TLH May Newsletter

May 27, 2011 by Sam

May 2011

Here is the May newsletter from The Lewis House.  It has been an exciting first month of ministry!  We are looking forward to an awesome summer!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Walking in The Light

May 26, 2011 by Sam

“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you , that God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth, but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”  John 1:5-7

Walk in the light.  I have heard that grace is easy.  Walking in the light is not.  Walking in the light means denying everything that I am.  Walking in the light means absolutely giving up my independence.  Even more than that it means that I am responsible for the dependence of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

“This is the message you heard from the beginning:  We should love one another.  Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother…”  1 John 3″11-12a

But you don’t understand she…but he…they deserved what they got.  There is no they fell in the body of Christ only WE fell.  “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” 1 Corinthians 12:26

“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”  Hebrews 3:12-13

The Walk in the Light is a walk of fellowship.  It is a journey with companions.  The chief among them being our Lord Jesus Christ himself.  It is the narrow way.  It is the hard way.  It requires death and rebirth.  It is at once a rejection of all that I have been and a fulfillment of all that I was ever meant to be.

Posted in Bible Study, I'm Just Sayin' | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Making Light of Ethic

May 9, 2011 by Sam

Another semester down and only a few classes to go. This year has been awesome and I am so thankful that God has given me this opportunity to fulfill his call on my life.  For those of you who may take interest in such things, I am going to attach my exegesis of 1 John 1:5 – 1 John 2:11.  It is titled “Making Light of Ethic”.  Making Light of Ethic

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Angel Update

May 5, 2011 by Sam

Just thought I would update everyone.  I just drove Stacey to the chiropractor (for those of you who do not know she is on staff with TLH and runs the Holy Toledo Warriors 4h group).  The van is running fine.  There is no gear damage.  The engine is fine.  It is humbling when the hand of God reaches into your life and moves things (literally)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Angels in the Driver’s Seat

May 4, 2011 by Sam

Van moved 50 ft. to avoid accident

Angels can drive!

Our van was parked pretty much where I was standing when I took this picture.  A drunk driver struck the car behind the car behind us with enough force to spin the driver’s car 180 degrees and flip it on its side.  An eyewitness told me that when he came out our van was gently rolling to its current position (about 50 feet from where it was parked) and that he thought that someone was driving it.  I thoroughly examined the outside of the van.  There is not an additional mark on it.  I had myself convinced that the transmission was toast and that the van rolled because the gears had been stripped by the accident, but it started up, backed up, pulled forward, backed up again and then went into park without a problem.  I got out and rocked the van to make sure park was holding it still.  I will never know exactly what happened, but I believe that Angels can drive.

Posted in I'm Just Sayin', Life and Ministry | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Family of God, The Kingdom of God

April 18, 2011 by Sam

We just finished our first full week at The Lewis House.  It was a great week!  We had three awesome ministry events.  Wednesday our youth group from Compelled Church (EVERFREE) came and went door to door in the neighborhood handing out fliers for our Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday.  Thursday we had our last Soup Kitchen Cafe.  On Friday we were so blessed.  The public elementary school agreed to distribute 510 fliers to all of their students.  So Saturday we had many children new to the ministry!  Two of our fine arts teams from EVERFREE performed as well as the Master’s Commission from New Life Tabernacle.  My lovely wife Allana led the children in a couple of worship songs and George took the opportunity to speak the Gospel to the crowd after our first fine arts performance.  We definitely put Jesus back in Easter for a whole bunch of children and parents.  It was such a blessing to see the people of God come together to server the Kingdom.  Members of Calvary Bible Church put together and ran a crafts table, while the teens from Compelled Church Assembly of God and the young adults from New Life Tabernacle Open Bible Church performed at an event organized by The Lewis House and hosted by the awesome pastor and congregation of Collingwood United Methodist Church.  Guess what folks, God does not belong to a denomination!  I believe I felt him smile even as I did looking out at His Family working together for His Kingdom.  I was so blessed to have the small part that I did in the incredible event.

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ…contending as one man for the faith of the gospel

Philippians 1:2

Thank you Lord Jesus for all the workers who planted your field on Saturday. Bless them for their faithfulness!  Bless them for their love for You and for the Lost!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Lord Am I Crazy?

