Restorer of my Soul

I have to admit that I have been avoiding this blog for a while.  I honestly can't tell you why other than I have felt like I have been in a rut for a while.  I am still doing ministry, attending church, and leading chapel every once in a while at work but I have really been running on autopilot lately.  I have felt disconnected and disjointed.

Today was my week to lead chapel at work and I had really been wrestling with doing it.  To be honest, I really didn't want to do it.  I had not picked up my guitar in months and I had no idea what to do.  This morning I was really dragging half because of bad sleep and half because I did not want to face my responsibility.

As I sat in the shower, I mulled over what to do at chapel.  I finally came up with the idea of doing one of the videos from the book Beautiful Outlaw.  I decided to do the video on Trueness.  I decided to take my guitar and a few worships songs with my computer on the way out just to leave the option of doing worship available.  Then, probably for the first time since working at Selah, I decided to take the morning to prepare the chapel service.  I reread the chapter I was doing the video on, I watched the video, prepared questions, and put together a worship set that I even practiced before the service.

All of these things served to align my heart back on my Lord.  After finishing my preparations, I spent sometime in prayer.  It took me time to bring my heart back to where it needed to be fully focused on Jesus.  Once I reached this point, I had to take time to still my heart.  I sat on the porch when I went back up to the house.  The Lord fully calmed my heart through a gentle loving cat.  When the time came to for chapel to start, I was exactly where I needed to be.

Today showed me two things.  First, when you allow your heart to distance from the Lord, the road back takes time.  I had to take time to be prepared for the chapel.  I did not wake up on fire and ready.  It takes a lot longer to restart a fire from a cooling ember than to maintain the fire.  Second, that our Lord is gracious and good.  As soon as I brought my heart back to where it needed to be, He blessed me.  Truly He blessed me even more than I ever imagined He would today.  I could truly see Him moving and felt Him working both through the worship and the lesson in a way I had not seen up to this point in chapel.

I walked into doing this chapel with hesitation and the desire to take a break for a while after it to walking out of chapel filling recharged, reminded, and convicted of who I am and how ministry is part of who I am in Christ.  The Lord reignited my heart today because I open my heart and surrendered again to Him today.  Jesus said in each of the synoptic gospels deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.  I submit that this must be done daily because each day we choose whether to follow Jesus or ourselves.

If you have felt distant from Jesus lately, I hope you will take this moment right now to reconnect with Him.  Jesus is good and loving and has been waiting for you to receive Him again.  I hope you will choose Jesus today.  Let Him convict you of your sins, restore you back to right paths, and recharge you in your walk.

Blessings,

Greg iVey

Birth Miracle

It would be impossible to do birth justice by trying to explain how incredible it is.  I must admit that the idea of the birth process scared me half to death.  I did a great job of focusing on work, chores, and my wife instead of what would happen in the birth room.  I was afraid of the pain my wife would experience, whether I would be strong enough to stand beside her, and whether my boy would be okay or not.  The unknown is what I feared most and there was plenty of it.  The unknown is what I have always feared.

Well Tuesday night began my walk into the unknown.  She began light contractions Tuesday night and I tried my best to get some decent sleep, knowing that he could come at any time.  Naturally, I struggled with sleep for those first few hours.  At about three in the morning, I laid all my fears down at Jesus' feet.  I talked to Him about my need for sleep and my desire for Him to take away my fears.  I believe Wednesday morning was the first time I had truly laid all my fears down in my life.  For the rest of the night, I slept in peace till my wife woke me up at 7:30 and said it seemed like it was time to go.

When we arrived at the hospital, Mel and I were taken to a testing room to see if she would be admitted or not.  The nurse and doctor was sufficiently pleased with her contractions and progress and she was admitted.  Once in the room, we began what I can best describe as a 15 hour marathon.  Though the husband does not experience the physical pain the mom experiences, I would testify that the husband does go through a marathon of emotional struggle.  It is not easy to see your wife in such pain, especially when she chooses to go natural.

The birth went great and my wife was truly a champion!  She did wonderfully and handled every part of the birth process so well.  My respect and love for my wife was increased so much by the way she handled such a grueling and painful process.  Much of the last part of the birthing process was spent praying that the Lord would end it soon.  The Lord's grace washed completely over my wife as she was able to focus on each contraction while allowing time to become a blur.  I, on the other hand, was acutely aware of how long the process was taking and wanted her pain to end soon and wanted so much to meet this little boy who had been squirming in my wife's belly for the last 9 months.

