Sista Sista
August 22, 2009 by Pastor Chris
Filed under Pastors Journal, Rhema Word
We are family .... I got all my sisters with me
1 John 4:11-13
11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
How blessed we are to have this close bond and everlasting love we have for each other. I wonder sometimes that we ever got along in life without it. It is a consoling comfort during the seasons of failure, the belly aching laughter to replace the hurt that is too much to bear and the shared tears to drive away the intense sorrow we all have to experience in life sometimes. No one can love quite like a sister can, and I am so incredibly blessed to have a sisterhood that includes you.
Tonight was a wonderful reminder of just how lovely each and every one of you are. I am so incredibly thankful the Lord has chosen to surround me with such great and sincere sisters. I am reminded of how many times the Lord commands us in His Word to love one another. He explains again and again throughout His Word that by loving each other we will manifest His very Spirit into our lives. And this makes perfect sense to me after spending all evening wrapped in the security and safety of true unconditional love; agape love. Agape means unconditional, unmerited and undeserved. It is the way the Lord loves us and the way He commands us to love one another.
It is wrapped in this security blanket of acceptance that we truly find freedom to grow through our mistakes and learn from our failures and to become the children of God we are called to be. We have all made many mistakes and can live and learn from them when we are surrounded by sincere love and not crushed down by the spirit of self-righteous indignation. Our sisterhood becomes a safety net to catch our sorrows and a launching pad to build our dreams. We are truly free to live, to love and to laugh without fear of condemnation and in the knowledge that we are forgiven and loved in spite of our short comings, and this love and fellowship nourishes and drives hope for our future in Christ. No wonder He keeps telling us to “love one another as I have first loved you.”
I thank you all for being who you are and for being able to accept me and each other in spite of our obvious imperfection and I applaud you in your ablity to face the world head on with such boldness in the Lord. We are all walking towards eternity and I am sure glad I get to share my journey with you.
You are the best “Sistas” a girl could ask for 
Have a Spirit filled weekend and I look forward to sharing Gods Word with you Sunday.
Chris
