I want our church to be a safe place.
I want it to be a place where the un-churched and those who
are groping after the truth or seeking help in their distress, may come and not
feel any trace of finger-pointing Pharisaism. A place where the members walk
always with a profound sense of God’s grace, and knowing that there is no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, are careful to abstain from condemnatory attitudes and conduct.
For the great good news of the Gospel is that we don’t have
to clean up our lives in order to come to Jesus. We come to Jesus and He then
makes us right with God, both as we come to faith in Him and then by an ongoing
process of becoming like Him in our behaviour and character. Thus the church
must open its arms wide to sinners of all descriptions, for the Great Physician
comes for the sick and not for the healthy.
The Gospel is inclusive in its essence.
Yet just as we may not exclude anyone on the grounds of
race, gender, nationality, age or any other criterion, for all are in need of
God’s salvation, so too we may not exclude anyone from the pursuit of
holiness, without which no-one will see the Lord. We may not presume to
lower the bar for anyone, for we all alike must press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It is God who sets the bar
and it is nothing less than complete Christ-likeness.
I want our church to be one that demonstrates the
Christ-like ability to say not only, “I do not condemn you,” but also, “Go and
sin no more.”
A church where one is encouraged to do what is not pleasing
to God is not a safe place.
A church where one is misled as to the truth of God is not a
safe place.
I want our church to be a safe place.
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