This week I had lunch with a friend that I met less than a year ago when she sent me this email…
Hi Ruth,
I am bursting with things that I have thought in my mind over the past week that I would want to write to you or tell you in person. I want to testify to God’s work in bringing a breakthrough and new dimension of freedom to me that started 2 weeks ago but has been experienced most amazingly the past 8 days (or should I say nights ??) after my husband of 21 years found and directed me to your blog.
We were thrilled to find out that you are local and that you have a class starting next week. I would like to sign up for that class.
I love when God plops people into my life. The next week, she was in class where we quickly became friends, and by the end of the 6 weeks we were discussing her calling to teach the Awaken-Love class. Melanie and I have no doubt she will make an amazing teacher.
Support For Awaken-Love
Tonight, she will meet with her church leadership as she asks for their support and help in offering Awaken-Love classes. It hasn’t been an easy road for her to gain support. In fact she has been prayerfully pursuing approval for months. It is a big step for a church to approve a study that gives the full picture of sex in marriage.
At lunch my friend shared that she has been reading Nehemiah, about the rebuilding of the city wall. As the Israelite’s began to make progress, their enemies became furious. They make plans to fight them and throw them into confusion. So the Israelite’s prayed to God and guarded the city day and night. From that point on, half of the people worked on the wall and the other half guarded them.
When my friend meets with her church leadership tonight, she will not just ask for approval to use a room, she will ask for their support. She knows that reclaiming marriage and great sex in marriage is a battle. She needs her church behind her guarding her and her family through prayer and encouragement. Teaching the Awaken-Love class is a battle because the enemy loves to destroy marriage by distorting sex.
Nehemiah
In
my reading this morning, I was struck by how Nehemiah reacted when he first heard the terrible state of the wall.
Nehemiah 1:4 – When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted and prayed to the God of heaven.
My heart is broken by the way that people are being deceived about sex – outside of marriage and inside of marriage. I hate the rampant use of pornography and its affects on men, women and children. My heart is broken by the lack of churches offering help for sexual abuse, porn or good information about sex. It is time to start fervently praying for change.
Will you pray for God to raise up leaders that are not afraid to discuss sex in good ways? Ask God to open the doors of the church to the broken and welcome them in and show them God’s love? Will you pray for boldness in speaking truth with grace and mercy? Will you pray for my friend to gain support from her church to teach Awaken-Love?
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Yes, it is a battle and I am praying for you!
I think of the verses in the scriptures that talk about the Father of Lights, the Giver of all good things Who “….if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Yet we have a deceiver in the picture, who cannot create anything of his own but only twist and distort creation to achieve his evil purposes when we yield to his lies.
And remember,those beautiful chapters in Ephesians about our wife/husband/family relationships are followed by this final admonition in chapter 6:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes…” So take on Truth, righteousness, the Word of God, etc. and take a stand and Pray!
Belinda, Thanks for the verses and for praying.
Ruth
I’m grateful for your ministry and will be praying for more open doors for ministry. I’ve been friends with Paul and Lori Byerly for years and served on their Board of Directors for The Marriage Bed in the early days. We’ve had them in our church on several occasions to share and it’s always been very good. I can’t wait for your video classes to come out and have some ladies in mind who could teach/facilitate. Please keep us posted on that progress!
Thanks Nathan. We are eager to get the videos finished up and step through the doors God opens. We will keep you posted.
Ruth
We have another friend meeting with her pastors tomorrow to discuss bringing a conference that equips people to discuss the dangers of porn to her church, too. It’s all part of the same battle of bringing the enemy’s distortion of sex into the light so that more people can be made whole through Christ and walk in God’s glorious design.
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Thanks for the call to prayer on this – it’s a huge need. May churches the world over see the devastation wrought by keeping sex hidden.