After a few months away, we are very happy to have once again entered into covenant membership in Believers Covenant Fellowship in Vienna, VA (in the Washington, DC metro area). As we told the congregation last Sunday when we requested membership, we had never stopped loving the church, its ministries, and especially the people that are BCF. We feel we were obedient to the Lord's direction when we resigned our membership in January to explore his path for the two of us in ministry work apart from BCF as we now also feel obedient to His call to return home, having developed much clarity about his plans for us during that time away.
We return to BCF in new roles outside of but supporting church leadership and Apostle Dale Jarrett while continuing to develop Straight, Not Narrow and travel to other churches to offer teaching and encouragement and are more excited than ever about what the Lord has in store for us!
As part of reconnecting with BCF, we are also happy to share Apostle Dale's weekly Praise Report as part of our Encouraging Words. Here is one from last Monday:
Something truly remarkable is shifting in the Body of Christ in this hour.
I believe that the Spirit of the Lord is calling us, the Church, to radical obedience to His Word and commands; He is calling us to radical behaviors of loving, forgivness, serving, giving, caring, to radical acceptance of others and humble kindness. We can see the injustices that people are living in all around us and often say, "Isn't that terrible, somebody needs to do something about it." Well- YOU AND I ARE THAT SOMEBODY! We are the Church of the King of Glory! And most of all, He has commanded us to do exactly what Isaiah 58 says- to love others and help them.
We had a totally awesome day at BCF (Sunday). We had a great turn out for service, praise and worship was just wonderful, the love and presence of the Lord was rich with us (God is sooo Good to us!) and we had a powerful teaching from God's Word about opening our hearts and honestly asking ourselves if we are truly being OBEDIENT to what God has commanded us to do. We often think that we are such good Christians because we don't lie or steal, kill people, commit adultery, etc., but the Spirit of God is asking us to take another look and honestly ask ourselves, "yeah- but those are the things you're NOT to do as a Christian, WHAT ABOUT the things we are SUPPOSED to be doing as Christians!?!"
The churches and ministries that will heed the call to sacrifice their own comfort, their own will and way and take up the cross of Christ and help the poor and needy, to comfort the broken and rejected, to give as Jesus did- wholly, selflessly, completely, THEY are the churches that are going to rise up to the top and shine the Living Christ for the world to see!!!
Quite often these days, we forget the passage in Ecclesiastes that says, 'It's the little foxes that spoil the vine." In other words, it's the little things that we do or don't do that are affecting the QUALITY of our walk with God. We read in Matthew 7 where Jesus commands us, "Do not judge, criticize or condemn others- (that's the pointing finger in Isaiah 58:9) or else we WILL BE judged, criticized or condemned. The Lord is calling on His Church, His Bride- to CEASE from all judgements of others- especially those within the Household of Faith! To live above it, to simply choose to NOT participate in judgement, criticism or condemnation of others. For most of us it's a RADICAL decision and the FRUIT of living this way is going to produce RADICAL results, a radical difference between being religious and being in relationship- blessings, and INCREASE in the Church!!! I believe that this is a clarion call from the Throne of God for His People to step up into a higher level of love, forgiveness, and acceptance of one another than ever before! Why? Because the King is coming, and He expects to find His Bride 'pure and without spot or wrinkle!' This lifestyle of love and grace is going to cause His Light to radiate out from our hearts and churches like a great Beacon, drawing all people unto Him! So let's DO this- starting today, starting right NOW! Amen?!!?!! Somebody shout 'AMEN!'
You know that one major difference between us and the Lord Jesus during His life on the earth is this, Jesus was radically obedient to God, even to the point of death! That is why He walked in such power and grace, because He was a DOER of the Word, and not a hearer only!!! I am praying for you all right now to have a fresh REVELATION of the call of God on your life and upon OUR LIVES as the Bride of Christ; For the Lord to SHOW you what you can do to help make a difference in someone else's life and actually DO IT! Let's come up higher to a greater place of mercy, grace and lovingkindness than we've ever known before! That's the place where our ministries and churches will shine, truly prosper, and GROW the Kingdom of God in the earth!
We praise God for you and we are praying for you faithfully. Have a wonderful and blessed week in the Lord!
In Christ's love and faithful friendship, SHALOM!
Ap Dale
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