I greet you all in the love our Lord Jesus Christ. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). That is our desire for you and for every believer in the Lord, that you be kept until the end. However, in a life of sanctification we know that we must always be further cleansed from all practice that does not please the Lord.

With regard to that very thing, it was exactly two months ago that we suffered a painful and said experience in our church because of the sin of one of our brothers. We were forced to ask ourselves, “How should we deal with this? How do we know if he is truly a child of God?” It was a very difficult time, and we needed to pray for the situation. At first it seemed like the task was too hard, but the Lord began to work. We confronted the brother’s sin in a biblical manner, and we showed him the road to repentance and reconciliation.

After some time, we finally had a time of reconciliation this past Sunday. Our brother has repented and he has been reconciled again to our church body and with each one of us. There was great joy because one of our brothers had returned to the fold! One of the older brothers, who is blind, said out loud, “Where is my brother? I want to be able to touch him and hug him.” And when the man was brought to his side he said, “I thought that you were not going to return. I was very sad. But God has brought you.”

God was glorified in all of this. He responded to our prayers, and we give Him thanks for that.