If you have been wanting to move forward in being equipped for a biblical counseling ministry, check out the Certification Track. Grace Fellowship International offers this credential through a process than can mostly be done where you live, at your own pace. Here is a new PowerPoint video explaining the steps in more detail. The requirements and instructions are listed at the GFI web site’s Certification Page.
The conference was a great experience and I look forward to the next workshop. I was one who came to the end of self many years ago (1990) and experienced a dramatic inner healing. I met with Paul Kaschel in Grand Rapids MI at the Life Center for Spiritual Growth. (Dr. Solomon would remember Paul well.) It was after about the 5th time that we met that I experienced the exchanged life while laying in bed that evening. It was like walking out of a dark, depressing dungeon (that I was in for months), into a most peaceful and restful place. My life has never been the same since.
I plan to take additional courses, etc. to be certified in the exchanged life ministry. I have sensed His leading in this area of study, and I don’t know how or where I will be used in this, but I am moving forward and will leave the unknowns in His hands. I will never forget what it was like to feel totally defeated, anxious, weak, and seemingly without hope… believing a lie that God had simply gave up on me for some reason. (I remember it well, but the memories have no power over me.) There are many who are suffering silently, coping instead of truly living, who don’t realize the birthright that belongs to them in Christ. May God continue to bless your ministry and all who are involved.
T. T.
GFI Spirituotherapy Workshop group, March 7-10, 2016 in Pigeon Forge, TN
We welcomed participants from as far west as North Dakota, east from India, north from Pennsylvania, and south from Florida. For example:
May God bless and guide each of them. Our next Spirituotherapy Workshop is scheduled for August 8-11, 2016.
GFI alumnus, Faith Heitzer, did the artwork for a recently published children’s book entitled, Why is Great Grandma So Sad? Discovering the Holocaust Through the Eyes of a Child. It was written by Susan Heagy who ministers to elderly Holocaust survivors in Israel.
“Though this book is written for children ages 7 to 14, it is also intended for any age of people who have difficulty reading anything having to do with the Holocaust of WWII. This story is presented from the personal perspective of a family in the midst of the Holocaust, without trauma but historically correct. Sarah, at the age of seven, does not understand the extreme sadness her great grandmother portrays, prompting her to ask her mother the question, Why is Great Grandma so sad? Her mother decides it is time to relate the Holocaust experience of Great Grandma Hannah beginning at the same age as Sarah. This story gives an account of a family experiencing the onset of WWII, ghetto life, being sent to a concentration camp and the unusual circumstances surrounding their struggle to survive. Through the dialog Sarah comes to have a new view of her great grandmother, Hannah, as a child. Hannah, through necessity, grows up all too quickly. But while she endures these changes and experiences and during times of hiding, her doll Rachael is always there as a confidant and constant companion in her loneliness. She hears also of an unbelievable time when the Jewish people were treated horribly and unfairly. Sarah comes to realize how the Jews, her own people, demonstrated strength and resilience when under pressure, determined to survive. This story brings to life the sadness, and the hope, tightly interwoven in the lives of those who survived the Holocaust culminating with a surprise ending. Throughout this dialog Sarah learns along with the child Hannah about a time in history no one should ever forget. It is the hope of the author that those reading this book will also learn the truth of that time and not allow the voices of those who experienced it to be silenced. This story of Great Grandma is historical fiction. The family is not real but the experiences are. Based on several Survivors of the Shoah, their true life war accounts are included in the book.” Available trough Amazon here.
Our associate, Dr. Lewis Gregory writes:
Please pray for my foreign mission trip to Brazil, South America, January 24—February 5, 2016. I will be with Edmund Spieker of Churches in Missions conducting 2 Spiritual Life Conferences for ministers. The Conferences will be held in Juazeiro, Ceará and Triunfo, Pernambuco. My messages will be about “Identity in Christ,” “Victorious Living” and “Marital Harmony.” A copy of The Ultimate Makeover in Portuguese (A Transformacao Total) will be given to each minister. Pray that this would be a time of great encouragement and enlightenment for the ministers. Also pray that many lives would be transformed to the glory of God! (Ephesians 1:17-19)
http://sourceministries.net/
Please pray for Don and Mariam Higgins from Ontario, Canada. They are going with a team of 7 back to Zambia February 2-16, 2016. They will be training about 100 pastors and others, and supplying them with Handbook to Happiness and Wheel & Line tracts. (Photo: John and Linda visited them in December and also met their pastor, David Sparrow, who also will go on this mission trip.) Please pray that the Holy Spirit will minister to all involved!
This month we initiated a process of upgrading the GFI Diploma in Biblical Counseling curriculum. These have been traditional self-study-by-mail correspondence courses. As interest has grown in internet-based instruction, we have seen the need to make these primarily delivered online.
We have renamed the free Udutu powered courses as Discipleship Courses. The tuition-based courses are categorized as Diploma Courses (although they can be taken for individual enrichment, even if the diploma is not the primary objective.)
A revised Course Enrollment page streamlines the application process through linking the student to the GFI store, where the course tuition is paid, and providing a form to request any additional required books.
Under the Course Pages menu, each course will have a password-required landing page with the PDF syllabus, instructions, online content, and other helps. Next to the Course Page will be the password-required Exam Page where the concluding exam is taken online. Please send us any feedback or questions about this transition
Joe and Cherri Freeman in New Jersey (XL Project / Love Them to Life) relate the message of the Cross to those dealing with addiction…and those who love them.
Their December newsletter is online here.
Cross to Life Discipleship Ministries in Minnesota provide discipleship counseling and equipping. The photo is of a recent class at their office in Edina.
By F.B. Meyer
As racial and ethnic tensions rise, those who belong to God’s new community in Christ need to renounce prejudice. Instead, we are called to model love, forgiveness, and harmony. A biographical and doctrinal excerpt from the epistle to the Galatians shows us how.*
“Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I [Paul] withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision [Jewish leaders]” (Gal. 2:11,12).
Evidently Peter had gone back from the clear revelation of Acts 10:1-48 [when he introduced Cornelius’ family and friends to salvation], and from his former practice… The fear of the conservative party of the mother Church had brought him into a snare. His example had a very unfortunate effect upon the rest of the Hebrew Christians, who took their lead from him. But Paul’s remonstrance probably brought Peter back to his former and happier practice.
Paul goes on to show that the death of Christ has taken us altogether out of the realm of the ancient Law, with its restrictions and distinctions between clean and unclean, Jew and Gentile (Gal. 2:15-19).
“For [Jesus] Himself is our peace, who has made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross … And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:14-18).*
Continue reading at GraceNotebook.com
John W., Roger, Phil, & John V.
When John was in Pennsylvania last week, he and pastors Roger and Phil fellowshiped over lunch with John VanGelderen. John V. had just completed a speaking engagement in the area (and John W. was there to present a series at Springville Baptist Church). John VanGelderen is an itinerant preacher and author with a calling to promote revival. The discussion was so encouraging because of our mutual appreciation for how the Holy Spirit uses Galatians 2:20 realities as a catalyst for personal and church renewal. We commend his books and web site: www.revivalfocus.com
Exchanged Life Counseling Matters 