I was very excited to see this brother of mine in Christ preaching in my home church. I remember that Sunday morning as if it was yesterday. I met this brother in one revival conference immediately after I received Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. He was a bit older than me and he had been a follower of Jesus Christ for quite sometimes. Though our meeting was for a brief period of time, he left a mark in my heart when it comes to loving Christ and being sold out for the cause of Christ. After that meeting, I didn’t see him for a couple of years.

Within those two years of time, he began an international ministry and was invited to our church to speak. I was very excited to see him behind the pulpit. I could tell he recognized me from far away and I couldn’t wait to see him after the service. In the middle of his message, he mentioned about his marriage and their first child. So I learned something new about him that I didn’t know before.

Sitting there and listening about his ministry and family, I began preparing answers for the possible questions he might later ask me. I knew I had to congratulate him for his marriage and son but didn’t know what to tell him if he would ask me about the proposal ring I was wearing on my ring-finger.

So, the service ended and I ran to him and we hugged and exchanged warm greetings. I sure was very happy to see him. As I guessed it, the first thing he noticed was my proposal ring. So, he asked, “I see ring on your finger. Congra! Praise the LORD! So, where is our brother?”

I smiled and didn’t reply. He insisted and said, “Seriously, where is he? I want to meet him.”

I knew that he wouldn’t take a smile for an answer. So, I said, “He doesn’t come to church.”

He stopped as if the whole world stopped moving. Without saying a word, he stared at me as if he would hear me say something like, “Kidding.”

Then he asked, “What do you mean he doesn’t come to church? Does he believe in Jesus?”

I wanted to cry. Trying to pull myself together, I said, “No, he doesn’t come to church and he doesn’t believe in Jesus.”

I began to bit my cheeks from the inside to chase away my tears which were quickly welling up in my eyes. I vividly remember his sad look; and he said,

“Missy, then this ring doesn’t belong to you. You belong to Christ and the person you are talking about doesn’t belong to you. You can only marry a believer as the Bible says. There is no exception to this biblical principle. The Bible clearly says that we can’t marry an unbeliever. Do you understand me? You are a child of God and you can only marry a man who is a child of God. No way around this! Take this ring out.”

I felt like throwing up; not because I was disgusted by what he was saying but because I was confused to the point of not knowing what to do with my life.

I didn’t even know where the Bible says that believers shouldn’t get married to an unbeliever (now I know where to find it, lol, 2 Corinthians 6:14) but I heard that verse being preached and I wanted to do it as it says but didn’t know how to do it.

Oh, how I wish you could see his face. He was speaking to me shutting off everybody who was standing and waiting to talk to him. I knew he cared about me. I could sense his brotherly love for me. He was speaking the truth in to my life. But I didn’t know what to say to him.

Well, my “an unbeliever boyfriend” promised to pick me up from the church. So, he came and picked me up after the church service ended and asked me if I wanted to go to DC for lunch.

“Lunch? No, I don’t want lunch. I want to disappear from this life,” I said to myself, looking away from him.

When I didn’t reply to him, he asked me, “What’s wrong with you?”

Oh, how I love that question when it is asked at the right time. Without wasting my time, I said, “You and I can’t be together. We can’t get married.”

Without exaggeration, I hated the next breath my lungs took at that moment because I didn’t want to see myself after saying those words to the man I love to death.

Beloved, that was nineteen years ago. Oh, there is a God who hears our prayers; there is a God who collects all our tears in His hands. There is a God who hears our “unspoken” prayers. I praise Him forever!

I didn’t know that God had already been working in his soul. Oh, before I or he realized it, God put his soul on “the royal chariots” (Songs of Solomon 6:12). Christ was already sitting on the throne of his soul and changed his life forever.

Then, within a very short time, he became the man of my dream, a man who lays his hands on me and prays for me and says into my ears things like, “Oh, how I praise God for giving me you as a wife”.

I’m very thankful for the people God put in my life during those tough times. I thank God for that brother who risked his relationship with me as he decided to confront me about my compromised lifestyle. He stepped into my personal life to tell me the pure truth of God. He was determined to tell me that what I was doing was not right.

Yes, let’s not pass a brother or a sister in Christ when we see them living in sin. When they want us to celebrate with them about their compromised lifestyle, let’s let’s dare to step in to their life in love and truth. Let’s say to them something like: “No, I won’t celebrate with you and for you because what you are doing to yourself will hurt you; will hurt your children; will hurt the Body of Christ and will hurt the next generation. I love you and I care about you. So, I don’t want to see you get hurt like this. You are rebelling against God and if you continue in this path, you will ultimately destroy your life.”

Yes, let’s speak the truth in the life of our brothers and sisters but we have to make sure that we do it with care, love and respect. When the truth reaches out to others with respect, love and compassion, it does miracle in their life. ///