Tonight's post is not a poem. Instead it is what is on my heart. I felt I must share.
For the past few months I have been searching for a new home church. I have been a regular at 2 different churches. Both very grounded in the values, beliefs and truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Both very welcoming. Both smaller than I am used to at my former church. However today something stood out while I was at one of those 2 churches that really encouraged me. Not to say that the other isn’t like this but what I saw was an amazing testimony of God’s grace and forgiveness. It showed me what this church was truly grounded in. The message also was that we are all broken, even us Christians. No one, not one person is perfect. We all have skeletons. But the healing doesn’t start when we hide those skeletons. It begins when we show those skeletons. When we confess to one another is when the work of the Holy Spirit can begin. No one is immune to mistakes or the consequences. The other message was forgiveness. Since we aren’t perfect and fall short all the time, we should not be judging and placing blame. What we ought to be doing is forgiving and loving. Love the offender and forgive them. After all it is the Lord himself that forgives us, and we all need some forgiveness everyday. He also paid the price for us with the cross. The cross gives us life when we kneel at the cross with a repentant heart, we are washed clean. This doesn’t give us the right to sin, but it frees us from death which is the consequence of death. I was to be a part of that kind of church that sees my brokenness but doesn’t shame me, that sees my sin but forgives me. I was blessed to be at the church today when this message was brought forth. My prayer now is that I can live out my life with that same grace and forgiveness as an example to those outside the church.
Finding a new home church is not easy but after seeing and hearing today’s message, perhaps I have found my new home. May God continue to show me where he wants me to be.
These verses came to mind today afterwards:
James 5:16 New King James Version (NKJV)
16 [a]Confess your trespasses
to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The
effective, [b]fervent
prayer of a righteous man avails much.
1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