April 2, 2011 by Sam

Wow, the Spaghetti Dinner is only hours away, the beginning of our full-time ministry is only days away and the doubts begin to creep in.  I am 48 years old. As I look around, urban missions seems to be a young man’s game, at least to start.  I am certainly past my “prime” in so many ways.  What a waste of years…

Then the Spirit gave me a very loud “Quit It!”  My mind turns to Owen Carr who felt called to pioneer a church in downtown Springfield Missouri at the age of 83, touched by the lack of godly impact in the very city that the Assemblies of God calls home.  Moses was 80 when God called him out of his comfortable middle class life in Midian.  The thing that matters is the call of God and our commitment to him, our commitment to love the lost.  Love, Love, Serve is our motto at Compelled Church.  Love God.  Love People.  Serve the World. We can do that!  It does not matter whether we are 9 or 90.  God has called my family and I to fulfill this in bringing his hope to the Five Points neighborhood of Toledo and he has made the way for us to do it.  He has already acted in so many miraculous ways to do this.  I look forward to watching his hand at work.  So I am 48 and starting a new phase in my life.  Who Knows maybe I will plant a church when I am 88…

Posted in Life and Ministry | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Baptism and Adoption

March 20, 2011 by Sam

As I prepare for church this morning I am thinking of all the circumstances that brought us to today.  I am going to be baptizing my daughter Samantha Ann Guidry.  She was not always Samantha Ann Guidry.  She was born Samantha Ann Belrose.  I legally formalized the relationship that already existed since she was 8 months old in February of 2007. Today I will baptize her, publicly recognizing her adoption as a child of God.  I know just a little bit of how He feels.  It is awesome that she selected me to take part in this public confession of her faith.  We celebrate our daughter; we celebrate our adoption as Children of God.

Posted in Life and Ministry | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments »

The Lewis House

March 2, 2011 by Sam

Guidry-Lewis House1

january-2011

Our initial ministry letter and the January newsletter for The Lewis House.

Most of you who read this blog probably know by now that we have accepted a missions position with The Lewis House ministry in the Five Points neighborhood of Toledo.  It has been a long process that God has brought us through to make this commitment to Him!  We sent out our initial ministry letter which I am attaching to this post.  If you have not received one and would like to be a part of our mailing list message me (Facebook or Email) with your address and we will get you added.

We are excited about this move and look forward to the future blessings we will experience as we work with George and Sarah Williams spreading the Gospel of God’s love in Toledo.  God has already been so good to us even as he hammered us into a shape that he could use in this ministry.

Posted in Life and Ministry | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Sacred Rhythm

February 12, 2011 by Sam

I just read another awesome article from my Music Ministry class!  I would post it here but it is copyrighted material.  It is from Karen Burton Mains’ book Making Sunday Special.  It had so many great take-aways but the one that was highlighted for me was the concept of  “Sacred Rhythm”.  This actually integrated well with parts of T. Burton Pierce’s book on ministerial ethics that I am reading. (Ministerial Ethics, A Guide for Spirit-filled Leaders) One of the important points that he made was

“The lesson is simple, basic:  the how of ministry is more important than the results of ministry.”  (p.49)

I think this is also the lesson of the “Sacred Rhythm”.  How we do life is as important or more important than what we do.  We can have all of the notes right, be right on the beat, playing just as fast as we can but if we miss the rhythm, if we miss God’s rhythm the results are going to be wanting.  We only have to go to Galatians 5 to get a measuring stick for our adherence to God’s rhythm.

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (NASB)

As Allana and I make this big move into full time ministry and full time reliance on the hand of God for provision both in ministry and in life, He has chosen this time to highlight for me the importance of the HOW, of the RHYTHM.  We mailed out our first round of support letters today.  Perhaps that is a right of passage that makes us “official” missionaries. It may be these tasks that make us missionaries in the eyes of the world, but it will be our ears listening for and our hearts beating with God’s sacred rhythm that makes us effective missionaries in the eternal.

Posted in Bible Study, I'm Just Sayin', Life and Ministry | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »