100 Verse Challenge - Week 14

From dianalovestowrite: 

But He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the LORD has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:5-6

Glimpses of Grace 14: The battle is joined, part 2

    Here are specific things to pray for. Be sure you pray in Jesus' name and by His authority. (Some of these are in the physical realm but much of it is in the spiritual realm.)

--that we will have wisdom to know what and whom to believe, discernment as to who is genuinely of the one true God and whom to trust. For unity in the body of Christ. That those who are deceived will be delivered from deception and mind control, restored to their right minds, and will repent of their involvement in evil.

--that God will expose what needs to be exposed and judge what needs to be judged.

--that black hoods will not hide identities or agendas. That pentagrams used against this church and God's people here will be utterly destroyed and all curses made using the pentagram will be of no effect. That the Lord will remove all ungodly rings, aprons, nooses, tools, treasure chests, jewels, partitions, brands, seals, ropes, chains, wires, cords,  threads, programs, webbing, tunnels, etc. 

--that any ungodly stones, insignia, documents, books, etc. laid in the new foundation of our church will be exposed and removed, that all ungodly dedications of Grace Brethren Church to a new, ungodly foundation will fail and be powerless. That any and all false/mocking gods, trinities, baptisms, communions, crucifixions, etc. done on our church property or on behalf of anyone in our church will be rendered null and void.

--that any and all curses, ungodly oaths, vows, incantations, covenants, promises, etc., spoken against Grace Brethren Church or any of its members that are "undeserved" or "without cause" will not "land" ("alight" or "come to rest," Proverbs 26:2), but be rendered powerless. That missiles of confusion, fear, chaos, division, destruction, etc. which the enemy is hurling at God's people will be turned back against him. That the agenda of the enemy will not come to pass but God's will alone be done and that God will be exalted and glorified through His victory over these forces of darkness. 
--That all evil, unclean and mocking spirits will leave all the property of Grace Brethren Church (including the property on Atlantic Avenue and on the south side of 36th Street) immediately and together, never to return or send replacements. That there will be NO retaliation by the enemy against anyone for these prayers or for action God leads us to take in response to our prayers. That God will protect our health, safety, minds, marriages, families, property, belongings (including cars and pets!) and reputations.
--That God will remove, cleanse, burn up, and utterly destroy any and all defilement and corruption left by evil and unclean spirits on this church property and restore holiness. That He will heal and comfort those who have been wounded, threatened, mocked, and intimidated by the enemy through the words and actions of these people.

--That the communication and transportation systems (ley lines) of the enemy will be scrambled, burned up, and destroyed. That what God is doing--when, where, how, through whom--will be under the enemy's radar and that the weapons of the enemy will go astray and be rendered harmless. That the enemy will be blindsided, not us.

--That we will overcome evil with good by blessing those who curse us, forgiving and praying for them (Matthew 5:44). 

Our Father, the one we worship and praise, is Jehovah, the almighty God of the universe. We believe this God has told us, "You are the remnant. Be strong. Don't be afraid. Stand and I will take care of the rest!" He is with us (including you), in us, around us, overarching us, upholding us. His warrior angels are doing battle for us. I, Jessica, saw (in my spirit) God's light start to shine. There were rats running from it. The rats were in darkness and the darkness went with them. Another intercessor saw God "bringing His forces on huge beautiful white horses!" 

"God chooses things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And He chooses things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful." (I Corinthians 1:27)

     Come have your way with us, Lord Jesus!

Love,

Jerry and Jessica Renshaw

Prayer Coordinators,

Grace Brethren Church of Long Beach, California

Glimpses of Grace 13: The battle is joined, part 1

September 27, 2011

Dear Friends at Grace,

     We have bad news about our church and some very good news: A spiritual battle is underway for the control of Grace Brethren Church. That's the bad news. The very good news is, God wins!

Your assignment should you choose to accept it is to join God's side. We will give you suggestions below as to how to do that.

     God has been revealing to His servants at Grace and to those with spiritual discernment at a number of other churches: There are people IN our church praying AGAINST our church. Some of these people have infiltrated our leadership. I personally sense in my spirit that at least two of them have been assigned and sent to our church for the specific purpose of destroying it from within. The enemy has used these people to sow fear, confusion, and chaos among us. Through secrecy, deception, threats, and commands to silence he has forced out of our church some of our most faithful and godly teachers and members. Our current rebuilding program has given these enemies of God an opportunity to attempt to establish our church on a new foundation--theirs. 

We believe God is reminding those who have ears to hear that this is HIS church and He wants it back! He is re-claiming it, returning it to its original foundation, that is, Jesus Christ (I Cor. 3:11) and His written Word: "the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible." (Psalm 38:2)

     God is light, truth, and love. What the enemy does in the dark, God wants brought into the light for judgment. Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy and he is the father of lies. God comes to give Himself through the blood of His son to bring abundant life, truth, true flourishing, wisdom, power, peace, freedom, and joy. (John 10:10) He is amply able and strongly desiring to protect us in this battle. Put and keep on the full armor of God! (Eph. 6:10-18)

     Our enemy is not flesh and blood. We are not fighting against human beings. But we are resisting the enemy who is deceiving and using them--and he will run from us! (James 4:7) The powers of darkness tremble in fear of us because our Daddy is bigger than their daddy! (I John 4:4)

     Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18) That leaves NONE for anyone else! He has delegated that authority to those in whom He dwells--you and me. He has said we will not only do the same works He did on earth but "even greater works" as the Holy Spirit continues to carry out God's purposes in the world through us. (John 14:12)

     Should we choose to join God's people in this battle, we must first and continually humble ourselves before God, submitting our minds, souls, spirits, bodies, emotions, and will, plus our assumptions, fears, agendas, etc. (as He brings them to your mind) to Him alone. Ask Him to reveal any wicked way in you (Psalm 139:23-24), then confess and repent of anything He shows you, so that there will be no entry point in any of us for the enemy to use as a foothold, nothing to which he can attach, no grounds for any accusation against us. Jesus Christ said the enemy "has nothing in [no hold/claim on, no power over] Me." (John 14:30) We need to be "squeaky-clean" like He is in order to be invulnerable to the enemy.

     Stay on your knees, keep your shield up and wield your sword as you walk in the garden with Him and experience His rest and peace. We can do all of these things at once! He'll show us how to fight by praying from a place of peace.  

Glimpses of Grace 12: Coincidence?

     As I went to bed that Thursday night I thought, Our freedom to send out e-mails communicating truth and blessing to each other must be a huge threat to those who hate us. At least they have no control over that! When I turned on my computer Friday morning, our virus protection program warned us of a "severe" threat: a virus which "steals passwords" was actively trying to take over. I couldn't help wondering if those praying against the exposure of truth were hacking into my computer and trying to shut us down. Our security program was able to block it.
     Faithful's appearance before the Board of Executive Elders the same night JE called was civil, possibly because we knew about it, so we were able to pray for it and so several lay people could attend to be sure it remained civil. Faithful was given time to respond to questions and time to give his own statement at the end. Then the executive elders went into closed session. We waited for their verdict and heard nothing.

     The Sunday before Faithful met with the Board, they had told him that two elders would be sitting in on his class. Prepared and pre-prayed, the dozen or so members of Agape received the two elders with a genuinely warm welcome. Both were old friends of most of us and Faithful introduced them, adding that one of them had helped found the class years before.

    I'm not sure what they expected to hear--plots against them, perhaps--but Faithful just continued teaching the book of Revelation. (Interestingly, two other elders sympathetic to us, also attended--and, by choice, have attended ever since.)  
     So now, the Sunday after Faithful's interrogation, when we had not heard whether he would be allowed to continue teaching or not, we gathered as usual and the same two elders--this time without advance notice--showed up again.
     One of them was JE. I was sitting in the back row before we started and at his voice I glanced around and saw him standing a few feet from me, a styrofoam cup of coffee in his hand. Our eyes met. I think he may have said "Good morning" to me, I don't know. I freaked out.
     I started shaking so violently Jerry had to hurry over, sit beside me and keep his arm tight around me so I wouldn't fall off the chair. I kept glancing at JE, who had taken a seat closer to the front of the class, on the other side of the small room. I was clutching myself together and my teeth were chattering as if the temperature had fallen 50 degrees. Only another victim will understand why my reaction was so extreme.

     Within me, the younger parts were in crisis, all over the place, looking for cover yet determined to speak aloud. I prayed hard, "Lord, help! I can't tell them I am broken! They will think I am crazy! But I don't want to leave. This is my class and it has always been a safe place. I need prayer. Please help me be able to ask for prayer without identifying the person whose presence is terrifying me!"

     After a few opening comments which seemed to take forever, Faithful asked if there were any prayer requests. I raised a trembling hand and gasped out something about having been split in childhood by abuse and feeling re-traumatized by the persistent calls of someone in the room. I said I had just started seeing a counselor who specializes in this kind of brokenness.

     Several people prayed aloud for me as I kept shaking. One of them--the first one to pray, bless her heart--was the wife of the other elder assigned to sit in on our class. She had come with him and she prayed such a sweet prayer for comfort for me. 

     I was so grateful that when I got home I e-mailed her to thank her.