When it came to the end and the final pushing, I was in awe.  I felt no fear.  I felt no timidity.  I felt nothing but love for my wife, great expectation at my son's entrance, and desire for my wife to experience relief.  On that final push when he made his entrance into the world, I felt nothing but wonderment, peace, and praise.  The birth of a baby is a miracle.  Anyone who can question the existence of God at the moment of birth is beyond my comprehension.


For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:13 

Blessings,

Greg

Watch Men and Women for Christ

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.  If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.  But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.  Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand.  But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.” Ezekiel 3:17-21


I don't know about you but this may very well be one of the most frightening passages in the Bible.  Though because of the saving power of Jesus Christ, I do not believe you can lose your salvation.  I cannot imagine anything worst than to come to the judgment seat on the day I die and know that I had a hand in someone going to hell due to my silence.  We as Christians should be passionately living each day to share the gospel with those around us.  We are not doing non-Christians any favors by being silent and not displaying Christ around them.  We are not being kind by being silent but in fact we are being cruel.  If indeed we believe in God, the saving works of Jesus, and hell, we should be passionately striving to reach the people around us for Christ.  It shouldn't be a burden we try to fulfill but a joy we can't help but share.


David speaks to living passionately for God in Psalm 86:11-13 saying, 


Teach me your way, O Lord,
 that I may walk in your truth;
 unite my heart to fear your name.
 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
  and I will glorify your name forever.
 For great is your steadfast love toward me;
  you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Are you living for God with your whole heart or are you divided by your desires for this world?  Do you live you life to serve the Lord or to fulfill your bucket list before death?  Many times, we do not want to consider or acknowledge David's last line in this passage.  We conveniently forget what Jesus saved us from.  We forget the joy we felt at welcoming Jesus into our life and surrendering the sin of our life to Him.  We forget why we want others to be able to share in the incomprehensible joy and peace of grace we too once received.  

I know our iPhones, TV's, cars, houses, relationships, schooling, movies, music, destinations, hopes, dreams, and desires feel so real and so tangible now but will any of these things truly matter when we are at the gates of heaven?  When you get to the gates of heaven and meet Jesus face to face are you positive that He will say he knows you or could He say, "I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!"  Beloved don't let your hearts be blinded by the pleasures of this world.  Don't turn away from sharing your witness and the truth of the gospel because of fear, excuses, or lack of calling.  Jesus has called each and everyone of us to tell the world about Him.  He has called us to lay down our life's so that He may be shown to the world around us.  Jesus demands every fiber of our heart not just part of it.

I pray tonight that each one of us who call ourselves Christians would be able to live a life that is undivided.  I pray we would each walk in truth and yet also live with a reverent fear for our Lord.  We must not forget the most important truth of this world.  We must not lose sight of the kingdom of God.  We are the frontline troops to proclaim and extend the kingdom of God.  Not just the minister, missionaries, and the gifted few.  Every single one of us have been commanded to share Jesus Christ to the end of the earth.  I pray that today your heart would develop a new passion, boldness, and faith in sharing Jesus with others.  I pray your heart would be burdened for the lost around you as God is burdened for them.  I pray that you like the watchman would never be silent in speaking truth for God.

Blessings,

Greg

Road to Freedom for Proclaiming Christ in Spain

Our partners in ministry and fellow brother and sister in Christ who are already in Spain preparing to minister to the Basque.  Be sure to read the updates on our you caring site as the latest letter is from them.

This past week my coworker and I felled, trailered, and unloaded over 10,000 lbs of wood.  In order to move that type of weight, my coworker and had to move it one manageable piece of wood at a time.  If when I started work on Monday my boss had brought us to a pile of 10,000 lbs of wood and told me to make sure it is gone before the end of the week, I would've thought he was crazy.  I would have felt like he had given me an impossible task.

For years, I have looked at our debt and other hurtles keeping us from being missionaries to Spain and felt like they were impossible to overcome.  Through the past few years the Lord has been showing me His power to overcome and my need to trust Him.  Just like the wood, the Lord has been showing me that with hard work and perseverance my wife and I will overcome the obstacles before us and make it to Spain.  It is amazing the peace you feel when you begin to put your full trust in the Lord.

