Hiyer,
Bit of a diversion from the readings today and more of a focus on the talk at Watford Community Church on Sunday.
So Mark Ritchie - awesome guy, came to speak and shared of how he is currently journeying across the UK - 700 miles in 70 days I think it was, carrying a huge cross on his back. What an awesome man! He is going from South to North, and then West to East in a cross shape across the UK, witnessing along the way and speaking in various churches.
We had the privilege to hear him on Sunday. His message was this, and was also very true.
Our lives are often so full of junk and rubbish. We have bad thoughts, we mess up, we hurt people, we say the wrong thing.... We need punishing for what we have done wrong. There are consquences and a price to pay. We do things against God and fail to respect Him, thus creating a barrier and an obstacle between us. But no matter how full of junk our life gets, how many times we have upset God, how low we are, how much our life may stink, or how hard it may be, if we choose to say sorry, accept Jesus' death on the cross, and receive forgiveness then we are free, saved, lifted out of our mess, not condemned, free to go, let off the hook and so on. See because God loves us so much, He sent His only one, perfect son, Jesus who, just like in the old testament they sacrificed animals as an atonement for sin, died on the cross as our sacrifice and paid the price for our wrong doings. He died in our place, our junk got pinned on the cross with Him, so we don't have to carry it. He took the punishment and the consequences of our actions upon Him so we don't have to face it ourselves. He stood in our place as the accused and the guilty and we got off free. Awesomeness!
We were then encouraged to write down things that burden us, junk we have in our lives, hurts, pains, failures and so on and bring them to the cross. It was brilliant and God did a lot of work, people got saved, healings occurred, and so on. Praise God.
However, upon reflection, I had a few questions.
What about all of those people who do not feel they have junk in their lives? What about those people who have everything they feel they need, and therefore would not consider a saviour? What about those people who have a house, salary, car, spare cash, enjoy their weekends, holiday when and where they like and get on just fine....? Surely their lives aren't filled with 'junk' and wouldn't it offend them to say they were? Yes they probably get things wrong but why would they consider a saviour? For a non-believer who lives the best life they can, is nice to people, helpful, kind, caring and so on, to be told their life is full of junk and they are filled with rubbish is a bit hard to hear. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED what Mark had to say. This is just an after thought which I had upon reflection.
I understand the gospel. I understand the need for a saviour, I understand the need for repentance and forgiveness. But many people don't feel they do. Many people are 'ok thanks' and getting on just fine. Being told their lives are full of junk just doesn't bode well.
What do we think? What are other people's views? How can we meet people who are on this kind of journey?
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ReplyDeleteHey Caroline
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed your last two posts especially - good stuff :-)
I like your questions, and I think some answers are found in our current readings in Matthew and Luke about John the Baptist's ministry, and ultimately Jesus' ministry too - namely, the call to repentance. Neither John or Jesus holds back in challenging people who think they have it all sorted about the real condition of their heart.
If (as Paul wrote) ALL have sinned and fall short of God's glory, we do people we love a favour to ask them to consider the state of their heart and life before a holy God.
If there is a God he is by definition all-knowing and all-powerful, morally perfect. Who by their own definition and reckoning can claim (with God's perfection as the measure of 'OK') to be 'OK, thanks' and 'getting on fine?'
Before the final reckoning, in this era of grace and opportunity to turn, I commend anyone with the guts and loving concern for people to gently, non-judgementally raise the challenge and ask, "nothing to declare in the junk department? Really? - I am sinner saved by grace; you are a sinner who could be saved too!"
Everything Jesus spoke was in perfect love, and he did not hold back on challenging people to confess they had 'rubbish' too.
Those are my thoughts, lovingly submitted!
Thanks Tim - only just got round to replying - but love the response. Many thanks. So how do we get people to understand the concept of being a sinner? Many people would argue that although the Bible does say 'all are sinners' they wouldn't take kindly to being told that and often think themselves not to be. Hmmmm.
ReplyDeleteThis excellent thought was shared from facebook. I love the bit about if you are blessed to 'have it all' it's nice to not only be thankful FOR those things but to have someone to be thanksful TO. :)
ReplyDeleteI think it's great of u to question this - for me Kingdom is just as much about witnessing to the socialite who thinks they 'have it all' as it is to the begger who knows jus how little they have. Everyone who doesn't know God is equally lost and needs to hear the message in a way they'll understand
Even thou i really liked my life b4 i was a Christian, the thing that made the most sense to me was a sermon that talked about how, if we're really honest with ourselves, at the core of our being, we know we're not the people we're meant to be. It's not that we don't try to be good people, we're just not good people and that's why we need saving.
But It's a really hard message to deliver and it's worth thinking about how to share it in a way thats not too preachy.... I was chatting to a colleague the other day who also works with sex offenders about how the people I work with do the most horrific crimes but r much kinder, patient & understanding than me. so how can I judge who is good & bad and decide Im 'good enough'. It at least got her thinking.
I've also been able to chat to my mates about how life makes more sense now I have someone to be grateful to for all the amazing blessings I've had in my life.
So I guess my long and waffely point is - at some point along the journey in order to be saved, they're gonna need to accept they need saving, but maybe that doesn't always have to be the thing we start with.... One of my mates said the other day that she's tempted to become a Christian because it seems so much fun! Maybe for some that's a good starting point!