God is 4 Real

God is For Real by Patrick Jamero

admin — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:05:04 +0000

God is for real. I know this to be true because there is no way I deserve the blessings He has given me in my life. A wonderful wife, daughter, home. My church family at Sunridge Church. Salvation. Recently He blessed me with this humongous 17” Sony notebook pc. I’d been working at Sony in Rancho Bernardo only a couple of weeks when God blessed me with this at the Christmas potluck.

I was wondering what God had planned for me and this great Sony Vaio notebook pc when at church we found a listing for a class at Sunridge U for an online social networking class given by Rich and Dave. Facebook…LinkdIn…MySpace…Twitter??? Hmm. I think this may be it. So my wife and I signed up for the class.

My first foray into Facebook was a real eye opener. I knew people who knew people who knew people who knew me. And just like that I had an online social network. I spent all night that first night connecting, catching up, and messaging. And I realized Dave and Rich were saying in their class. This could be a real powerful tool to reach out to people.

In a recent article in Christianity Today Chicago Pastor John Green writes “…The breakdown of society is rooted in the breakdown of our relationship with our Creator. The biblical response is equally clear: The way out of social chaos begins with people being restored to God. This won’t solve all social problems immediately. But transformed individuals go hand in hand with transforming social networks.”

I pray that I can reach out to my online social network with the good news that God loves and forgives us and invites us into His family, into an abundant life now and forever. How He has calmed my fears, forgives my guilt, and gave me joy.

Transform my social network. I know I have a long way to go. But this looks like a really good start.

Every day since the beginning by Lauralyn Vasquez

admin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:46:56 +0000

I know God is for real. How do I know? I just do. Call it blind, call it faith, call it ridiculous. I just know. As a young girl with a home filled with violence I had times when I heard God call my voice. One day I was washing dishes in the kitchen at the age of 5. I was supposed to be focused and getting my chores done. Instead I heard God say “dance”. So I danced. I twirled in circles and danced for my heavenly father. Now some might say that I was delusional as a child and full of stories. But I was not crazy. I heard my God speak. I continued to hear him speak.

One day as I sat under a bed thinking my mom had been killed by my step father, I heard Jesus tell me to look up at the window. I looked up and saw the most beautiful flowers. I then closed my eyes and pretended to be dancing among those flowers instead of hiding. Coping skills you might call it. I call it a gift from God to be able to close my eyes and see the beauty of Gods creation and celebrate in that creation. Later in life I had a dream where I was supposed to go to a park and share Gods love. So I did. I found more people needing to hear about Gods love that day.

I then heard God tell me that I would have twins. Sure enough I did. Even when the Doctors told me there was only one. I knew God spoke to me. I just knew it. One day when the girls were babies and we had over $800,000 in medical bills, I heard God say “march around your house like Joshua.” So I did. I then went to my mail box and received $15000 in checks that we were not expecting. That could only be God.

I still remember the day that I was five dancing in the kitchen. I imagined my God dancing with me. I know he delights in me and wants to dance with me daily. He is my comfort during the many storms. He is my provider when it seems bleak. He is my Father whom I go to when I need advice, shelter, love and peace. How do I know God is real? I just do.

Prayer for Family Answered Beyond What I Asked by Patricia Purvis

admin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:04:29 +0000

When I first became a Christian, I wanted to go away to Christian college, and I prayed in March that by the time I went to school in August one person in my family would come to the Lord. When I left in August, my whole family–my three brothers, my mom and my dad had come to the Lord. I learned that sometimes God’s Yes is much bigger than my Please.

Salvation of a friend by Elizabeth Mathis

admin — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:59:36 +0000

We have a friend named Barney, who David used to work with. We’ve known he and his family for many years and prayed for their salvation from the time we met. We even wrote his name on the prayer wall during a church service at Sunridge.

Praise the Lord! He and his wife, Jamie, accepted Christ this past fall, and let David know about it. We are so blessed to see what God is doing in their lives.

Yes, Godis4Real by Tammy Kirkpatrick

admin — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:53:11 +0000

I know that God is for real not only for the things He has rescued me from, but those things that He has walked through with me. In my teens, He was there as I watched my younger sister battle with and then die from cancer. In my twenties, the sudden death of my father was when the presence of my Heavenly Father became even more tangible to me. More recently, as I sat in the hospital while my husband was having a large tumor removed, He filled me with His peace regardless of the outcome of the tests ahead. Yes, Godis4Real!

Prayer Works by Mike Dalton

admin — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:43:00 +0000

Back in 1994 Theresa and I were married and we had a group of people who were in Theresa’s sister’s Life Group at Sunridge praying for us, not for our well being but our salvation, for the next two and a half years they prayed for us and our kids that came along the way. They prayed each and every week they met. We were so far from God, situations arose in those two years that made us needing Him, our marriage was on the rocks, we were financially ruined, there wasn’t much love for each other.

Theresa brother-in-law John was giving us verses, never writing them out, just the book and verse, with the hope that we would open the Bible and never close it. On a day where Theresa found herself weeping in our bedroom at my parents house we were living with them, she heard a knock on the door and it was my dad carrying my mom’s Bible, she had passed away earlier that year and he just said that he would leave something on the table.Theresa came out of the bedroom and found the Bible and looked for the verses that John had given her, Phil 4:4- 8.

With that simple act Theresa’s life was changed, I was slow to follow. We moved to the Temecula are to “save” our marriage, with hope we pushed forward without God leading the way and our situation being the same. Theresa started going to church (Sunridge) on Sunday’s and I was working full time on the weekends, so I had an out. One day she asked me that the next time I had a Sunday off that I needed to come with her and the kids to church, at least to be an example to our kids, I agreed and waited for that Sunday to happen.

Easter came and my store was closed on Sunday so I went with them, I grew up in church, I knew what to do, what to say, how to act, but I wasn’t ready for what happened that day, my wife received Christ that day in the back row. I was moved by the message and felt God moving so I also put that I was with her in this but my heart was not His yet. I told Theresa that whenever I have a Sunday off of work I would attend church, well, God is for real and He arranged for me to have every Sunday off, my position at work changed where I had every weekend off, for those who know retail, God is the only one that can arrange that. So what do I do? Now I have to live up to what I had promised.

I started to attend on Sunday, joined a Life Group, and fellowshipped with others, but that moment didn’t happen, receiving Christ. We were in a Life Group, that had multiplied off of the Life Group that had been praying for us, but they hadn’t put 2 and 2 together yet, that we were the couple they had been praying for. One week, I was fighting God, sitting in the back row at Sunridge, throwing punches, running, trying to go toe to toe with HIM, a fight I could never win.

That week as we grew closer to our night at Life Group I kept going to the Bible and looking for why I was fighting God. That Wed. night at Life Group while we were praying over prayer request, I threw in the towel, I gave up my life and made the choice to follow Jesus the rest of my life, the best fight I have ever lost. I found out later that my Sister-in-law Mary had a bookmark that had my name on it, she had been praying for my for almost three years, God put it on her heart everyday to pray for me. God is for real, he chose the time, the place, the people, the MOMENT!!! No one else could have arranged this. There is so much more to this story believe it or not. Those are all things showing how God is real.