Many times we live our lives like everything depends on us.  As Christians, we are to trust the Lord for everything.  This does not mean we are to just sit around and wait for God to clear the way for us but it does mean that we are to move in faith that the Lord is walking before us leading, preparing, and clearing the way He wants us to go in this life.  The main theme of the Bible is that God wants us to put our complete faith and trust in Him.  The Israelites accomplished nothing on their own.  All of their great achievements were through the power of God.  In the New Testament, we see that Jesus chose to come down, live a sinless life, die, and rise again so that anyone who believes in Jesus might have salvation.  Our salvation, is completely dependent on what Jesus did for us because we were unable to save ourselves.  An authentic Christian walk requires each person to fully surrender their heart and life to God.

When we fully understand our need to put all our trust and faith in Jesus Christ, we are able to understand Paul's statement in Philippians 4:13 saying, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  It has been so incredible to experience the peace I have had throughout this pregnancy process.  I have complete faith that the Lord is in full control of the formation and safety of my baby boy.  Even when my wife and I have faced scares, I have found complete peace in Jesus and His power to protect my little boy.  Through this process, my faith has grown and I have come to the place where I too can trust the Lord to overcome my perceived huge obstacles to leaving for Spain too.

I am now no longer worried about the difficulties ahead because God has called us to Spain and He is capable to meet and exceed all our needs to leave for Spain.  So I am excited to watch the Lord move as my wife and I seek to boldly pursue international missions for Spain.  He has already been moving through the prayer, encouragement, and unexpected blessings.  We have raised $510 on the you caring fundraiser and it felt so good to be able to apply that money to our student loans, knowing that the Lord is going to continue to do even greater things!


Are there any roadblocks in your life keeping you from doing what God has called you to?  Are you using the excuse of money, time, family, comfort zone, or giftings as reasons why you couldn't possibly do what God is calling you to do?  Friends I pray that you will lay down all these worries, obstacles, and doubts at the feet of the Lord and trust Him to provide you with the ability to do what He has called you to do.  Matthew 6:31-33 says, "Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."  There are so many verses on faithfulness and the trustworthiness of God my friend.  Check out Open Bible and just write one of these words and see all the verses linked to it.  It is such a great resource when you want to look up topical applications in the Bible.


Friends, we are going to Spain.  I don't know if it will be in a year or in five or more years.  All I do know is that the Lord has called us to minister to the Basque people with my best friend and his wife.  I know that the Lord will be faithful to clear all obstacles in our way if we remain faithful and boldly trust Him.  I know that the Lord is laying on some of your hearts to help us to be able to make it to Spain and possibly even support us monthly while ministering in Spain.  I pray that you would seek His guidance for what He would lead you to do in reference to our calling.  I thank you each so much for your prayers.  We have created a fundraiser through youcaring.com to help us overcome the first obstacle in our way, which is our student loans.  I hope you will check out our fundraiser at Road to Freedom for Proclaiming Christ.  If you can help us, great!  If you know someone else you believe would be willing to help us, please share the link with them.  If all you can do is pray with us as we trust God, wonderful!  Thank you so much for your support through this blog and your prayers.


Blessings,


Greg

Stop Believing the Lie

I recommended this blog post, by my wife, to everyone and yet I just discovered that most of you who viewed my blog chose not to read her blog.  I believe that this blog my wife wrote needs to be read by every believer in Jesus Christ.  If you did not chose to check out this blog last time, I hope you will choose to read it tonight.  Blessings

This whole blog may be long and a little messy - I just have so much rolling in my head right now.  So much has happened.  I have to share it.  I can't just pray, I can't just journal.  It begs to be shared.

For over two years now I have felt a disconnect in my faith.  I have wondered about what Christ has really done for me that I should share him with others, what are the real differences among those in the trinity, what does a Christ-centered life really look like, do people really come to Jesus anymore, do I know him and does he know me, am I really saved at all and from what, and two years ago I had the scariest of all these questions pounding me in the face - God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit - does He really even exist or have I been believing a lie...

I have been seeking - oh, Lord, have I been seeking - but where have I sought the answers?

I've turned to people.

Now, don't get me wrong, I fully believe that God can and does speak through His children - otherwise how would anyone believe unless everyone had access to the Bible and the Holy Spirit at every waking moment.  How can we believe unless someone tells us?  That's in the Word.

But people are NOT a substitute for the Word.

I asked so many people so many different times - so much so that they probably got so tired of me.  I could see it in their faces sometimes - to the point where I stopped asking the questions with some people and just wallowed in my lostness.  And that's what it was.  Lostness.  Now, again, don't get me wrong.  I KNOW that I am a child of God.  It has taken the past two years to make me certain of that again, but even in my lostness, I at least faintly knew that I still loosely believed.  My faith was likely as small and frantic as an electron circling the nucleus of an atom of a mustard seed (if there even is such a thing - I am an English teacher, after all), but it was there. 

