Gospel Archives - Gilbert Thurston

Acts 29

March 25, 2010 by Gilbert 2 Comments

This morning in my personal devotions I finished up reading through the book of Acts. Every time I do it’s always a wonderful reminder of the hard work and sacrifice that early Christians put in to get the church started and the message of Christ spread. It’s also a reminder of how utterly useless we are without the help of the Holy Spirit.

However, what I’m always most struck by is the ending…or lack thereof. If you’ve ever read through, you know that Luke the author goes into great detail for 28 chapters talking about times and places and doesn’t leave any loose ends…until the end that is. Paul has just been put into a Roman jail and Luke ends by saying, “Paul stayed there for two years bravely preaching about the Kingdom and no one tried to stop him”. And that’s it! Done! What?

Luke how can you leave us hanging like that? If this were a movie we’d say…”Oh it’s obvious they are setting it up for a sequel”. Here’s my theory. There is a sequel called Acts 29 and it covers a period of nearly 2000 years. It’s still being written and you and I are some of the co-stars. In other words, Luke intentionally (being directed by the Spirit) abruptly ended his writing because God didn’t ever want us to think the story was done. Acts 29 is where you and I continue on the work of the early church in making sure the Gospel gets preached throughout the world. Acts 29 is you and I sacrificing of our time, talent and money so that others might hear the good news of what Jesus has done for us all.

I’ll end with a simple question…Are you off script?

If You Hate Technology So Much, Then Try This…

August 10, 2009 by Gilbert 1 Comment

Have seen and read a few things today that made me want to post this…

Often times people complain about the increased use of technology in life (texting, facebook, twitter, etc.) and in the church (lights, projection, etc.)

It’s on days like this (very hot and very humid) that I want to tell people that don’t like technological advances to turn off their air conditioners. I’m mean at one point AC was the latest and greatest but now is pretty common place. The key to technology in my eyes is this…Is it a tool or a toy?

To me texting is easier than sending a letter(tool). Facebook allows me to keep up on the latest and greatest in the people’s lives that I’m called to (lead). Lighting, projection and a lot of the other things we use at United help us to present the Gospel message in a way that reaches people that other churches aren’t reaching (tool).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go downstairs to microwave (tool) my lunch, in my nice air conditioned home (tool) and watch my big screen TV (Toy…definite toy!).

God or Coincidence?

August 4, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

This past Sunday the Experiences switched to be 1/2 hour later than they used to be. On Thursday night the band worked really hard and really late to get the 1970’s medley ready for Sunday morning. As practice was wrapping up, they asked if on Sunday mornings we were now going to begin our practices 1/2 hour later than usual. I said yes eventually, but for this week let’s stay with the normal time so we can run through the medley a few more times.

Now Sunday rolls around and practice goes smoothly and wraps up 45 minutes before the 1st Experience is to start. What to do with my time? I figured well I can go down to my office and one more time look through my notes for that mornings sermon. Now realize this is something I’m never able to do on Sunday mornings…in other words to be sitting in my office on a Sunday morning is a rarity.

While there, the phone rings. Knowing I’m the only one in the office area, I answered it. On the other end was a guy who randomly called our church saying he was in need to speak with a pastor. I told him I and the other pastors were getting ready to conduct services, but that I’d be willing to meet with him at 12:30pm when we were done.

We did indeed meet and he was hurting in a lot of ways, but I was able to share the Gospel with and he prayed to ask Jesus for the forgiveness of his sins and to be the leader of his life. Here was a guy that had no church background and until I gave him a bible had not touched one in along time…in fact, I’m not sure he ever had. We met again on Monday and he had already read through most of the book of John. He’s still got a lot of pain and hurt to deal with but his hunger to have God direct his path from now on you can tell is very real.

Now some would say it was coincidence that I happened to be in my office at the right time on Sunday, but I believe that God’s hand has been orchestrating this for quite some time. Consider…

We decided back in May of this year to do the REWIND series.
It was in June then that we decided to kick it off with a medley of songs from the 70’s.
Had it not been for the medley and the amount of time it took us on Thursday night to practice it, I would have allowed the team to come in 1/2 hour later on Sunday morning.
If the team came in 1/2 hour later, I would have not been in my office to answer the call.
Honestly I thought about just letting the phone ring, but then thought no maybe someone’s confused about the new times so I’d better answer to help with a simple question like that.
Normally I would have insisted that he attend church and then we’d meet afterwards, but “for some reason” I felt not to ask him to do that.
Now consider his life…for months, if not years now, the trouble in his life has been brewing to the point it all came to a raging boil this past week.
Even though he’s got friends and family he could turn to, he instead decided to pick up the phone and call a church of all places to ask for help.
He “just so happens” to call our church, where I’m “unexpectedly” sitting in my office and decide to answer the phone.

Now I truly believe he could have called other churches and gotten just as good of help, but there is a part of me that wonders did God think…”I’m sending him to Gilbert because I know Gilbert won’t try to solve his surface problems but will get right to the heart of the issue ,which is his sin problem, and will share my Gospel message.

