Pastor's Blog

Paint Rock Valley Church of God

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A new god

There is a new god being raised up and worshiped in the American church these days, but actually it’s not a new god at all, it has been worshiped in days of old and was among the most popular gods ever invented by man. If you look closely, you may recognize it in your own church.

This god of old, making its comeback, is known through every ancient culture and has many names.

It’s none other than the love god, aka Venus, aka Dianna, aka Aphrodite, aka Kuni, aka Astarte, aka Pan, etc.

The love god is regaining ground because preachers have taken scripture out of context and twisted it to mean something it doesn’t, namely the scripture that describes one of God’s attributes where it says God is love. This scripture is absolutely true, God IS love... however, they twist it by saying the opposite must also be true, love is god. That is false in every aspect, love is NOT God! We should NEVER worship an attribute of God, it’s the same thing as idol worship, you are putting another god before Him.

You may also notice that many churches have become “okay” with the idea of making God out to be female, but the female word for a god is “goddess”. Notice that the list I gave above is littered with goddesses. That’s because the demon behind this ‘love god’ has always identified as a female, and as it regains power through modern churches, I can guarantee that it will once again manifest as female. And her name will be some form of the words love goddess. We already saw her in the book/movie “The Shack”.

You might say oh that’s ridiculous, those goddesses were goddesses of sexual love, but let me tell you this, if you become comfortable with worshiping love as your god, you won’t care how love is defined. In fact, it’s already evident, the emergent church’s seeker sensitive movement is all about love and letting people continue in their sin so as not to offend.

Mark my words, the love god/goddess is on the rise and is given rise by the church in America.

So what’s the solution? Recognize this false god and get back to worshiping the God of the Bible who has many attributes, including true love which disciplines.

~Dan Gates

#ItsTime #IAMforyou

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Vashti make way for Esther

When the call to God’s presence is treated as common, He will demote them from Royalty to Commoner.

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The Church of the Retired Christian

The Church of the retired Christian... That’s the name being placed upon the churches of America today, and especially those of the “Bible Belt”.

Has your church become a church of the retired Christian?

Matthew 28:19-20

The Great Commission given by Jesus was not a suggestion, it was a command.

Christians, what if your pastors started enforcing this? What if you were no longer allowed to come to church unless you brought someone new with you every time you came?

Churches would either be closed down, or they’d be jammed packed full, depending on the response of the congregation.

Let me just clarify one point, There’s no such thing as a RETIRED CHRISTIAN, so if you attend one of those kind of churches, you might want to reevaluate your Christianity.

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Boot Camp

The assembling together of the body of Christ that we call ‘Church’, certainly was NEVER intended to be a country club for the elite, but I have news for you, it was NEVER intended to be a hospital for the hurting either!

The Gathering of the saints can be most likened to a military Boot Camp where good soldiers are trained for battle, armed and readied to engage the enemy.

Country clubs are where to go for R&R, and hospitals are M.A.S.H. units that are to be set up in the battle field, NOT in the training camps.

#ItsTime the church gets back to serious training so they can be ready for what’s coming quickly!

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The same Spirit

The power it took to roll back a stone was nothing compared to the awesome power that conquered death and caused our savior to walk past that stone to take His seat next to the Father! Now imagine if only we had a power like that within us... Wait, we do!! The same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in me!!! What will you allow that power to do through you today?

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Find your trysting place

God is longing to meet with you, not in the public places like church or in the midst of a crowd of worshippers, but in a special place, a trysting place. What is a trysting place? Webster defines it as: a meeting by lovers at a secret time or place. Another defines it as: 1. An agreement between lovers to meet at a certain time and place. 2. A usually private meeting or meeting place that has been agreed on by lovers. I envision two young lovers sneaking out to a private garden, meeting in the gazebo at the center of that garden. This is where they've secretly agreed to meet every afternoon. They sit and chat and giggle like young lovers discovering the intimate things about each other and going over the events of their day. As I was in my morning devotion and prayer this morning and as I contemplated this Trysting place, Jesus took me in the spirit and showed me a great auditorium with amazing worship taking place, thousands raising their hands in heart felt worship. It was completely amazing and all for Him! Then He looked at me and said "this is not my favorite place." And with a blink of an eye we were sitting in the midst of a garden in a beautiful gazebo on a warm spring afternoon, just Him and I, and He said "this is my favorite place!" ~ Dan Gates

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Vision

Most days, I post what God has given me to post, but today after reading my morning devotion from Oswald Chambers, I feel this is far too important a message to let slip by. So here's today's blog quoting Oswald Chambers: "When God gives you a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will bring the vision He has given you to reality in your life if you will wait on His timing. Abram went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all of his self-sufficiency was destroyed. He grew past the point of relying on his own common sense. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not a period of God’s displeasure. Just wait upon God and be grounded in Him." --Oswald Chambers, from My Utmost for His Highest.