Still, I was lost.  I was lost in a world without certainty.  I was lost in a world where I felt so alone and like there was no one to turn to.  My parents and in-laws are all ministers - what would they say to my loss of faith?  My sister had helped me in the past, but was I willing to open this up to her?  My brother, I knew, had his own struggles and I didn't want to be a hindrance to him. 

Thank God for my husband.  Although he has at many points been one of those who rolled his eyes at yet another moment of my questioning - he has always allowed God to speak through him, even if it took him a while to get to that point in the conversations.  He has been to me, his wife, exactly what a Godly husband should be.  But more on that later.

Still, I maintain my previous statement, people are NOT a substitute for the Word of God.

I've turned to books. 

Books written by Godly people who have had their own struggles.  In this past year or two, those have been Becoming a Woman of Faith by Cynthia Heald, A Sure Path by Susan S. Scott, Reckless Faith by Beth Guckenberger, and One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  Each, in their own way, about faith, which is what I knew I was lacking.  I have grown in faith by reading these books and they have helped me to see new things about God and my realtionship with Him

But, again, books are NOT substitutes for the Word of God.

I have also turned to music.

KLOVE, Air1, and any other Christian radio stations that grace the dial in my car as well as that in my iTunes and flowing from my church.  Especially when songs are about God, I can see Him and I can feel closer to Him.

But, again, music is NOT to be a substitute for the Word of God.

Somehow I always knew that the Bible was where I should turn and God was who I needed to seek, but I had begun to believe the lie that if I went there, all I would get would be condemnation.  All I would get would be a sentence.

See this?  Yeah, you're definitely lost.  Man, you are so lost.  Oh, and check out this sin I bet you didn't even know you had - you're a wreck.  And check out this other stuff in your head and your heart and your life.  You're such a terrible person, you can never fix all the things that are wrong with you!

And I was right - in part.

This afternoon I was talking with my husband about the idea of us beginning to take steps to become missionaries - something that has been growing in his heart as a desire and calling for the past 5 years and something that used to be very present in my heart as a calling and a passion, telling others about Christ.

But not anymore. 

Even before the past two years, I was still wandering in a place where I wondered if God really spoke to me still, if He really had a plan for me, if I could know what that was, if I was even worthy of it anymore. 

There's me again, believing the lie. 

Still, after such a long time of lostness - I had forgotten too many things to see the need for sharing Christ with others.  I knew this was a good thing, something Christians should do, but not only did I feel stale in this calling, I also felt stale in my relationship with Christ.  The more my husband spoke passionately about sharing Christ with others and the more he shared with me how genuine his belief in Christ and how ardent his faith, the more I felt my heart crying out I wish someone would share this Jesus with me - I want to meet this Jesus.  Like the retired pastor in Frank Perretti's novel The Visitation, I felt in my heart "I was saved, sanctified, born again, and Spirit-filled, but Jesus and I were strangers."

Again I asked the hard questions. 

Again, God spoke to me through my husband.  The following are answers my heart believes.  These are not just answers fed me by a loving husband, but answers whispered into my heart by a loving God through my husband, my books, my music, my experiences, and my seeking in scripture.  You see, God can use all these.  And He does.  But the Word is His living story.

*What's with the trinity?  Yes, God is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, but all are God. 

The Father knew there was no way for us to be with Him, so he sent the Son.  The Son lived among us to show us who the Father truly was and to give us the opportunity to be like him, then died so that we could be fully made right with God if we accepted his sacrifice.  The Holy Spirit was sent to us, the believers, in order to help us understand and remember the Son's teaching and lead us to the Father, call us to be made right and follow the Son to the longest-lasting and most pure relationship we'll ever have.

*Why is Jesus so important?  He's the cure! 

I can read about my diagnosis all day in the Bible.  True, I am a wreck.  True, I do have sin that I don't even know is there.  True, there is absolutely nothing I can do to fix myself, no matter how long I try or how many methods I use to self-improve.  But if I read the Bible simply for it's diagnosis and not for the fact that Jesus came to fix me, to give me hope, to be my cure!  He is the one who will come and take his faithful home to be with him.

*Why is the Bible such a big deal?  The Bible isn't just another book, but THE book!

