A4P Guest: Hi Missy, I love listening to your video messages and reading your blogs. You have no idea how God has been ministering to me through your channel. May God bless you! I always pray for you and Appeal for Purity. I have one question though. So, I have one small Bible study group that I go to every week and I encourage all my Bible study group members to watch your videos and read your posts but some of them are totally against your messages. They think that your message is not good for born again Christians. None of the men in my Bible study ever watched any of your videos. And every time I bring up a topic you addressed in one of your videos or blogs, they get irritated. I am not sure how to encourage them to embrace Appeal for Purity. What do you advise me?
A4P: Thank you my dear sister for your kind remarks about this ministry and thank you for praying for me. I’m thankful and grateful for God to minister to you through Appeal for Purity. May His name forever be praised!
Regarding your question, I want you to listen to me carefully.
Small group Bible study is something I believe every believer in Christ Jesus should have, that includes you and me. Our enemy the devil hates to see us gather together in one accord because he knows that our oneness destroys his work. So, his first aim is to disrupt our unity. So, be very careful lest the enemy uses you to accomplish his goal.
Now you know for sure that some of your Bible study group members don’t like Appeal for Purity and that is very okay as long as they love Jesus and are willing to learn and grow in Him. You have one major common ground with them, i.e., you all love Jesus Christ, but this doesn’t mean that you all have identical brain makeup and grow spiritually in the same way. Each one of you has unique way of maturing in Christ, unique preferences and affections when it comes to whom to listen and follow and more. So, don’t expect them to love what you love and hate what you hate. What you need to strive is to love God and His word and encourage others to do the same. That is all!
And when you want to discuss a topic and want to bring up a discussion point from A4P, just present the point (or, example) without mentioning my name and A4P. In that way everybody will be able to focus on your point and try to understand it from the word of God.
Just remember this: If we are truly born-again Christians, born of imperishable seed, “through the living and enduring word of God,” we will grow in Christ (1 Peter 1:23). God is our Shepherd and He knows how to let us all grow in Christ in all areas of life. If there is a message we need to hear, God finds a way for us to hear it; it doesn’t necessarily have to be from A4P.
What you need to be careful is this: Don’t use this issue or other similar issues as reasons to create division among your group. Unity is the goal of our union in Christ.
Listen to what Paul says to the Ephesians:
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:3-6)
Yes, make every effort to keep your unity and oneness with brothers and sisters in Christ through the bond of peace (John 14:27).
That being said, you may need to leave and separate yourself from your Bible study group members if they start teaching and believing unbiblical truths. But you need to first know the basic and essential “biblical” Christian doctrines, such as the doctrine of Scripture, the doctrine of God and the Trinity, the doctrine of humanity, sin and salvation, etc. (I put the word biblical in quotation because some people teach these doctrines from their own “personal revelations” they claim they’ve received from God. There is no more revelation other than the revelation we already have in the Scripture. So be very careful!)
So, if you have your biblical doctrines under your belt, you can share those doctrines with your Bible study members with patience, love and respect. If they persistently reject those doctrines, “shake the dust off your feet,” and leave the group (Matthew 10:14). If they refuse to embrace the truth of God, you have nothing common to share with them. ///