Dear Ken and Nancy,

Thank you so very much for your prayers and faithfulness. Life Partners continues to have a great impact on our lives and is helping move me away from contentment with the “normal” Christian life. I find too great a parallel with the list of characteristics of false teachers in II Timothy 3 in my life to allow my flesh to continue to dull my spirit and cause my wife to suffer as she has for so many years.

I have a very long road ahead; however, just being on the road has caused significant changes in our marriage relationship and my walk with the Lord.

My quest has “invaded” the messages I share when asked to preach. I have shared a great deal about what the Lord has been doing in my life. Preparing for this past Sunday, I cried out to the Lord to help me see something in His Word that would make what Christ suffered more real to me, so I could apply it to my life and possibly share what He revealed in a way that would touch the hearts of men.

Isaiah 53 came to mind and I spend a very sobering week praying and thinking through personal application. It had a strong impact on me, and I was able to share some of the challenges the Lord laid before me last Sunday. After the meeting, I asked some of the people for candid comments about what was shared.

One man looked down and then said, “I have never heard Isaiah 53 preached from the perspective of making personal application before. It was very convicting. To imagine how Jesus must have felt being despised, rejected, a man of sorrows, and to think he went through all of that for me broke my heart.”

The Lord also opened the door, not only about how important it was that I be grateful for what He went through, but to take it the next step and ask Him who else I had made feel those things. Then, to ask my wife, if and when I made her feel those emotions, to seek her forgiveness and make a commitment to never be the cause of such pain in her or others ever again.

The man looked as if he was emotionally affected all over again, but he shook his head in agreement. I noticed a small look of hope on his wife’s face.

I’ve been noticing that look on my wife’s face from time to time, too. I thought I had murdered such feelings in her and that healing would come only in heaven. I am so very grateful that you folks have given your lives to help others take God at His word.