The Key Of God's Love

I was recently at a conference in Spartanburg, SC. I heard this story from a couple working in a West African country. They related it to me as heard directly from the lady involved. It sounds incredible but here goes.

The American couple was ministering to a group of women who had recently become followers of Jesus Christ. They were all raised in another belief system and it is not unusual for women who have started following Jesus to be treated very badly by their husbands. These women are denied the opportunity to go to school so they cannot read. One lady asked for advise on what the Bible says she should do because her life had become very difficult since she has started following Jesus and her husband was beating her because she would no longer attend his place of worship with him.

Another woman stood up and gave her testimony. She told the group that she became a follower of Jesus and her husband got very angry with her when she refused to go to his place of worship with him. He told all his relatives and neighbors that he did not know what to do with his wife.

She told her husband that she was going to a week long meeting where she could learn more about Jesus. This only made him more angry. He wanted to know who would clean his house and cook his food if she went away. She reassured him that he would do just fine and it would only be five days.

After she left, he told all his neighbors that she would never set foot back in his house again. He locked up all the doors and windows and left. Just to make his decision sure, he went to a river and crossed half way over the bridge. There he threw the key to his locked home out into the river.

When the woman came home she thought of how her husband must have had a difficult week cooking for himself, so she decided to stop and buy food from the marketplace to cook his favorite meal. When she arrived home she found her house locked up tight and her husband was nowhere to be found. She went to her neighbors, but no one would tell her what had happened. She finally asked one of her neighbors to help her cook the food so it would not spoil. They started to clean the fish and as they cut one open a key fell out onto the floor. They could not believe their eyes. They have never seen a key come out of a fish before.

The neighbor told her that it looked like the key to her house and she encouraged her to go try it. It fit! So she opened her house and finished cooking the meal.

When her husband heard that she was in the house he became angry once again. He rushed home and found, to his surprise, that there was no sign of a break-in. He demanded to know how she got into his house. She showed him the key as she told him the story of the key falling out of the stomach of the fish. Then she served him the meal and he ate in silence and went straight to bed.

The next day he asked if he could go to her church with her on Sunday. As they sat in church together he just sat in silence. After the service he asked if he could talk to the pastor alone. She took her husband to meet and talk with the pastor. He told the pastor that this Jesus was a worker of miracles and he asked what he needed to do to become a follower of Jesus like his wife.

It has been a year and a half and they are still attending church together faithfully.

The reason I have removed wording identifying the belief system and specific country is because this is not about a belief system. This story is about the lengths God will go to as He reveals His love for one individual man.

This is not the first time God used a fish to tell people of the love and forgiveness He offers. Jonah was a reluctant prophet.He knew the Lord was a God who desires that all people come into a relationship with Him. Jonah thought judgement and eternal hell was the best option for the people he despised but the Lord prepared a great fish to help Jonah deliver His message of love and forgiveness.

So although I would normally find such a story a bit dubious if it was just being circulated around the internet, I am conveying the story as I heard it from the one who witnessed the testimony from the woman with the key. They have also talked to her pastor who attests to the fact that the husband had a radical instantaneous change to his belief system due to the story.

Jesus is the Key to God's love and He has gone to great lengths to show you His love. I would love to talk with you if you would like to know more about this love that would do what we would think to be impossible. Just send me a message.

Stepping Out Of The Boat

When Jesus called Peter to step out of the boat Peter responded by stepping out of the boat. Jesus didn't call Peter to understand how he was going to walk on water, He just called Peter to step out.

Jesus has called us to trust Him and step out of the boat. I have had had the privilege of being trained for ministry at Calvary Community Church as a volunteer and full time minister for the past 9 years. I will be leaving the full time pastoral staff at Calvary on May 31, 2015.

If you have heard my heart over the past 4 1/2 years it will not be any surprise to you that the Lord has captured my heart for the people and land of India. I have been invited to join the staff of Global Training Network to go train pastors in the majority world. My primary focus will be South Asia.

What I mean by the term "Majority World" is the parts of the world where people do not have access to colleges and seminaries to get theological training; mainly Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It has been reported that 80% of the pastors in the majority world have little to no training.

What I will be doing is traveling to South Asia 4-6 times per year. I am being purposely vague do to the persecution and spiritual warfare that is present in these areas.

I will still be around Calvary when I am not traveling to the mission field or working on raising our support. We would greatly appreciate your prayer as we raise support and go do the work God has called us to. I am including information below as to how you can be a part of our ministry as we seek to build the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Prayer Points:

• Health
• Safety
• Financial Support
• I would like to take the first trip in July and August.
• I know this is a tall order but the Lord is not just a God of the small stuff.

Here are the ways you could be a part of our financial support team.

You could send a check to:

Global Training Network

7558 W. Thunderbird Rd.

Ste. 1, P.M.B. 449 

Peoria, AZ 85381 

Please put #481 on the memo portion of the check and not our name.

