Are You New to BV2U? Welcome!
📖 👉🏼Time Changed to 8pm (EDT) for Monday Study & Fellowship. Click the Zoom link down under today’s read a little before 8p and you’ll be let in.
📈Seeking Testimonials. If you’ve benefited from this newsletter, one of the best ways you can help me is to share a testimonial about it. Use this link for a fast and easy way to spread the influence of this ministry. Thank you!!
🙌🏼🏆 Book Project Progress. Thank you to those taking interest, reaching out and sending encouragement. You’re the best! The outline is finished and the rough draft well under way. The goal is ~50-60,000 words by April 28th. I’m at 35k!
I’m writing to those who struggle to pick up and read the Bible consistently and find it a bit intimidating or overwhelming when they do. Others just don’t get much out of it when they read or it doesn’t make sense. It’s for those who want to align their beliefs with Scripture not what others say and need to learn how to do that. It for those who want to enjoy and engage more with the Bible. Stay tuned!
If any of this sounds like you, reply and let me know what makes your Bible time challenging. I’d love to hear from you and it might help make this book even better.
🙋🏼♀️🙋🏼♂️Let’s Make This Personal. Would you be willing to share your struggles with reading or making sense of the Bible? If so, reply here and share them or we can set up a quick Zoom meet to talk about it. I want to make this book valuable to you.
🧔🏻♂️For the men in your life. This is a refuge & good place for men to open up. I’ve been a part of this ministry to men for a while and highly recommend it.
Before jumping in, reading these passages will help you get more out of today’s read Psa. 23, 2 Cor. 10:3-5.
When I shared the news that Lorie had melanoma I was choking back strong emotions:
Confusion.
Fear.
Uncertainty.
Anger and Frustration….
As quickly as family was notified texts poured in. One landed hard “she’s mission critical, we can’t lose her”.
I broke, but just a little.
The news landed amid multiple crises that created enormous pain and loss in our family and church. The pressure was unbearable and news of cancer was crushing.
God, you can’t be serious.
Lorie left the state for treatment. I had to stay back to manage and figure things out. I took a stressful second job to make it all work.
It wasn’t! Nothing was.
Other messages poured in by well-meaning believers. I’ve come to call them “the (not-always-so) helpful Christian cliché’s.” They weren’t working either:
“all things work together for good…”
“just trust Jesus…”
“greater is He that is in you…”
“you’re on the winning side brother…”
But to be brutally honest, it didn’t feel that way and I didn’t want to hear it.
In warfare, real and significant losses occur and lasting damage is done. Lorie was mission critical and fighting a war on front far away and not doing so great.
And nearby people I loved were being hurt, the life and ministry we built destroyed, and some who claimed the title “Christian” were taking way too much pleasure in our pain.
A few tossed out another cliché, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood…”
But I was wrestling against flesh, blood and spiritual wickedness in high places!
I was also wrestling with really bad feelings toward and about God.
Everything I was trying to keep together, including myself crashed. Alone, head in hands weeping, I broke. Not a little – all the way.
“God, I’m done with you. I’ve lost, the devil has won. You could do something but won’t and you’re nowhere to be found.”
We don’t like to talk about it but the enemy wins some really big and important battles.
Sometimes.
Looking back, it was the biggest time of personal and spiritual growth I’ve ever experienced. You lose some battles to be reminded to cling to Jesus no matter what.
War is hell. Battles are real. Some we lose. The enemy is ruthless, whether it’s flesh and blood or whatever’s behind it.
God knew the fights I needed to lose to grow my faith and utter dependence upon Him. He also knew I needed space to get past some cliché’s and just say the hard stuff.
In this real and raw warfare, too much was at stake, others who matter were watching, and some battles were lost… And the war wasn’t over and more battles were coming.
That’s just how it is.
A few years have passed and one cliché does help: “This too will pass.”
Lorie is still with us and on top of it right now! We’ve healed and moved on from some of the battle wounds and losses, it’s a new season of life and this new ministry is thriving.
Battles can be lonely and some are lost. I believe God designed it this way.
If you’re in one right now, cling to Jesus not the clichés. He’s mission critical so don’t let go. Here are a couple of Scriptures to help Psalm 23, 2 Cor. 10:3-5.
This simple old hymn has gotten Lorie and me through a lot: https://youtu.be/YwN11Ninylc?si=os2PQRsEJKQlRP1U
I wrote something related to this topic a while back. You can read it here.
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🧔🏻♂️For the men in your life. This is a refuge & good place for men to open up. I’ve been a part of this ministry to men for a while and highly recommend it.
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