Since you are all dear sisters in the faith of Jesus Christ…
I really want to put a hedge of protection around our friendships.
I feel very strongly that the evil one is having a hay day with many churches right now and ours is not being spared from it. Watching things unfold over the last 6 months has been a hard road. I can graciously praise God for all of you though. You have remained constant friends through it all; and I feel confident that you will remain constant. I want to address this with you women because you have each meant so much to me over the years. You are all so different and I love you for your differences. Like I said at dinner last week… “You all have impacted me in ways that have helped mold me to who I am today.”
I want to continue growing together with you ladies by my side. I want to ask you guys, if you aren’t already, to join me in fervent prayer not only for our church (because I am confident we are all already doing that), but for our friendships. I do not want to see tear the church apart, but the church is made up of its people. We are the church! I believe we are stronger together than apart. Let’s choose to not let satan have his way with our friendship! Lets pray that God would allow us grace with one another to continue having beautiful, God glorifying fellowship regardless of which church we go to or our circumstances!

Isaac and I are dedicated to remaining faithful as friends and as members of the greater body of Christ. We will continue praying, pleading for the Lord Jesus to guide us and direct us clearly in where to be. We follow no mere man…. but Jesus! And we are learning to Fear NO Man as well.

With the turmoil of the church it would be easy to want to give up on it all. And just have church in our living room. For a season that may be appropriate; however, we know that God calls us all to be an active part of the body of Christ… serving, working together and sometimes recieving the blessing from others int he body. It is a protrayl of how the body works together on earth. With out the parts all working together we do not represent Christ fully. How can a fish swim with one fin or a bird fly with one wing? It is the same for the church. We all need to do our part. The thing God has called us to. Using the giftings He has given us! If we would all look at the work we have been commissioned to do here on earth. The true reason for our exisitence… And then act on that reality… then we might get somewhere. When people stop judging and start loving. We need to focus on Christ, knowing HIm deeply, and then be MOVED to act in service to Him and for Him. If staying in a church body ever means to sacrifice those things the Lord has impressed upon our hearts to hold most dear, then we will go where the Lord leads…. IF He Leads Us in that direction. But if not then we are called to bloom where we are planted. To serve where we are.
We currently are committed to praying for the church, the elders, the marriages, the friendships, the children (b/c they need it), the pastors and their families, and specifically against satan evil schemes. I believe we as women need to rise up as prayer warriors… and I am appealing to you to be on guard against any judging thoughts that might tempt you to judging me or any other friends that you hold dear. Recognize it as a spirit of pride (church pride) which is sinful and unhealthy. We are all sinners… thank the Lord He died for us to save us from it. A spirit of Judging will ruin friendships and I believe that is exactly what satan wants. I for one am not about to let him.

We are headed into an intense political and economic crisis in this country. Our rights are being threatened every day and I believe many could come to the Lord because of it (these are desperate times… and in desperate times people come to the Lord) … but that is why satan doesn’t want the church strong. He wants us to be internally focused and distracted from sharing the gospel. We can not allow him to win. We are running a different race. We are running for the Lord! The King of Heaven and Earth! The Lord of Lord! The Almighty, The alpha and Omega! We are adopted children into the family of God and we are FAMILY! Let us not forget we are FAMILY! Just as we would never allow our children to treat each other with disrespect or evil tongue, or even distrust, let’s remember we are family and not allow our selves to be tempted to fall into that.

I love you! Each of you! You are Precious to me! I do not want what has been occuring at church to stifle our friendships… we need to be there for one another in good times and bad. Just as family… just as Jesus would!

I hope you join me in dedicated our friendships to the Lord through fasting and praying because our friendships will be tested if they haven’t already and our friendships glorify HIm so of course we should expect the evil one to attack.

One thing I have always believed is that if you aren’t serving the King of Kings, and you aren’t a threat to satan, then satan won’t attack and try to destroy. But if you are serving Jesus then expect persecution and trials… but keep perserving! In the end He will say “Well done good and faithful servant.”

May we each be an encouragement to one another and love one another, praying diligently for one another and hoping for the Lord’s best.

I pray you all are growing deeply in His Love and when we see each other again it is a special time of encouragement for one another.