Donna and I would like you to know how much we appreciate the faithful prayers of God’s people. I have stated this on numerous occasions, and even say so again unashamedly: The single most important thing you can do for this particular work in Christ is to pray for us. Based on the fruit we are seeing from AM, and the response from the enemy we have received has spoken loudly that Christ has raised this labor up. There is an old adage that says “if you’re not drawing fire from Satan’s forces then you’re probably not doing it right.” R. Sibbes put it this way: When the Lord opens the doors of Heaven to bless you, the Devil will open the gates of Hell to blast you.

There did happen to be a few who didn’t quite understand what the first To Stand With Us was actually trying to say. People are welcome to think what they will of me, but what I write about is the same way I endeavor to live personally. By this I mean accountability and integrity is of the utmost importance to me–as it should be for every Christian. So this is the background against which I was writing. It is my view that there are many fine ministries in the Church today and if Apprising Ministries wasn’t needed, in that case I would be happy to discontinue it. As in my local ministry I have much disdain for those who attempt to steal sheep by sowing discord, and I just wanted to make sure that AM was not causing some other worthy works to lose support.

The strong words of encouragement have convinced us that there is a need for the kind of work this ministry is doing, and we sincerely thank you for your patience. Not only that, but Donna and I are so very grateful for the support which is continuing to grow. In no way was the first To Stand With Us a complaint toward the Body of Christ, though I did feel it necessary to make people aware of a problem. And this was the fact that we have had a few who had told us they would stand with us, but then without letting us know why, they just didn’t. This was all I was talking about when I said, “virtually all of those who initially supported our work have since fallen away.” And I certainly do apologize for any possible offense taken by any of you who are standing with us.

Those Standing With Us

Please keep in mind that I write from a pastoral perspective and as such I felt it necessary to mildly rebuke those who made a commitment to us but either backed out or never lived up to it. The reason being, this would not be acceptable to the Lord because the principle of letting our yes be yes and our no be no means the Christian is to be a person of his/her word. Please know there are fine people who are involved in praying for this work, and helping us financially. As always we remain grateful and thankful to the Lord for the fine Christians He has placed around Apprising Ministries. And I share just a bit from a few of the wonderful letters we have recently received.

Letters from people who are just finding us:

I know nothing yet of your ministry. But, I do like what you wrote about “The Lowering Of Standards In Christ’s Name.” I think the crisis the Church faces today has come about because Christians are living for The American Dream. And, we’re spending every evening in front of our TV’s being programmed by the world. Also, our churches are infiltrated by legions who think they’re saved because they’ve prayed “the magic prayer” of modern evangelism. But, they have accepted a false gospel requiring no surrender, no real repentance or serious commitment.

A warm, fuzzy feeling about Jesus does not a Christian make… I really like the article on your web site because I’ve known so many evangelical ministers here in my area that would think your article were speaking a foreign language. Thanks for being faithful to Jesus.

Words of encouragement like this one from someone in another country:

Dear Pastor Silva, May the Lord bless you and your wife in your courageous stand for the true gospel. At the moment I am looking for a job but I am praying for you and when I have a job I would like to support your ministry. I pray your efforts to warn church leaders and the church as a whole about the dangers of false teaching yields fruit. Your concern for reaching out to people and warning them is so vital. Many people have no idea how dangerous and destructive these false teachings are.

And this one also from outside the US:

In your article you wrote: “Satan has been using the Emerging Church, a parallel track to the Purpose Driven Church, in an attempt to establish the legitimacy of his neo-pagan mystic spiritual practice of transcendental meditation within the very heart of the Evangelical community.” Wow … profound insight, and so true. It is all coming together isn’t Pastor Ken? I am praying for your spiritual protection as I know you are on the front lines.

Also letters like this from other pastors:

I’ve been praying for you and thinking about you. Wow! Do you ever have a lot of information on the emergent “”church”” etc. One thing I am noticing is with all that is amiss, corrupt, spiritually adulterous, etc. In our present day is that our CONFIDENCE IN JESUS CHRIST comes under Serious Attack.

O how we need the Lord and each other and our own selves to remind us of such verses as: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Prayer Requests

And so AM continues to seek the Lord as to where we proceed from here. Please know that even though I am led right now to vigorously defend our Lord’s Church from the growing cult of the Emerging Church–and more specifically the Emergent section of this highly schismatic movement–I am mindful of feeding the flock as well. I am doing my best to include teachings that use the EC as an object lesson within each piece. This way, even if this subject is not of great interest to you, I still encourage you to read the articles for the additional content within. I take some flack on the other side for including this material because there are those who feel it detracts from the apologetic, but it is my conviction at this late hour we haven’t any time left for traditional approaches.

This said as always Donna and I covet your prayers. We also make known a couple of the things we are seeking the Lord about. We have had requests to put these materials in a book and I would love to do so. We are asking the Lord to show us a way this can be accomplished. Also in the area of funding, please join with us in praying that God will cause a few churches to take us on as a mission project. Sometimes churches are seeking ways to do outreach beyond the local community and AM is literally reaching people world-wide. If the Lord opens up a door like this it would be good for the local churches involved, plus it would allow me to be available fulltime here and to begin work on a book manuscript.

In any event your prayers and words of encouragement have meant, and certainly still do, mean so much to Donna and myself as we endeavor to stand for the absolute Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…no matter what; to the end! We also pray that in the very near future the Lord will open up the avenue for me to begin traveling and speaking in addition to the writing here, this also you can help with by making your pastors aware of this work. I ask one more thing, please take a moment and write us today to let us know you are standing with AM. Donna and I thank you again, and as for now, let us all say with the Apostle Paul:

One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.