Nothing like true Godly Friendships…….. love and forgiveness is a huge key…..listening is another…..
True friends can take correction….we can be honest with each other if one of us is going down the wrong road….we can take suggestions…..there is no EGO in true Godly relationships…..There is no ME, that is why we refer to the ministry here as TEAM JESUS! It takes a TEAM for JESUS in ministry and life. Sharon and I are so super blessed with so many of these type of relationships……Just last week FGGAM Vice-Chairman Pastor Bill Ruhl helped steer me down the right road on a very important matter….he did it in love.
I see way too many egos in the world…ego stands for EDGING GOD OUT! I see so many people hurt by egotistical people. They do not take correction well at all. Many think they are above God. These same people gossip about others, that is not in the definition of a Godly friendship.
I told the Church this week that I got torn shreds by a man who I was trying to share such love and concern for him….. Regrettably nothing I said made a difference, so much anger came out of him. It was his way or the highway, as we used to say back home. He is blinded and deaf to the truth. This past week I also was confronted by a man claiming to be a Prophet….a wolf in sheep clothing….all this in the midst of 4 Church services. Thank the Lord for my Sharon and friends.
From Dr. Charles Stanley:
Christians are called to put aside “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech” (Col. 3:8). The command is clear, but the process of achieving and maintaining this goal may seem confusing and overwhelming.
The first step is to recognize anger in our heart. This may seem unnecessary to those who are naturally expressive, but people who bury their anger deep within will need to spend time with the Lord in reflection and soul-searching. Resentment that’s been growing and infecting the heart can do great damage; the sharp sword of God’s Word is needed to reveal anger that has been simmering under the surface (Heb. 4:12).
The next step is to confess unrighteous anger as sin and then begin to deal with it immediately. Because anger is often a response to hurt, care must be taken not to excuse or defend it in the name of justice. So even when someone has sinned against you, it’s important to realize that holding onto anger in response is also a sin. Scripture tells us to overcome evil with good, not to repay it (Rom. 12:17; Rom. 12:21).
Some people want to hang on to ill feelings, but nursing a resentful attitude isn’t sustainable; anger must be put aside. If we retain our “right” to hold grudges, we can’t expect to live in the new nature Christ has created for us.
The place where we will find strength is in that new Christlike personality. Our responsibility is to put it on. He invites us to cooperate with Him in the process of transformation. With each step of obedience, the peace of Christ will increase and anger will diminish.
Bible in One Year: Matthew 13-15
A true friend will tell you as best as they can in love that you are headed down the wrong road, that your headed for trouble. 5 Ways for a Christian to Rebuke or Correct a Friend
As I counsel people the best I can, and suggest they get professional Biblical counseling, I see too many people that think they are ‘above God’, they rule their life, even thou they say they know God, they go down their way, not Gods.
From Feb. of 2019………
Sharon and I so much treasure Godly friendships!
In our friendships we have to be wise that we choose godly people to be our friends. Somebody might say, well does that mean that you should never have a lost person as your friend? No, I wouldn’t say that. But you can’t have the same intimacy with a lost person that you can with a godly person in whom the Holy Spirit is living. Charles Stanley
I love that quote on Godly friendships by my hero Charles Stanley. Yesterday I was so very blessed to have breakfast with Glenn and Kelly Snelgrove in Edgewood, NM. I love the picture above, it shows the love Glenn and Kelly have for each other and all people! These two are high school sweethearts. I do not take time out enough to just go meet with friends! Sharon could not come with me as she is recovering from a very hard week in nursing! She is also my hero!
Glenn and Kelly have been friends of ours for several years now. I got to know Kelly through Pastor Leonard Navarre who at the time was at Valley View Christian Church in Edgewood. I eventually got to meet Glenn when we needed help with our heating/cooling system. Glenn has given us the best service ever! We trust him so very much! I asked Kelly to write for FGGAM in 2013 after God showed me to do so. Kelly prayed and she started to write for us in December of 2013. “The Word of The Day With Kelly.” The pictures that she uses with the scripture God shows her to use is just so very awesome in our Lord! Kelly’s posts warm hearts for Jesus.
What I realized during breakfast yesterday was that I need to do more visits with my dear friends! Glenn and Kelly are such an awesome testimony for us all on what God teaches us about love.
God’s love note to us comes from 1 John 4:7-11:
“Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other.”
I am able to have very down to earth conversations with Glenn and Kelly, I am able to ask them advice, and I know that before they speak, they are praying about the answer they are to give me.
Sharon and I trust both Glenn and Kelly, pictured below, so very much, they witness to us by what they do. They are tremendous people of God who serve the Edgewood area and beyond in many ways.
The intimacy and trust in our friendship is priceless.
Sharon and I are so very blessed to have many such relationships! I pray that we get to visit with our friends more and have a cup of coffee with PANCAKES AND BACON!!! LOL! I should say with lots of COFFEE!!!
Thank you Lord for showing us how precious relationships can be!!!!
We also had the blessing of spending time with our Dear Sisters in Christ Shari Johnson and Gloria Walker Jones from West Virginia this past week! We ministered together all week! Team Jesus! Sharon and I were blessed to have dinner with the dynamic duo before they left.
