Moving in God

 Moving in God

July 3, 2026

Genesis 12:1

1 Now the LORD said to Abram,

“Go forth from your country,

And from your relatives

And from your father’s house,

To the land which I will show you;

Psalms 119:105

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet

And a light to my path.

This blog will be a little longer than typical, and is dedicated to our nephew Daniel, who is moving his family from New York to Tennessee to plant a new church. I’ve had a little experience moving across country, so here is some of our family history on moving and the guidance of God in directing our paths.

My first move was from Illinois to Pittsburgh. I had just gotten saved and baptized, graduated from college and married my childhood sweetheart. I prayed about where to go to graduate school, but really didn’t have a clue about walking with the Lord yet. Still, the Lord was gracious to me and guided my steps to move to Pittsburgh.

I arrived in Pittsburgh jus as the charismatic movement broke out at Duquesne University. I got involved in several campus Bible study groups and soon experiences the baptism in the Holy Spirit. This was an exciting time with tremendous excitement and large gatherings such as the Pittsburgh Charismatic Conferences, Explo “72, Jesus “74 and Jesus “76. There was also a lot of turmoil in my life as my ill fated marriage broke up and I had to leave leave CMU before I qualified for my PhD. But the Lord was gracious and I met Pastor Joseph Garlington who helped me greatly. I joined his church and was able to participate in a unique experience of combining three existing congregations into one new charismatic one. Melding an urban pentecostal church with two suburban mainline churches was indeed a challenge and a learning experience. I got my first discipleship training and experience in ministry at that church, which later became to be known as Pittsburgh Covenant Church. I also received the greatest blessing in my life in meeting and marrying Diane who has been a helpmeet and blessing to me for fifty years. But just as we were getting established as a newly married couple and house church ministers, the call of God came to move!

Through the Pittsburgh Charismatic Conferences and New Wine Magazine, several prominent teachers decided to combine forces and plant a church and discipleship center in Mobile Alabama. Pastor Joseph felt led to join them there and invited several of us to go with him. Thus started the next great cross country move, from Pittsburgh to Alabama. The Lord was with us and prospered us in Mobile. I found a job right away and we purchased a house that served us faithfully for 40 years. I learned a great deal from the ministry there and participated in several aspect of ministry including the worship team. 

After Gulf Coast Covenant Church, later called Covenant Church of Mobile, was established for a few years, several people felt led to leave there and start new works elsewhere. Joseph had moved back to Pittsburgh and our next pastor, John Stanko, had taken a church in Orlando. We stayed in Mobile and helped Pastor Michael Adams plant Rehoboth Community Church. Our intention was to be a more multicultural congregation, reaching more of the black and hispanic communities in Mobile. Rehoboth never grew to be a large congregation, but was a blessing to the city until such time as Pastor Michael decided to retire and move back to Pittsburgh. 

After that, we joined with Pastor David Richey in developing Gulf Coast Christian Center. GCCC was also more of an urban, multicultural congregation and we served there many years. It was there that I was ordained as a minister and teaching elder, and was part of the leadership team there until it was time for me to retire in 2017.

Once again, the Lord’s hand was apparent in guiding us to move to Texas. All of the events around my retirement, our purchase of Diane’s fathers house, planning to move, remodeling the house and finally moving lined up in remarkable fashion, and we arrived in Texas just the month before my father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and needed our care and support. He died a few months later and we were in place to take care of Diane’s mother who had severe dementia. This time, we were not involved in a church plant, as we were blessed to join an existing and dynamic church, but were moved to a place at a critical time in Diane’s family to care for her folks and her Uncle John at just the right time.

Did we always know what we were doing when we set out to move across country? Absolutely not!  Like Abram, we went forth to a land that we did not know, but always, we could see, in retrospect, the hand of God leading and guiding our path so that we were always in the proper place at the proper time. So Daniel and Brietta, take heart and trust God. His word is true and is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. When you follow God, wherever He leads you, He will not disappoint. Our testimony is that He is faithful, even when we don’t know what we are doing. As Pastor Joseph used to say, when you decide to follow God, you sign a contract on the bottom line and He fills in the details later. Where He leads you is usually unexpected, but is always a blessing, Moving in God is never easy, but the rewards are heavenly. 

Uncle David and Aunt Diane

Purpose

 Purpose

June 29, 2026

Acts 13:36

36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay;

2 Timothy 1:8-9

8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner,but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

The lesson this week at our church was “Confident in God’s Purpose for Your Life”. That got me to thinking about purpose. This is a topic dear to my heart ever since we wired with Pastor John, who taught on purpose extensively and wrote several books on purpose. One of his first books was “I Wrote this Book on Purpose so You Can Find Yours”. Anyway, it has become part of my purpose to help other people find their purpose in God.