I guess what I’m getting at is we are all players in a much bigger master plan than what we can possibly comprehend. So it’s neat when you can look back like in a situation like this to see the hand of God each and every step of the way nudging things towards the ultimate conclusion He wants for all of us, which is the forgiveness of our sins and an eternal relationship with Him!

So be as faithful as you can be today…you never know what chain of events you’re setting off that down the road will help bring soomeone to Christ!

Happy Spiritual Birthday to Me!

July 27, 2009 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

Today marks 16 years since I became a follower of Christ! Does this mean I can drive the church van now? In all seriousness, it is the best decision I ever made. I was doing well in business at the time, but ever since I met Lisa, I had felt that there was something missing in my life…there was definelty something she had that I didn’t. There was something about her life and church that was nothing like mine.

About 7pm that night there was a knock at my door and it was 2 guys I had met from Lisa’s church. While I knew Keith and Marvin were good guys, I didn’t invite them in, but instead offered to sit with them out on the front porch. After a bit of conversation, they asked me two questions that forever changed my life.

“Gilbert do you know for certain that if you were to die today that you would go to heaven?” I quickly responded, “Of course I would”. Then they asked, “If you were to die today and stand before God and He were to say to you, ‘Gilbert, why should I let you into my heaven’, what would you say?” Again I was quick with an answer, “Well I go to church and I try to do the best that I can. I know I haven’t been perfect, but I definelty try to do more good than bad”.

What they shared next with me, shocked me in some ways, but at the same time revealed that missing piece I was searching for. Over the next 20-30 minutes they shared with me the Gospel. For the first time it made sense! Why had I never heard this growing up in church?

Marvin and Keith shared that…God wants to give us heaven as an absolutely free gift and there is nothing we can do to earn that gift, nor do we even deserve it. The problem for us though is our sin. Even just 3 sins a day adds up to tens of thousands over the course of a lifetime. Are we really going to be able to stand before God and say how “good” we were? I had to agree that “no, I sin a lot more than 3 times in a day”. I was starting to getting a sinking feeling…maybe I was too quick to assume that I was going to heaven when I died.

They continued on by sharing that while God loves us and doesn’t want to punish us, He is also just and fair and must punish our sin. In my mind I swore…I dropped a couple of “F” bombs as I thought about how messed up I was…not even realizing at the time that I was compounding my problem. “How in the world am I ever going to me good enough to repay God for all this,” I thought.

What they shared next answered that for me…I wasn’t ever going to be good enough. “Well then we’re all just going to hell then,” I asked. “No,” they said. “Well then what’s the solution?’ They asked me who I thought Jesus was. “Well he was the Son of God, he was a good teacher, he did some miracles, he taught us how to live”. “Yes, that’s true” they replied, but “Who is Jesus?” “My goodness taking the SAT’s was easier than the questions these guys are throwing at me,” I thought. “I don’t know…please tell me”.

What they shared next literally has changed my life forever. “Jesus was actually God Himself, who took on human flesh and blood and lived the perfect and sinless life that you and I can never live and then died on the cross so that all of our sins can be forgiven”. In other words, someone needs to pay the penalty for your sins…either it will be you standing before God claiming that you were perfect, or you’ll allow Jesus to pay it for you.

I remember starting to well up with tears as I realized that God loved me so much that He had come to die for my sins. Marvin and Keith shared some other things with me, but I just couldn’t escape the realization that if I continued down the path I was on, I deserved eternal punishment in hell and I recognized that I actually deserved it. But then also realizing that Jesus made a way possible for my sins to be forgiven…even remembered no more…gave me a sense of peace and hope.

When they were done talking they asked if everything had made sense and if i was ready to ask Jesus for His forgiveness and leadership in my life? Years later Marvin told me, “We didn’t really have to ask you that question…you could see it on your face that you had just had an encounter with Jesus and that you were ready to put Him first in your life”.

So right there on my front porch, on July 27, 1993, I prayed and asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and help me down a new path in life. From day 1 then I realized that you don’t do good things in order to be saved, but as proof that you are saved. Jesus said, “By their fruit you will recognize them”. My fear is that too many people claim they love Jesus with their mouths, but yet their hearts are far from him. In other words, Jesus said, “If you love me, then you will obey my commands”. Again not because you’re trying to earn God’s favor, but rather out of gratitude for what He did for you. Here’s another way to think of it…Jesus gave up His life for you and now He wants you to give your whole life (time, money, actions, words, thoughts) back to Him.

So here we are 16 years later. Have I been perfect…no far from it…but I am perfectly forgiven and to the best of my abilities as the Spirit of God which lives inside of me directs me, I try to follow His every prompting. I often say that, “God wants and has a better plan for your life than you even have for your life”. I can say that with confidence because for 16 years now I’ve seen it played out in my own life.

I’ll wrap up with this…”If you were to die today and stand before God and He were to say, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven’, what would you say?” If the answer has anything to do with anything other than Jesus, then review what I wrote above and pray and ask for His forgiveness and leadership, then commit to following Him for the rest of your life. What’s cool is if you do that today…you and I will share a spiritual birthday…so happy birthday to me and happy birthday to you!