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LETTER TO
THOSE WHO HAVE WRITTEN ME IN THE PAST
2-08-03
Dear Friends in God's Grace,
I trust that this email finds you
resting in Christ!
I am contacting you because you are
either a friend of In Christ Alone! Ministries, or because you have contacted us
by email in the past. Many of you have written to ICA or to me personally with
comments about how much you enjoy our web site. I am humbly grateful that God
has used our writings to benefit your life. I give all credit to God. Thank you
so much for your encouragement, support and kind words.
Others have written with questions,
some of theological nature and others with personal struggles. The volume of
emails has been very great over the last year or so. The same is true of phone
calls. It is challenging to respond to each and every one with the detail I
desire and in a timely fashion. I apologize for that. We have faced a number of
challenges in our ministry that complicate responding to all emails as we
desire. In addition, over the last 6 months I have experienced an intensifying
of physical difficulty. I have been diagnosed as having osteoarthritis which is
quite painful. It has limited many of the things that I desire to do. This is
the main reason many of you have not heard back from me. I simply wish you to
understand my situation, and do not want to trouble you with my problems. It is
a challenge, but many have so much more difficulty than I.
I send this email to let you know
that I greatly appreciate all your wonderful communications. Your comments are
dear to me. Your questions are taken very seriously and are extremely important.
They direct me in study and in future writing. Your stories of how the grace of
God is working in your lives is thrilling and spurs me on. I give great thanks
to God for what He is doing in your lives. Please know and be assured, I have
not forgotten you, but am working to respond to each of you in a more timely
manner. Please understand: if I write you in the future, responding to an email
you sent months ago, that I am not neglecting your communications. Although I
have not been able to write in the past, I do not want you to think we have
forgotten. We simply could not meet the demand at the time. Please feel free to
write again if we have missed you through this process. Again, all my apologies
for your patience and understanding. We love you.
The challenges I mention above are
not to give you a negative report. I am more convinced of the need to write,
teach and speak about the love and grace of God than ever before. Sometimes I
feel like I am going to explode with the wonder of the Cross and God's mercy to
me. Last month alone we had 25,000 hits on our web site. There has been a sharp
increase of visitors to the site. We have more request to travel and speak than
in the past. I cannot wait to tell more people. New and exciting opportunities
are opening up to ICA (which I will write to you about in the future). All set
backs and obstacles only make us stronger and more determined to trumpet the
Gospel. That we will continue to do!
Some of you have asked for a
subscription to the ICA newsletter, but did not leave an address. To receive our
eJournal we only need your email address. But, if you wish the newsletter, we
need your postal address. If you still desire a newsletter please send us your
address. If your address has changed since you requested a subscription please
send us your new address. If you do not wish to receive future emails from ICA
let us know and we will respect your request.
Thank you for your interest in and
support of ICA, and especially, your friendship. We ask that God continues to
open your hearts to the riches of His grace!
In Christ Alone!
Bernie L. Gillespie
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