Purpose Driven or Jesus Driven?

Before Mark and I left for Colorado we had been praying for a church to be a part of.  A church where we fit in and felt at home.  After coming to Colorado we moved into the little town of Golden and we found a church that felt like home, it was a dream come true. Mark and I have been apart of the church for 6 years now and its been wonderful, but something happened. It happened slowly and in ways we didn't catch on to in the beginning.  The more we have been listening to other pastors via You Tube, the more we realized what direction our church was going.  At first we prayed, hoping this would be enough to change the direction as mainly what has been holding us back from leaving is the relationships we have made. We have been mentioning various things to our friends, but sadly they have not caught on. To some of the obvious things congregation members have spoken out, like extra loud music or the burning of incense at a new building dedication, but the teachings I am only aware of two people.  One was a missionary that we liked and the other was a man we did not know.  These two men sent a letter to the congregation.  At the time I was not aware what they were talking about.  It seemed more of a personal thing, but I have kept the warning tucked into my heart.  I have also noticed that other people have left the church, they just stopped coming. One person that left, I saw her at a mutual friend's birthday party. I asked why she left and she would not say, only that it was time and still yet another person that left had the same response.

But things came to a head for us just recently as the church decided to start small groups.  They had a sign up for it, but did not say what the small groups would be studying. Then our usual update letter from the church came and Mark & I found out why the Lord led us not to sign up.  And why the Lord did not lead me to become a more integral part of women's ministries.  In that newsletter we were informed that these small groups would be doing "The Purpose Driven Life".  That is the moment the Lord called Mark & I out.  Last night the Lord sent us a message given through a teacher on You Tube. The message said that we cannot let relationship keep us from separating we must put Jesus FIRST.  It spoke directly to our hearts!  The Lord told us we cannot be lukewarm and thus have Him spew us out of His mouth. On top of that, the Lord told us it is not only good to remove ourselves, but we must confront.  So we are working on what we will say.  We are not good at putting our opposition into words and backing it up as all we know is that we want to follow Jesus and His Word.  If you read this, please pray for us and those we are confronting.  Thank you! 

To a certain person...

I've been trying, but there has been so much heartache.  There is a certain person who stalks my blog and whenever I share about my experiences regarding this person, I get slammed. I've catered to this person in order to have a better relationship, but it has not helped.  So I've made a decision that there is no way to please this person.  I've decided that I am going to do whatever I want on this blog and talk about whatever I want.  You know that song from the movie "Frozen"?  Yes, I am going to "Let It GO!"

But instead of listening to Disney's "Frozen", I rather should investigate what the Bible says about people that have chosen to be an enemy.  Matthew 5:43-45 says:

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.…


Romans 12:17-19 says:

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody.  If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone.  Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”…

So dear person who views me as an enemy, I am going to be praying for you.  After all this whole thing is a spiritual issue and not of flesh and blood.  And I am going to abstain from the temptation to repay evil for evil.  When that temptation arises, I will not avenge myself, but rather leave that to the Lord.