  

Glimpses of Grace 11: Fractured by confrontation

     The second call from Jesus Eyes, doggedly demanding the names of those we'd asked for prayer, totally unstrung me. I couldn't believe this was the gentle, caring man we had known so long, the man who had written the marriage vows we still repeat to each other every night.
     "I'm feeling attacked," I said to him. "You're badgering me. You're badgering me!"
     "I'm not badgering you," he said. "I just want to know--"
     Shaking and in tears, I handed the phone to Jerry and backed away from it. Jerry told Jesus Eyes, "This conversation is over" and hung up.
     (Two months later, because his wife lifted her chin pointedly and turned away whenever I approached, I tried to make peace with her. "The Bible tells me if I bring a gift to God and know someone has something against me, I need to go first and settle it with them. What is it you have against me?""You know what you did! In all the years I have been married to him, my husband has never been anything but kind. He has never raised his voice with me. You said my husband yelled at you--" "I didn't say that. He didn't yell." "Well," she sniffed, walking away. "You said other things.")
     The call triggered deep areas of early brokenness in me* caused by conflicts between Good Daddy and Bad Daddy, the daddy who lured me to come to him with assurances that it was "all right"--and the daddy who did things to me and had me do things to him when I came that weren't all right at all.
     I sat down immediately to compose an e-mail to Lou and Hatchet Man and Jesus Eyes asking them to "please stop." I've been a professional author since I was 14 but the child parts of me were so scared and shaking so hard we could hardly write. The letter began somewhat coherently and went downhill from there: 

[Jesus Eyes] just called us. he asked where are you getting your information? the meeting tonight is confidential. how did you know about it.

i did not know the meeting is confidential.

he asked who did you send the letter to? who did you tell about it who did you ask topray for it?

i said i wrote agape class and all edlders who came to agape class.

he said you said you were fficiasl represent church for prayer. who made you official prayer coordinators.

i said isn;t it oka to pray?

he said we are praying for the meetig.

so i guess he meant we should not kow about it and we can not pray about it.

he said we rtake this very seriusly.i said so do we. he is our teacher 30 yers he is good. Lou, [Hatchet Man] , [--], [--], all of you, you cannot do this, you cannot do this.

i am split. i haved ekpt secrets all my life for perpetrators. i will do keep secrerts anymore. you are hurting innocednt peo;ple.

i sais[Jesus Eyes], you are badgeruing me I feel you are attacking me. I feel sacared. now the spotlight is on me it is my turn. it is scary. just like [WOW]. i am next in the line of fire.

[Jesus Eyes] said i am not badgering you.

wel, executive edlder i klnow many of you have good hearts soem of you are deceived but you cannot force me out of this church. you cannot. only god has the right to remove me from this church unless you call the cops and they drag me out in handcuffs.

i do not an tto gossip i do not wan to hurt inocent p[eople. if i havd done wrong to know about this meeting i am sorry. if i have dione wrong to ask for prayer i am sorry. [Faithful] ad [Bear] say do not atalk about it. edler board says do not tal;k about it.

my husband says do not talk aboutg it. but i am disobeying them all. god says talk about .t. satan does his work in darkness. god says berng evil into the li8ght so i will talk about it. if i am wrong , either forgive me or eccommunicate me,. you have powr. i have no power.

i am just a broken little operson, many broken parts. one of them is jessica,. you know me as jessica but i am no the only one brcause people hurt and broke me just like you are hurrting anfd breraking people. please STOP IT.

i have cc:ed no one. THIS IS ALL OPEN AND TRUE AND IN THE LIGHT SIO HELP ME GOD. am i bad?[Jesus Eyes] made me cry all the littl eones inside arwe upset and shaking

communicst countries persecute for prayer now we are as commnist country?

my husband says i can send this please don't blame him 

*His Scribbler, Feb.28-March 5, 2011   

Glimpses of Grace 10: Can't pray for our church?

     On 9-29 we wrote to friends and prayer partners: You've read about people overseas being harrassed and intimidated for praying in their own homes? That's how Jerry and I are feeling right now--and it's coming straight from the leadership of our church.

1. Two weeks ago (Sept. 14), Jerry and I emailed some members of the church, inviting them to a time of Prayer and Praise for Grace in our home the next day. One of the elders who had received the invitation [Note: this is the one I am calling Jesus Eyes] called and told Jerry, "I've been asked to ask you, Who else did you send that invitation to? Who did you put in blind copy? Why are you praying? What are you going to pray about?" We were taken aback. 
2. Last Wednesday (Sept. 21), we sent out a letter asking prayer for [Faithful] and the meeting of the Executive Board of Elders (EBOE) the next evening. All we asked in it was "that they be guided by the Holy Spirit, that truth prevail, and that God be glorified." We signed it Jerry and Jessica Renshaw, Prayer Coordinators, Grace Brethren Church. 