You could visit our support page by clicking on our name:

Brian & Denice Gandy and choosing from the single gift, monthly recurring gift, and the annual recurring gift options.

The least expensive way to give (other than a check) is with the EFT (Electric Funds Transfer) option.

Or you could scan the QR Code with your phone to go directly to our support page.

Thank you for your love, prayer, and support.

Brian & Denice Gandy

Do Real Men Weep?

Recently I had the honor of siting beside the bed of a man who may see Jesus face to face before I am able to visit with him again. The most difficult part of my job is the best part of my job. I get paid to love people. I'm a pastor, that's what I do.

I held this precious man's hand as we talked. His cancer has progressed rapidly as of late and his body has deteriorated quite a bit since visited him two weeks ago. I had prayed the Lord would not take him home before I returned from India and He was gracious to me in allowing me to spend a little more time with my friend before he draws his final breath here on the earth.

Tears were welling up in my eyes as he said, "Don't cry." Don't cry...I could not not cry. But why was I weeping? Although we are friends, it is not like we are the best of buds. He is a man in our church that I have become very fond of. I know he is going to heaven to see Jesus. That is not why I wept.

I know the kind of pain to lose a loved one and yet that was not the reason I wept. His wife, adult daughters, sons-in-law, and grand-children are hurting and will soon have the most bitter tears that have ever burned their cheeks. But I was not weeping for them.

Why was I weeping?

I thought about that question as I drove back to the church office. Why was I weeping? That is when the Lord spoke to my heart. He reminded me of the story of Jesus as He delayed when called to go help His friend Lazarus. He then received word that Lazarus had died. His disciples wanted to turn back as they feared persecution from the Jewish leaders if they returned to Bethany which was near Jerusalem.

Jesus said to them, "Come on guys. Let's go back to Bethany and I will show you something really cool!" OK, that is my paraphrase version. Jesus was going to Bethany, not to heal Lazarus, but to raise Lazarus from the dead.

When Jesus met Mary and Martha, Lazarus' sisters, His emotions welled up in His eyes. We all know the verse because it is the shortest verse in the Bible. John 11:35 - Jesus wept.

Although it is the shortest verse it is one of the most moving verses in all scripture. Jesus wept. Jesus knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead so I don't believe He was sorrowing over the loss of a friend or the pain his sisters were going through. I believe Jesus wept for the same reason I wept as I held the hand of a dieing friend...This is not the way things are supposed to be.

Death is never a friend. Death is a result of the Fall. This is not the way things are supposed to be and our souls know it very well. My soul longs for the day when Jesus returns and makes everything right. My soul longs for the day when there is no more sin, no more pain, no more death. We were made for something so much more that this mere earthly existence. We were made for, and long for, a close, intimate relationship with the triune God.

I weep because this is not the way things are supposed to be, but this is not the way things will always be. If real men don't weep then Jesus and I are not real men.



1 Corinthians 15:51–58 (New Living Translation)

⁵¹ But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! ⁵² It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. ⁵³ For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.

⁵⁴ Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.

⁵⁵ O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

⁵⁶ For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. ⁵⁷ But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

The Next Milepost

It has been quite a journey. A journey which has taken me to the other side of the earth. A journey that traces its roots to a small town in Iowa about 13 years ago. I was a cross country truck driver waiting for my trailer to be loaded for a trip back home to Phoenix. The snow laid heavy all around me for the second day and I was stuck in my truck engaged in a knock down drag out fight with God.

God had been bugging me for a while about going into full time ministry. He was calling me to be a preacher, or a pastor, or something like that. I wanted no part of that. I was horrified of the thought of getting up in front of people and preaching God's Word. I was armed with all my Moses arguments as to why I was not able to do what He was calling me to do. I lifetime of driving a truck was my backside of the wilderness and Marshalltown, Iowa was the location of my burning bush.

As with Moses, God was not going to be denied. He broke my will and I gave in. I knew I could not do this without the Lord by my side, directing my path.

He put people in my life to help guide me along the way. Pastor Randy Southwick had been my friend and mentor up to that point and he helped mentor me afterwards with a different purpose in mind.

This morning we were reminiscing as we recalled how God has brought me up to this weekend. Sunday, October 27, 2013, is the day I pass the next milepost. I am being ordained as a pastor. It is evidence that God has a sense of humor. He has taken a truck driver and made me into a shepherd.

I am humbled that Calvary Community Church would ordain me. God wrestled me with me until I tapped out on that snowy day, 13 years ago, and I couldn't be happier. I love what he has me doing now. He has even given me a love for the people and land of India. As I write this post I am getting ready for the India Fellowship we have every Friday evening and I am planning my second trip to India.

I am a happy and blessed man. Sunday is not the finish line...just the next milepost.