because they didn’t know or didn’t believe they had actually been freed from slavery. I am convinced there are many believers today who are living in bondage to their addictions because they don’t believe they have been set free from sin. (Romans 6:6-7)
Christians who are not experiencing freedom are living in bondage due to the lies they believe about God and themselves. A full understanding of who God is and who we are as His children has the potential of freeing us from any bondage. Psalms 4:2-3 says, “How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods? Selah Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him.” When we stop believing the lies Satan tells us about who God is and who we are, we will begin to experience the freedom we see in John 8:31-32 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Have you ever been to a house of mirrors at a fair? You walk in and look at your reflection in the first mirror and you look like you are four feet tall and five feet wide. You move to the next mirror and you now look like you are ten feet tall and one foot wide. The next mirror makes you look like you have long legs but a short body and a tiny head. Those mirrors simply distort what you really look like. That is what our enemy is busily doing in many Christians lives. He distorts our perception of God and our perception of who we are “In Christ.”
This week as I counsel addicts, teach in the prison, and in various recovery meetings, I ask you to pray that God would give me the boldness to proclaim His Gospel to all who struggle with addictions. The gospel is good news, and freedom from bondage is also good news. Thank you for making a way for me to work in this mission field.
Because of Christ,
Lew Gervais
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