I was blessed to know my purpose in life early. I can’t recall the details of how this occurred. It was not like a audible voice or such, but at an early age I knew that God intended me to become a scientist, musician and minister. It took me awhile to figure our exactly what that meant, but I pursued learning about those three areas from my youth. I started piano lessons when I was eight and have participated in music and worship for all of my life since then. From grade school on, I read science books and magazines and studied various aspects of science and mathematics. When I went to college I majored in Physics and eventually went to graduate school for physics and bio-physics. The ministry purpose took a little longer to develop. I read the Bible when I was young and went through confirmation class in the Methodist church when I was about ten, but I drifter away from the faith in college. It was not until I was a senior in college that I had an encounter with the Lord and gave my heart to Jesus. The next year when I moved to Pittsburgh to attend graduate school, I learned about the Holy Spirit and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. A couple of years after that, I joined Pastor Joseph’s church and started discipleship training, but it was many years after that that I was ordained as a minister and elder.

In the end, we all hope for a word, like was spoken about King David in Acts 13. He “served God’s purpose in his own generation”. I will leave it to others to judge how completely I have served God’s purpose in my life. I think I have accomplished some good in all three aspects of my calling, but then I am not done yet! It is my hope that I will be able to worship Him, study and teach His word and help others understand their purpose until my time is complete. 

Therefore, I encourage you to find your purpose in God. I would encourage you, like Paul encouraged Timothy, to seek your holy calling, according to HIs purpose and grace in your life. This is the way that you can contribute in your own unique way to God’s purposes for the world and enter into His eternal kingdom.

Be Ready…

 2 Timothy 4:1-5 (NKJV) 1 I charge [you] therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season [and] out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, [because] they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn [their] ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

All Scripture

 All Scripture 

June 27, 2026

2 Timothy 3:14-15 (NKJV) 

14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of,knowing from whom you have learned [them,] 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV) 

16 All Scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, forreproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul’s admonition to Timothy is good advise to everyone who wishes to lead a successful Christian life. “Continue in the things you have learned.” “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…”. Studying the scriptures and doing what they teach will make the man of God complete and “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” What better advise could be given to a young man? I don’t have much to add to that except to testify that this has been proven true in my life. Walk in the Word of God and you will be blessed.

Success

 Success

June 26, 2026

2 Timothy 2:1-2 (NKJV) 

1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

There are men who are successful at doing great things, and then there are even greater men who not only accomplish great things,  but teach others to follow in their footsteps and do even greater things. Jesus Himself taught this principle  to His disciples.

John 14:12-14 (NKJV) 

12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will doalso; and greater [works] than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 “If you ask anything in My name, I will do [it.]

This seems to be a hard lesson for men to learn. In the working world, you often see men who are good at their job, but who guard their trade secrets jealously and do not pass on their knowledge to others. When it is time for them to move on, the business suffers because there is no one ready to take on their job. I’ve seen this time and again in my working life. There seems to be some innate fear in man that they will be replaced if they teach another, but the truth is that will be much more successful if there are others trained to do what they do. It’s sad to see this. I’ve even seen cases where someone had to be pulled out of retirement because some major equipment had been shut down and no-one currently working knew how to get it started up again. So the lesson is to apply yourself diligently, but make sure that there is someone following yiu who can do your job, and greater works as well. That’s the way that Jesus did it.

Latter Rain

 Latter Rain

June 25, 2026

Joel 2:23 (NKJV) 

Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the LORD your God; For He hasgiven you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you-- The former rain, And the latter rain in the first [month.]

Joel 2:28-29 (NKJV) 

28 “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Yoursons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. 29 And also on [My] menservants and on [My] maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

2 Timothy 1:6-7 (NKJV) 

6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the layingon of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Through the prophet Joel, the Lord promised to bless His people with the former rain and the latter rain. I understand that to mean the former rain of the law and the prophets and the latter rain of the Spirit that was first poured out on the day of Pentecost. Therefore we have the blessings of God, but Paul urged Timothy to stir up the gift. One outpouring is not enough, we need to constantly stir up the gift, remembering daily what the Lord has done. This is an age of dreams and visions. But we need to be mindful of the Lords gifts and seek Him daily. The world needs to be refreshed by the latter rain of the Word and the Spirit,  but the Lord needs us to be faithful to stir up that gift and to do His Word, 

Riches

 Riches

June 24, 2026

1 Timothy 6:6-10 (NKJV) 

6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into [this] world, [and it is] certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and [into] many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all [kinds of] evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

1 Timothy 6:17-19 (NKJV) 

17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 18 [Let them] do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

What does the Bible say about money? Quite a lot, actually. And this particular scripture gets misquoted a lot. It’s not saying that money is evil, only the love of money . It’s your attitude that causes trouble. It says that greed has caused many sorrows.

So what should the rich Christian do? And by world and historical standards, all Americans are rich. Again, the Bible addresses the attitude. Do not be haughty and do not put your trust in riches. It says to do good and be rich in good works. Properly handled, money can do a lot of good for the kingdom of God.

 I’m reminded of the story of one of our associates who runs a Bible school in India. He was able to start the school and build the first buildings through the generosity of a rich widow. Her husband had left her a considerable fortune and her attitude was to us it to expand the kingdom of God. She was not even a member of the same denomination but was only concerned that the gospel be spread to India. Hundreds of pastors and christian workers are preaching the Word in India today because of her attitude towards riches. So let us be like her and use the things that the Lord has blessed us with to bless others. Be rich in good works, ready to give and to share.