True, it does show us what is wrong in the eyes of God and it does show us why we'll never be able to come to God on our own merits.  But it's also the living story of God's love and promises shown through a multitude of generations and a man who died and lives and has the power and authority to give me freedom from anything and everything that can keep me from being the woman I was made to be... without understanding this, I have truly missed it.  Oh, Lord, have I missed it.

*What does a Christ-centered life really look like?  Just look at the lives of those who don't just profess to believe what the Bible says, but also LIVE it out!

My friends who are in Spain sharing the truth of the gospel, they are living it.  My friends and their large family living in the Horn of Africa and sharing what Jesus has done in their lives with the lost they meet, they are living it.  My loved ones leaving for India to build relationships with people they have never met in a country they have never more than visited in order to help people break free of the chains of a life lived by rules and traditions instead of the freedom of Jesus's sacrifice and love for us, they are living it.  And my dear, dear husband who shares with the broken women at his workplace through song and service and the small pod of young people in our young adults bible study group through the Word and the "random" people he comes into contact with that start asking the questions without realizing it...

and his lonely, questioning, frightened wife who feels safe asking him the hard questions and trusting that he knows the way to lead her back to the One who will always have the answers. 

*So do people really come to Jesus anymore?  Yes, oh, Lord, yes, they do.  How do I know?

Because I do. 

I do.

*Do I really know him and does he really know me?  Yes, He does.  And though I feel that I have before and I only now do in part, I am learning to know Him more and will seek to do so for the rest of my life. 

How?  By seeking him in the Bible - in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) where the men He ministered with share their experiences with Him - and share his words.  By seeking Him in prayer - asking Him my tough questions and believing Him for the truth to blot out all the lies.  By being obedient to do what he asks of me even when it's scary and I don't feel like I am the right one to be doing so.  He knows me.  He loves me.  That's why He died, that's why He lives, that's why He calls me to join Him, that's why He allows me to face the hard questions and wrestle through them for the blessing on the other side. 

I won't let go, Lord, I won't let go!

So now the answer to my oldest and scariest question...

*Have I been believing a lie?

Well, I must tell you that the answer is yes. 

Yes I have.

I have believed that God was not there and even if He was, He wouldn't speak to me and that was a lie.

I have believed that Jesus did and is doing nothing worthy of me sharing him with others - a tragic lie.

I have believed that I was lost in the midst of all my questioning and that He had left me - a blatant lie.

I have believed that I could magically draw closer to Him by talking to other people, listening to music, and reading odd books instead of seeking him in scripture and asking him for guidance - a candle-snuffing lie.

I have believed that the Bible was just another book and had no more power than to show me what I was doing wrong and give me more and more reasons why I am an unsalvageable wreck - a tormenting lie.

I have believed that God doesn't speak anymore, that Jesus doesn't save anymore, that the Holy Spirit doesn't move anymore -

lies, all wretched lies.

Our conversation ended with me praying to Jesus, my long-lost savior and my friend, my hope, my cure - confessing my spiritual Alzheimer's and forgetfulness, asking Jesus to remind me that I don't need to live a lie anymore - I don't need to live looking at my diagnosis, but blind to the freedom of His cure - that it's true that I am absolutely wretched and there is absolutely nothing I can do to fix myself, but THAT is why I so desperately need Him.  I asked Him to remind me who He was, bring me back from wandering so far off the road that I forgot the road entirely.  I asked Him to show me more and more who He was in scripture and in prayer and give me a passion and a boldness and an undeniable calling to follow Him.  I begged Him to let me not forget this.

I cried.

My husband had said before, during our conversation, that he could not figure out why he still felt such a growing calling to go and share Christ with the people of another country if it was not God's will - that he had been trying to be faithful in every circumstance that God gave him in the here and now, but knew more and more that if he - if we - didn't GO, it was disobedience.  I understood now.

I looked into his tear-swollen eyes, knowing they reflected my own, and said, "honey, maybe you just needed to share Him with me first."

He smiled, the tears welling again, and answered, "maybe I did...

maybe I did"

I'm sorry for the length and mess of this post.  I knew I needed to share it - not just for you, but for me.  We English/Writing teachers have a bit of a saying - If it isn't documented, it never happened.  I could not risk forgetting again.  Please hold me accountable to today.  Please help me to not forget. 

And please learn from my lostness, my wandering, my hard questioning.