     Again this elder called us. This time I answered. He persisted in wanting to know who else we had sent this request to. He asked how we knew about the meeting--because it was "confidential." When I said, "I didn't know it was confidential. Isn't it okay to pray for it?" he said, "WE'RE praying!" which to me sounded like "No!" He added, "Next time you want to send out a letter like that, ask me first!" And he demanded to know who made Jerry and me Prayer Coordinators for the church. I was so rattled by his questions and persistence I didn't even remember that he was the one who approved us, he is the pastor we have worked under, sharing prayer requests with each other as they come in. Under him we head up the after-service Prayer Team, the phone Prayer Chain and the prayer requests listed in the bulletin!

     That night at the EBOE meeting, a member of our church went up to this elder and pointed to my name printed in the e-bulletin as the person to call for prayer. One or both of us have been listed as Prayer Coordinators in the church bulletin for years and in every issue of the e-bulletin--

--until today! 
     If you received today's Grace e-bulletin, you will notice that the entire category "Prayer Requests" (which included my name as the person to call) has been removed! I called the woman who prints the requests I give her each week, and said, "We notice that 'Prayer Requests'--the whole category--does not appear in today's e-bulletin." She said, "The elders removed it while they are deciding what to do about that." (EH? Deciding what to do about listing prayer requests for our church members?) I said, "So now we're not allowed to pray?" She said "You can always pray by yourself" and added, "There are some things we are not supposed to know about."

Glimpses of Grace 9: "Ne-e-ex-t!"

     Next to be singled out by the elders was the teacher of Agape, our adult Bible class at church. This man, too, had taught and lived by the Word of God for 30 years. I'll call him Faithful.

     Faithful, like so many others in our church (each thinking himself the only one), was been prodded by the Lord to send a letter to the elders pointing out doctrinal errors in the teaching from the pulpit and citing Bible passages as proof.

    Hatchet Man immediately telephoned Faithful and ordered him to appear before the Executive Board of Elders the following Thursday. 
                                                   ----

     Now my husband and I were getting alarmed. Two godly leaders of our church had been called on the carpet for standing for truth within months of each other. And we were hearing persistent rumors that our church met all the characteristics of an emergent church, whatever that was. As Prayer Coordinators for Grace, we did what we do. We sent out an e-mail to fellow class members and a few others, inviting them to an afternoon of prayer in our home.

9-17-11

Dear Friends at Grace,
     God is doing great things at Grace--so of course Satan is working hard to cause division, confusion, and strife. The enemy works in darkness, using lies and deceit to steal, kill, and destroy. God brings wrongs into the light, brings us to our knees in humility and repentance, and brings truth, unity, and healing in Him, for His glory.

     We know some of you have specific concerns--but not all the same concerns--about things that are happening in our church. We want to invite you to come pray with us Thursday afternoon between 1 and 4 PM. 
     Note: this time will be for PRAYER AND SHARING RELEVANT SCRIPTURE. Not gossip, not criticizing or back-biting, not pooling opinions, not preaching. PRAYER, APPEAL, PRAISE and GOD'S PROMISES.

     I know we all want God's best for Grace--truth, righteousness, honesty, and true Biblical flourishing. You are welcome to bring others with this attitude. Please do not come with prejudices against anyone or an ax to grind.

Love,

Jerry and Jessica 

     As the prayer time started, a member of the elder board/pastoral staff called us. He is one of those on staff that we have known and respected for years and years. He has a tender, caring heart and eyes that speak the compassion of Jesus. He has memorized so much Scripture it just flows out of him. He visits and comforts the sick, is at the bedside of the dying and shares the hope of heaven at many funerals. Seven years ago Jerry and I chose him to marry us. I'll call him Jesus Eyes.
     Jesus Eyes said he had been told to call and ask for the names of all those "blind copied" in our invitation and to find out what we were going to be praying about. We thought that odd. We weren't meeting in secret. After all, we'd invited him. We'd made it clear we weren't taking sides and that there would be ground rules. Jerry told him we had sent the invitation to those we knew were committed to prayer and to our church. 

     We sent out a follow-up letter to the same people the next day:

9-17-11 
Dear Friends at Grace,

     We had a rich time of praise, intercession, and song yesterday, both with those present and with some who couldn't come but who prayed with us over the phone. Others emailed us that they were interceding at home during that time. There was a sense of peace and the Lord's presence.  

Blessings,

Jerry and Jessica