Welcome to the Victory Blog

Our hearts were moved by the response to this weekend’s iCare Christmas Gift to the World offering. After seeing the video and learning more about the problem of modern day slavery and child sexual exploitation in Atlanta many of you were moved to tears and compelled to take action.

This Christmas as part of our iCare campaign and Christmas Gift to the World offering, we are partnering with three ministry organizations to make an impact on the problem of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking in our city.

First, prevention, through our support of Innocence Atlanta, we help raise awareness not only of the problem but of it’s root cause – the demand for sexual services. Innocence Atlanta focuses on raising awareness and shining a light into the darkness.

Second, intervention, through our support of Not For Sale, we help provide valuable resources to our local law enforcement community, churches and others who are focused on ending modern day slavery in our lifetimes. Not For Sale works closely with law enforcement to not only identify human trafficking rings in the local Atlanta are, but provide valuable evidence needed for the arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of the perpetrators.

Lastly, restoration, through our support of Wellspring Living, we help provide a new life, healing and hope for young women rescued from sexual slavery and exploitation. Wellspring works with the girls to give them a home, reconnect them with their families, restore their education and help them come into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
If you weren’t able to be there this past weekend, we encourage you to get involved. Watch the video below for more information:

We want to thank you for your prayer support and financial participation. Don’t forget to leave your comments!

By: Pastor Colleen Rouse

“We eat what we like.”  Remember that tagline?  It was used to promote Apple Jacks cereal.  I never liked that commercial because it featured adolescents with cocky attitudes of entitlement.   Yet, it seems to epitomize the American mentality; and, we are in the midst of an economic crisis because of it.

We have lived without restraint. Our ferocious appetites have ruled us and freedom has been a means of fulfilling vices.  We despise waiting for anything and thus have not learned to develop patience. If we like it, we go for it without question and mostly without the proper funds, all because we can.  Creditors have became our friends, telling us they are on our side.  They became our source of counsel as to the size of our homes and big screen TVs.  If they gave us permission, we treated ourselves because, after all, we deserve it.  We have been willing to risk it all for TVs and cars because we never dreamed that “it” would come.

Our forefathers were willing to risk it all as well.  They came here in search of precious liberty and independence, knowing it would not come without a price. They were willing to risk their lives to find a place where they could use this freedom to pursue the One they desired to serve with all their hearts, Jesus.  How we have drifted from this pure motive to use our freedom to serve ourselves. Paul, admonished us in Galatians 5:13 NIV “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”  The freedom that we have today has come from those who fought in wars, serving us in love.

We have been so proud of our independence and at the same time, we have lost our appreciation for it.  We don’t want to belong to anything or anyone so we forsake getting married and opt for living together. The dollar bill that says in God we trust has become the god in which we trust. We have been deceived.  Paul also said in Galatians 5:1 MSG “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.”  The country that loves her freedom has come under the harness of debt. We belong to the bank and even the banks belong to someone else, mostly foreign nations.

In reality, the “bailout” we need is much greater than the tune of $700 billion.  Our bankrupt state is a result of spiritual bankruptcy. You might be thinking that I am making everything sound bleak and hopeless, but that is not the case.  In fact it is because of hope that I am willing to admit to our foolishness.  You might be thinking that you are not one of those I have described above.  Perhaps not, but this is a day when we must begin thinking corporately and not independently because all that leads to is what is being demonstrated in Washington, blame shifting.  There is a different shifting that can take place and it is not too late for our country. The shift I am referring to is a shift in pursuit, a RETURNING. Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no revelation (vision), the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.”

The pilgrims who first landed here came with a great sense of purpose.  Our forefathers who drafted the constitution wrote down the vision God gave them for this nation.  We were meant to be a beacon not a blemish.  We were meant to use our freedom for helping others not for lavishing our own desires.  We must return to who we were called to be as a nation. We must return to our first love. We have built our houses on sand (credit) but we must build them on the Rock.  We must return to our first love.  We must be willing to refrain at times from “eating what we like” so we won’t have to stand in soup lines.

The beginning of the Declaration begins with the following, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Sometimes I wish that Jefferson would’ve left that last part out.  Let us pursue life with the same passion with which we have pursued happiness. Life is only found in Him.  We must return to our pursuit of HIM but we need help in finding our way.
We need something to clear away the confusion, dissention and lack of discernment.  We need leaders with pure motives and clear vision.  We as the Body of Christ need to break free of the hypnotic state we have been under.  We need a clarion call.

A clarion call is a powerful request for action or an irresistible mandate. It referred to a medieval trumpet and it is derived from the Latin word meaning clear.  We need true prophets to begin to open their mouths and speak truth and we must listen to what they say. I know that many of us may groan at this idea because we have heard many prophets declare many things. Some have been so audacious to declare that as long as we sent in our immediate pledge of $777, whatever they spoke would come true.  Those individuals will answer to God for their malpractice but that doesn’t mean there are not those who listen to God and have an authentic and specific assignment.  I believe that when they give the clarion call, it will be confirmed by the Spirit of Grace and Truth and rally us to prayer.  Rather than continuing to occupy the position of “wait and see” with the rest of this country we must take the somewhat different position of  “Wait on the Lord” and “See with eyes of revelation”.

I believe that the Lord is going to use the fivefold ministry gifts in unity once more to help us return to Him.  Let us begin to pray for the true leaders with righteous motives to be put in places of leadership in this nation and we will shine again.

Last week, we had the privilege of meeting a wonderful Victory couple, Bill & Patsy Reily. As Pastor Dennis was preparing his recent message, Honor Each Other, he wanted to interview Bill who, at 86, is our oldest member and still quite active in the life of the church.

We arranged the interview, calling Bill to see if he was available. He answered the phone and not only was he very happy and honored to hear from us, he was a joy to talk to and had a great sense of humor. After sidetracking us for a moment with his question, “How much are you going to pay?”, Bill laughed at the success of his own joke and collected the details of the interview in a joyous manner.

After meeting and getting to know Bill & Patsy on the day of the interview we were all struck by the couple’s ability to make every person they met feel as if they were the most important person in the room. The genuine love that they have for all of God’s people was evident and inspiring.

I guess there are always times in life when you meet people who make an significant impression on your life, Bill & Patsy are those people. It was a joy to spend some time with them and we are all honored to have them as part of our church.

As I close, I’ll leave you with an inspiring quote from Bill Reily, “It’s not a matter of age, if you’re not growing intellectually and spiritually and in concern for the world, you are in a sense already dead yourself whatever age – at 30 or 40 or whatever.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m inspired to do more and to keep doing until Jesus calls me home.

Below is the link to the video interview with Pastor Dennis & Bill Reily:

Pastor Dennis\’ Interview with Bill Reily