God bless you, brothers and sisters;
My wife and I have been through some serious circumstances that kept me away from my fellowship with you at Christian Forum Site. I want to share from my heart the lessons I learned as a disciple of Christ, the church and my responsibilities as a husband and Pastor.
In the last 3 1/2 months our church family went through a divide/split that led to 17 members leaving. I cannot go into detail with respect to the ones who left but those of you who have been involved in church leadership, or, just involved, will understand when I say it was a gruesome situation, very painful and definitely the worst since our church family launched 6 years ago.
The timing was incredible because I had just gone back to seminary. Or, perhaps the timing was not incredible.
There were lessons that were unfolding before me. The first lesson is this. I believe God was with my wife and me the whole time. So despite what had happened in the church, we still had responsibilities to tend elsewhere in our lives.
In Genesis 22:17-18, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” - ESV
God’s covenant to Abraham is His promise to bless his descendents and all followers of Jesus Christ because we don't hold back, but have chosen to obey God.
God's promises is a consequence of God's character. It is a corollary of His power. The second lesson is God is able to make and keep promises because He is Lord of all things. God’s plan, not mine, launched His church.
God already knew the worst of storms that would come our way during the last six years. The third lesson is during God’s covenant is what has been the consequence of my character.
God has kept His promises. God no doubt was with me the whole time and I feel He wanted to see how I would handle the circumstances faced these last 3 1/2 months. I'm thankful to God for His promises.
The fourth lesson is it wasn't just my experiences in life, but more about my faith. I choose God, its also my choice to remain repentent and obedient, through everything and everything.
I shared this with my church family. I asked them to take time to grieve the loss, and also expressed that though we grieve the ones who left, I praise God for the ones who remained. We all agreed to regroup, and rebuild our wall going forward. Already, there are members who are responding to serve more in areas that were vacated.
These last days many of our members are feeling more accepting of what happened, more at peace and there is a sense of purity and true healing within our church family.
My wife and I are blessed to see how God revealed the character in our marriage with each other, yet He worked on areas where we had not handled our emotional breakdown well.
I finished the semester on a good note, thank you, Lord! Now I can rest from seminary until the end of January, spend more time in fellowship at CFS.
Perhaps God's timing was not incredible but an ongoing part of His purpose to build my wife and me up in our marriage and ministry for His glory.
I am resting, and believe me, it feels pretty good. Rest is good. Obedience to God is better.
God bless you all, my brothers and sisters at Christian Forum Site, and Merry Christmas!
My wife and I have been through some serious circumstances that kept me away from my fellowship with you at Christian Forum Site. I want to share from my heart the lessons I learned as a disciple of Christ, the church and my responsibilities as a husband and Pastor.
In the last 3 1/2 months our church family went through a divide/split that led to 17 members leaving. I cannot go into detail with respect to the ones who left but those of you who have been involved in church leadership, or, just involved, will understand when I say it was a gruesome situation, very painful and definitely the worst since our church family launched 6 years ago.
The timing was incredible because I had just gone back to seminary. Or, perhaps the timing was not incredible.
There were lessons that were unfolding before me. The first lesson is this. I believe God was with my wife and me the whole time. So despite what had happened in the church, we still had responsibilities to tend elsewhere in our lives.
In Genesis 22:17-18, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” - ESV
God’s covenant to Abraham is His promise to bless his descendents and all followers of Jesus Christ because we don't hold back, but have chosen to obey God.
God's promises is a consequence of God's character. It is a corollary of His power. The second lesson is God is able to make and keep promises because He is Lord of all things. God’s plan, not mine, launched His church.
God already knew the worst of storms that would come our way during the last six years. The third lesson is during God’s covenant is what has been the consequence of my character.
God has kept His promises. God no doubt was with me the whole time and I feel He wanted to see how I would handle the circumstances faced these last 3 1/2 months. I'm thankful to God for His promises.
The fourth lesson is it wasn't just my experiences in life, but more about my faith. I choose God, its also my choice to remain repentent and obedient, through everything and everything.
I shared this with my church family. I asked them to take time to grieve the loss, and also expressed that though we grieve the ones who left, I praise God for the ones who remained. We all agreed to regroup, and rebuild our wall going forward. Already, there are members who are responding to serve more in areas that were vacated.
These last days many of our members are feeling more accepting of what happened, more at peace and there is a sense of purity and true healing within our church family.
My wife and I are blessed to see how God revealed the character in our marriage with each other, yet He worked on areas where we had not handled our emotional breakdown well.
I finished the semester on a good note, thank you, Lord! Now I can rest from seminary until the end of January, spend more time in fellowship at CFS.
Perhaps God's timing was not incredible but an ongoing part of His purpose to build my wife and me up in our marriage and ministry for His glory.
I am resting, and believe me, it feels pretty good. Rest is good. Obedience to God is better.
God bless you all, my brothers and sisters at Christian Forum Site, and Merry Christmas!
