a sanctuary for sinners

A wise person once said that the Church was meant to be a sanctuary for sinners and not some glorifed hangout for holier than thou types.

This came to mind today after reading the newspaper article on Sitiveni Sivivatu (an All Black – Rugby Player – for those of my Asian and Eastern European readers just stay with me :P), who yesterday was discharged without conviction for assualting his wife. Amongst the article was this line

Sivivatu was a church-goer and a non-drinker, who had never been in trouble and simply “lost it” during an argument.

Obviously I do not know Mr Sivivatu personally so I am not going to comment on his personal relationship with God , however the article was written in that way that church is where ‘the good people go’. I think that as a western church we have to get out of this mind set that church is ‘where the good people go’ .

Church should be a place where everyone regardless of what part of their faith journey is welcome. It is not the place you go once you get HOLY or to get ‘HOLY’ or to show off how Holy you are, it is a place to be real. This doesn’t matter if you have been a Christian for 12 years, 12 days or it is your first time to step inside one. e.g at one particular church in Australia which is open to non christians a guy turned up to a service with a six pack of beer and after the service commented that he really quite liked the karaoke ( worship) – I mean how cool is that, that a church is open to meeting people exactly where they are! and be real about it and the God encounter he had.

We have to remind ourselves that Christianity is primarily a personal relationship with God and that our interaction with the church is multifacceted, it is not just a once a week turn up on a sunday thing, you are part of the church, as much as the church is part of you. Yes Church is very important to a Christian’s faith but don’t sell yourself or God short. In its full wonder it is a beautiful thing.

 

What’s not to gain without Grace?

Grace has always been part of God’s plan. It was there right from the beginning right from Genesis. When man fell God was gracious and provided for us. For Christians the idea of Grace draws the idea of the Easter Story to mind.

I came across this story that reminds us that we too are agents of God’s grace and in particular how important young people are in imparting that message.

http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=20-03-012-v

Lisa

 

Easter Greetings

Hey all!

Nice to see you all, and really if you haven’t been commenting please do so I know you exist!

So what did I get up to this easter? Good question. I did not go to BYM Easter Camp but I did pray for those of you who went! Big ups to those of you who went and yes I did remember to pray even though my intercessing skills are dreadful 😛

Brad and I ( aka the remnant) had a great weekend without the rest of you ……and should really get extra Christian points for all the services we went to… On friday I played piano at LHB morning service, then we went to the cathedral for a very boring Anglican Vigil that basically consisted of silence and the bishops talking and random hymns that consisted of ye olde english. We were the youngest there by a long shot. And yesterday (sunday) we went to Elim for a totally different end of the spectrum where it just so happened they were having a healing service with people falling on the floor. So yes….. I had a very eventful easter.

Seriously though…. This easter has been interesting. I haven’t been that well physically or spiritually but have conversed a lot with God about alot of things and people. Those of you that are closest to me will probably be able to guess what I am talking about. This has been incredibly liberating.

One of the main reasons I didn’t go to Easter Camp was that I needed a break from LHB people as I was relying on you guys too much and I know that I was draining you too much. Joyce Meyer has this great saying where she says ‘Go to the throne and not to the phone’ and in all honesty I haven’t been doing that lately. So I used this weekend as a sort of detox and have really gone back to Jesus. Yesterday I speant a good hour and more laying on my bed and crying out to him about a whole range of things and I am much better for it. Thank you all for your support lately it has been wonderful, I am especially indebted to those of you that keep asking me the hard questions even when I don’t like you asking them. You know who you are and may God bless you richly as we are all in this together!