Dear Sister in Christ, May 2004

Congratulations on graduating from seminary.

Surely God has granted you His grace and mercy to you many times during these years.

You’ve learned much about God, prayer, faith, people and yourself as well as what was in the textbooks and lectures.

At long last you have the official credential which shows your investment of time, energy and money.

You are leaving one challenging chapter of your life and entering into another.

This is an important transition. And other transitions will follow.

May I offer you these words to serve as your companion during the coming months and years.

You are invited to store a copy of this where you can access it easily in the future.

Blessings

May the Holy Spirit use these words to challenge, guide and encourage you.

May Jesus Christ become your very best Friend.

May you come to intimately know God as your Heavenly Father.

Preface

My intentions are to promote your long-term best interests.

I care most about how you look back on your life decades from now.

I wish for you a minimum of regrets.

I hope that you will have consistently honored your core values.

Challenges

Be BOLD as you communicate the truth in love.
Study diligently to rightly divide the word of truth.
Do not hold back on what the Bible clearly says.
Teach to please the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do not compromise due to some human standard.
Remember, it was God Who called and commissioned you.
The Almighty will justly judge and generously reward you in eternity.
The Bible characterizes people as foolish sheep and not as wise judges.
Do not underestimate the power of prayer, period.
Develop the habit of praying often and earnestly.
Continually improve your prayer life.
Invite others to pray for you.
Pray with a partner and a group.
Diligently seek and you will surely find your niche in ministry.
Then make every effort to excel there.
Demonstrate excellence in what you do and how you do it.
Use your spiritual gifts to the glory of God.
Accept the personality that God has given you and work with it joyfully. Emphasize your strengths.
Ask God to bring others into your life to complement your weaknesses.
Jesus said that the new commandment is to love one another.
Let love motivate your thoughts, words and deeds.
Find all the “one another” verses.
Put them in your mind.
Move them into your heart.
Weave them into your prayers.
Earnestly hope and expect for them to be consistently expressed.
Express love through your mouth, hands and feet.
Remember to admire, respect and encourage your husband.
You can become his number one cheerleader.
Make it a high priority to invest time, energy and money to nurture your marriage.
Buy the books, tapes and videos that will enhance your marriage.
Also, one or two times every year attend the best marriage workshop or retreat.
Stay alert.
Marriage is under attack.
You must use the best defense and offense all year long.

Make it a priority each year to keep up with the communication technology.
Employ the communication tools related to your ministry.
Invest the time, energy and money needed to excel in these.
Harness Power Point, digital pictures, digital video, Internet and other devices.
There are people in your network of contacts that can help at every stage.
There are books, web sites and experts that can provide the needed lessons.
The key to this skill, like any other, is PRACTICE.
God can use this to extend FAR beyond those you can see face-to-face.
This can multiply the truth, wisdom and insight that God pours into your soul.
Thus you will bear more fruit and leave a larger legacy.
Recall the best books, tapes, videos and web sites.
God has used those teachers and preachers to shape your life.
He wants to use you similarly for others who are coming behind you.
Very prayerfully choose your close female friends.

Select those with whom you can be open and honest when you are at your worst.

Stick with those you appreciate better the more that you get to know them.

MAKE time to nurture the best friendships.

Include world missions in your heart, mind, prayers, giving and actions.
God seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.
What does that really mean?
How can you apply genuine worship to your private times with God?
Keep records of what God has done in your life, marriage, family and ministry.
Use journals, diaries, scrapbooks, recordings and/or other devices.
Craft periodic testimonies.
Use video, audio and the web to share His testimonies.
Boast on how the Triune God has been faithful and good.
Emphasize His Names and Nature.
Tell about how He blessed you along your pilgrimage.
Include leadership development.
There are always some women that desire to become more effective leaders.
In due season God will bring you together with them.
Be prepared with short-term and long-term ways to disciple them.

Advice

You have a mortal body.
It will perish.
You will live forever in Heaven with God Himself.
SO do what Jesus said and lay up treasure in Heaven.
Lay up your treasures generously, systematically and sacrificially.
Do not get overly attached to this passing world.
This world will burn.
All your works will be tested by fire.
Never underestimate your impact.
Every day many people are carefully watching you.
They are learning much about you and your relationship with Jesus nonverbally.
What you present is the byproduct of the string of choices you made.
Each choice had a consequence.
Collectively they tell a story and paint a picture.
This watching world wants admirable role models.
God wants to use you to fill the bill.
So today make each choice prayerfully and carefully.
God has not changed nor has the devil.
Human nature is just the same.
These factors are consistent.
Look under the shifting waves of cultural change and church life.
Do not be led astray by appealing but deceptive new theories.
Do not deny the underlying spiritual conflicts of this flawed temporal life.
God is Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent.
That means that God is everywhere you are.
He knows everything you do, say and think.
He knows the intentions of your heart.
He has all power to direct, correct and bless you.
You are NEVER alone.
God is ALWAYS there.
You can NEVER hide from God.
God is in your office, bedroom, hotel room, online, imagination, etc.
God attends the most confidential meeting.
You can NEVER fool God.
God sees through your excuses and rationalizations.
View every part of your life through the lens that God caused it or allowed it.
There are NO ‘sovereignty-free’ zones.
The Bible gives you only two options.
You fear God or you fear people.
SO, be wise and fear God.
Be a woman of integrity.
Keep your vows to God and people.
Keep the vows you made at church, the chapel services and the prayer closet.
Diligently keep your promises to your husband, your children and your friends.
The gospel of salvation is too good to be true -- from the human perspective.

Still the old story of God’s love needs to be told.

Boldly proclaim the biblical facts about the Cross, Blood and Resurrection.

Humbly live the life of a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God will draw people to Himself -- like He has from the beginning.

These are turbulent times of unprecedented changes.

Lean on Jesus more and better every year.
Let agape love flow out of your heart, words and actions.

Diligently study the Bible and apply what it says.

Pray and then pray more.

If you sin against God then be quick to admit the act.
And seek forgiveness from God.

If you sin against a person then be quick to admit the act.
And seek forgiveness from God and that person.

Encouragement

The Bible is, was and will always be the truth.
As you read, study and apply the Word, then you are becoming like Christ.
You cannot go wrong when the Word of God is your compass, manna and rock.
You can fully trust the promises of God.
Learn to stand on the precious promises of the Bible.
Jesus will graciously perfect your faith.
Biblical Christianity is NOT an American institution.
It has had valid and glorious expressions in various societies.
Find the golden threads that transcend the centuries and empires.
Orient yourself to these core channels of grace, mercy and truth.
Make them come alive to the flock with whom God has entrusted you at the time.
Rejoice that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Rest assured that your labor for the Lord is not in vain.

God called you to serve Him and His people.

He will complete what He began.

You are a vessel of honor that God Himself is using.

God is faithful.
God is good.
God is benevolent.

God is in control.
God is at work in you and around you right now.

A fellow pilgrim,

John S. Oliver

P. S. You are welcome to share this with other seminary graduates and/or those entering the ministry.