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January Fasting

For many churches and many Christians, January is a month for fasting, fasting for church issues, fasting for the year, fasting for health benefits, etc. I too participate by choosing one sort of fast or another during the month of January, and have done so for several years now, but this year my focus is different than usual, and the fasting periods that I’ve chosen are producing a different result. My heart this year is for one thing, a walk with God on the level of Enoc is my focus and desire, and the experience during the fasting is such that reminds me of what Jesus told the Pharisees in Mark 2:19

And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

yet I don’t necessarily feel like I’m walking with Jesus on any different level than I have been.

So in essence, my fasting purpose is to walk with Jesus like Enoc did or like Adam in the garden before the fall, but during my fasts, I feel like Jesus is saying bridegroom is with you, you cannot fast. And the result of the fast doesn’t make me feel like I’m any closer. Seems to be counter intuitive at best, but as I meditate on the whole thing, I believe God is showing me something significant.

First, that my January fasting is representative of this entire year. Second, that I need to quit relying on my feelings and trust that God WANTS to give me what I’m asking for (a closer walk). Third, that this year is going to be significant concerning this very issue, not just for me and my walk, but for the entire kingdom of God.

Are you ready to walk with our King?  It’s Time!

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Strong Delusion

Be careful about the strong delusion that will be sent from God to those who refuse the truth of His Word! 2Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. ~ Pastor Dan

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What do you follow?

And the greatest news is that Jesus made a way for us to turn from our sinful ways and obtain lasting life in Him!

Turning away from our sinful ways is not only available, but it’s required to obtain lasting life. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can have both, sin AND lasting life, that’s a lie from the devil.

The word follow carries a connotation of discipleship. You are a disciple of what you follow.

When you truly turn to Jesus, you are turning away from sin because there is no sin in Him. If you continue to follow after sin, you are not following Jesus, they are opposite in direction.

Choose the direction of lasting life, it’s far better I promise.

~ Pastor Dan

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Distraction

Be careful that you are not distracted from your focus on God! Here are some signs that you may be distracted: Complacent. We become complacent in our walk and tend to become more tolerant toward sin, even defending sin to some degree. Resentful. We become resentful, resentful that we aren't getting noticed for what we do, resentful that others are succeeding and getting noticed. Dissatisfied. We become unsatisfied in everything. We're not satisfied in our marriage, not satisfied in our jobs, not satisfied in our calling. And it's never our fault that we're not satisfied. Complainer. We begin to complain about everything. It's too hot, too cold, not enough of this, too much of that. Critical spirit. We begin to develop a critical spirit and find fault in others. It gets so bad that we can no longer see anything past the faults in others, and our whole life becomes about criticizing what we see in others. At this point, it is easier for us to criticize than to encourage. Easily offended. We become super sensitive and easily offended. We will know that we've reached this point when we find that we are even offended by our closest friends and family. We look to the approval of others rather than God. We will even try to justify our actions by seeking out people who will side with us. We develop a distain for authority. Our own authority or view of things supersedes that of any official authority. Every word we hear from God seems to apply only to others, never to us. If any of these describe your current condition, please realize that you have been distracted from your pursuit of God and His righteousness. Turn your focus inward and your attention back on your relationship with God. ~ Pastor Dan

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Through the cross to His love!

Christians these days are eager to identify with the “love” of Jesus, but they have no idea what it means to identify with the death of Jesus. I can tell you this for sure, no man is capable of loving like Jesus until they can completely identify with His death.

You will either decide that you don’t want sin to die out in you, or that you identify with Jesus’ death and want to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self.

To put it simply, you cannot get around the cross of Jesus to get to the love of Jesus!

~ Pastor Dan

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Resolutions

Many people are making and have made resolutions for this new year. Most are about becoming a better person. The problem with New Year resolutions is that they are birthed from good intentions rather than solid determination and plan. For a resolution to "stick", it must become a discipline and a discipline requires that you become a disciple. You must willingly place yourself under the authority of a master and that master cannot be yourself, because yourself can easily convince you that discipline is not necessary to achieve your resolution. In the military, one willingly submits them-self to be subject to the authority of one who is skilled at the art of discipline. You quickly learn to surrender all of your own self-centered desires over to a higher authority. Discipline is never the natural choice, a person will not stumble into a disciplined life. It is a determination and rarely is one capable of disciplining their own self. If you want to see your resolutions accomplished in this coming year, completely surrender yourself as a disciple to be disciplined by the master Jesus. Determine that you belong to Him and are not your own master, determine to accept His discipline to make you the person you resolve to be. ~ Pastor Dan

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First Blog

Looks like I’m officially a blogger. All for the glory of God!