Dear Partner,

Again this month we would like to share with you concerning how your co-laboring with us in the gospel is producing change in the lives of believers. Sue and I have the blessing of getting to read the many letters of testimony that come in every week from those whom the Lord is blessing through this ministry. Those letters are a great source of encouragement to us.

We received the following letter in January of this new century. This is one of my favorites because the author sounds so much like me when I first began seeking the Lord concerning the truth about Kingdom Finances. We all begin our born again life still pretty much unchanged in the realms of the soul … our thought patterns and motivations. But over time, as we meditate the Word of God and commune with the Holy Spirit, we are progressively changed at our core. The Holy Spirit unveils the living Christ more and more to us. The more we see of HIM, the more the Holy Spirit is able to change us into that same image:

2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Just like the author of this letter, I began my quest with the mindset that the gospel was "All about me!" I did not have much of a servant's heart at all. With tears of repentance, I look back on those days now and see clearly that I was more interested in how the Kingdom could serve "me" rather than how I could become a better servant of the Kingdom. One thing is for sure, our Lord Jesus Christ has a heart that SERVES the Father.

Mat 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

The Holy Spirit is working to develop that same "servant" heart in all of us. Here is the letter:

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January 29, 2000

Dear Gary Carpenter,

It is truly a privilege to write to you today. I have listened to your Kingdom Finance Series and the Lord has done a mighty work in my life. My wife commented during the holiday season of 1999 she "really does not know me like she thought she did".

Your four series on Kingdom Finances ending with "Stewarding The Pound" has changed the way I view myself on the earth. I read Luke 6:38 in a totally different light now. When I first heard of your series I thought I would learn how to make God bless me thru tithes & offerings & "naming" my seeds of money I gave to my local church. I would "call forth" cars, houses, bonuses, and lost money from the heavens. I truly wept and repented during your second tape series "GRACE: Gods Foundation For Abundance". It was during the fourth series "Stewarding The Pound" that the revelation by the Holy Spirit of being a child in the Kingdom of God, a servant for the CEO of the Universe, and an heir and son of my heavenly Father, truly came to light.

Thank you for obeying God and practicing what you preach. I did not believe anyone would give away something free without strings attached or some heart-pulling advertisement included. Now, I believe that the Lord is truly your provider.

Please accept this small gift from my wife and I. We can not pay for the Word of God, but we are out of debt (except our home mortgage and a large student loan) and walking in God's Provision and "Grace."

Please pray for us that we will become "Distribution Centers" for God's people. That we would take/put on the mind of Christ; to develop an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to us, and to mortify our flesh and serve the Lord with newness of spirit.

Rom 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

May the Lord continue to keep you in His hands of protection and love.

Love you and your wife Sue, and your blessed children.

Sincerely,

V.P.
Raytown, MO.

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What a joy to read a letter such as this one. We wanted you to have the blessing of reading it also. You have helped us so much to continue "freely giving" the gospel to the Lord's precious people, and to the lost.

Thank you for your gift to GCM. Sue and I love you and appreciate you. We thank God for your generous and giving heart. God bless you!

Your friend and co-laborer,

Gary Carpenter

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