thank you Ambassador {and The Cross Movement} – take 2

A few weeks ago I posted this, thanking the Ambassador (aka – William Branch) for the impact his ministry has had on my life. You can imgine how sick I felt when a few days after posting that –  I received this.
I’ll save you the time from reading the entire letter – here is the part that caused me to do a double take -

“It is with much grief, severe disappointment and an overwhelming fear of the Lord that Cross Movement Records is sad to announce that we will be discontinuing the forwarding and promotion of the Artist and Minister, The Ambassador AKA William “Duce” Branch, due to recent findings of moral failure in his marriage.”

Huh? What? Not Ambassador! This guy is solid!  He went to the same seminary I attend.  He loves God.  There has to be some sort of mistake!  I had a rush of emotion. Then I prayed. Hard. For him. His wife. The “other” women. My marriage. Then the next day I wept. I still couldn’t believe it. I re-read the link just to be sure I wasn’t in some sick nightmere. Nope. It happened.

This should be a reminder of how active satan is, and how he wants to “kill, steal, and destroy..”  He wants to ruin us.  To shatter us.  The ministry God allows us to be a part of.  Our marriages.  Everything.  He wants to kill it.  But there is good news, actually GREAT news – our God is big, much, MUCH bigger then satan.

“The one who is in us, is GREATER then the one in the world.”

The fact is, apart from God’s grace, this could happen to any of us.  If it wasn’t for the restraint, and power of the Holy Spirit this could happen to any one of us.   We must press into God – hard.  We must stay CLOSE to Him.  To others.  Others who are allowed to ask us those tough questions about our life.  We must also pray for leaders when they mess up.  We must pray for them much more then we “gossip” about them.  We must NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER say

“That could NEVER happen to me.”  - It could.

That’s why we must be on guard – and stay connected to the Father, and to His people!  We must keep going back to God in prayer, asking that the Holy Spirit would give us strength, and convict us – QUICKLY – to anything that could cause us to stray.

I’m praying for the Ambassador, and his family – I ask you to please do the same.  I still love him, and his music is still super legit!  I also mean what I wrote in this blog post.  Above all, I’m thankful that we serve a ultra powerful God who forgives us of our sin, and makes us right with Him through His Son – Jesus Christ whom He sent.  He also has the power to heal, and restore, people, relationships, ministries, and marriages.

{How’s your relationship with God, your spouse, and God’s people?  Are you closely connected to them?  Are you working daily to grow in your relationship with each of these?  How are you doing that? How are you protecting your self?  How are you staying LOCKED on God?  Also will you please pray that God will restore William Branch (The Ambassador) to his wife, and family?)