The next time Satan tempts you to believe a lie, wrestle it out with God.  Ask Jesus the hard questions, beg for answers.  LOOK to Him.  Bend your eyes, your heart, your will, upward and pray.  Ask Him.  If you have believed in your heart that Jesus came for you, that there is no way that you can do anything to fix yourself or have a chance at saving yourself from the pits in life and the pit of Hell in death other than to trust in His sacrifice and surrender your life to Him, allowing Him to give you freedom - then continue to trust Him even when things don't make sense.  And believe me, there will come lonely, gut-wrenching times when things don't make sense.  Only Jesus can show you the way through all of the pain to all of the answers and even if it hurts to get there, it is SO worth it!

Press on to SEEK the Truth and STOP believing the lie!!

The Year of Jubilee

Tonight, my wife and I decided to create a fundraiser through www.youcaring.com.  I have to say that I have struggled with creating this fundraiser for months.  For years now, we have felt the Lord leading us toward international missions.  My best friend and his wife are currently in Spain training to reach the Basque people group and I have to say that my heart aches to join my brother in ministry in Spain.  My heart deeply desires the freedom to follow the Lord's lead on our life.

Proverbs 22:7 says, "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."  This verse pierces directly through my heart and I affirm it's truth with a resounding amen!  I have fully felt the weight of my slavery ever since completing school and beginning the process of paying back the loans my wife and I accumulated.  We have been paying on our loans now for about seven years and I am not sure that we have made much if any progress on them.  It feels as though they are a mountain that is slowly crushing me.  


I desire nothing more than for this mountain to be thrown into the sea.  I desire nothing more than to be free to serve the Lord completely.  I desire the ability to fully devote my life to reaching others for Christ.  The Lord has blessed my wife and I greatly by providing us with a great church and a young adult ministry.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach these young adults the Word each week.  I am so thankful for each opportunity I have to minister and proclaim the gospel of Jesus to others.  


Even with all these wonderful blessings, they pale in comparison to what my wife and I could do if we were able to devote our full energy to serving Christ.  We both have to work full-time jobs just to make ends meet and many times we come home exhausted.  My wife is a teacher and many times when she comes home, her job comes with her.  I can't tell you how many times my wife has worked through the night till morning grading homework, papers, and projects.  We are slaves to our bills and slaves to our lenders.  


James 4:2 says, "You do not have because you do not ask God."  Because of this verse, I decided to go ahead and setup the fundraiser.  I specifically decided to end the fundraiser on July 31st because it is the first day of school for my wife.  My hope is also that my wife will be able to stay home, if she chooses, with our soon to come boy.  It would be so wonderful for her to be able to choose this option if she wanted to and me be able to provide for all our other bills on my own.  I am not interested in raising the money to erase this debt on my own power.  If the Lord chooses to erase this debt, I want to be sure that I can not claim any part of the debt being erased.  It would take $60,000 to erase our school debt.  The idea of raising $60,000 tot in 2 months seems completely impossible but Jesus says in Luke 18:27 is, "What is impossible with man is possible with God."  


If I am to live completely sold out and devoted to God, I have to believe in the supernatural. I do not believe the Lord would call us to something and not provide us the way to follow His call.  I want every single step of my walk to be fully depending and expecting Him to supernaturally move in my life.  In encouraging the Philippians to trust the Lord to provide and be content he makes this comment in Philippians 4:19 saying, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."


Creating this fundraiser is the first step to fully trusting the Lord to provide.  Even if no money is given to this fundraiser, I will fully and completely trust my Lord to provide.  I will still expect Him to provide the open door to answer His calling to international missions.  I will trust Him to open the door at the right time, his time.  Though my heart aches so much to be with my brother in Spain walking side by side with him reaching lost souls for Christ, I will faithful trust the Lord's direction in my life, no matter what.  I will continue to live for Him, speak for Him, sing for Him, and share His gospel with others.  


Are you completely trusting you life to Christ each day?  Psalm 3:4-5 brings me such peace saying, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.^{" There is no peace outside of Him.  There is no joy outside of walking in  Him daily.  Do you know Jesus Christ tonight?  Have you believed in Him?  Are you looking to Him to lead every facet of your life?  You are never too far gone.  There is no sin you could have committed that would be too great for Him to receive you, forgive you, and welcome you into a relationship with Him.  I pray that you will seek Him today.  If you ever need to talk, have questions, or just need prayer, know that I am always available and you can email me at greg.ivey@me.com.}


The link for our fundraiser is youcaring.  If you would take a moment to look at the fundraiser, pray for the Lord's guidance pertaining to it, and share it with fellow friends who might be interested, we would be grateful. Thank you for your consideration. 


Blessings,


Greg