ILL BREAKS CREW

They might not be in the news as much anymore, but the people of Pakistan still need your help. 1600 people died in the floods (more people than in your average apartment buildings) from over a month ago and 20 000 000 people were made homeless. Now the fear is disease, hunger, thirst, and recovery. For those in Canada, the government is still matching our donations dollar-for-dollar. What that means is that if you donate $10, they’ll donate $10. That’s $20 total and they’ll do that with whatever you donate, from $1 to $1 000 000. You can give money at places like the Red Cross, World Vision, and other reputable organizations. (You can click on those underlined names to go directly to their sites). Just to let you know what we aren’t asking you to do this without me doing it, I’ll let you know that my fam donated a C-note. It might be stretching our budget, but hey, they need it more than we do. Please do what you can and donate.

I know some people that don’t like others coming to their church until they’re good enough, whether that’s with the wrong-doings in their life or simply in the way they dress. I know others that will let anyone in the doors, but never really lead them in following the ways of God. I think that both are the products of human nature. In my humble opinion, both extremes need to be tweaked a little bit because the Jesus I know did both.

Jesus accepted everyone and loved them regardless of who they were or what they did. The dude who never did wrong and knew God the best let everyone come and get a chance for a relationship with God. However, he also told them how God wanted them to live and if they needed to change, he told them to. It was an amazing balance of truth of right & wrong and the grace of love. An example of this is the lady who was “down with OPP”. By the law, she was to be put to death. By grace, she wasn’t. Jesus didn’t condemn her even though she was wrong, but he also did tell her to stop the sinning.

I love Christians and I give the benefit of the doubt that all churches have good intentions. However, I also think that we need to keep learning and maturing in our faith. Many people have been hurt by us and none have been hurt by Jesus. We need to represent the best we can and we aren’t there yet.

If you’ve ever been hurt by Christians, whether you are a Christian or not, I hope that you can forgive us and find great healing and find God. Let us know if we can help. If you are a Christian, I know that all our contexts in life and ministry are different, but let’s learn this balance even better than we do now. It isn’t easy, but, I think it’s the right, loving, and godly thing to do.

Do you need/want God to do something in your life? Write it in the comments box below and we’ll pray for/with you about it. You can leave it as an anonymous comment if you like.

Sometimes Christians speak and act more on the negative. We talk about sins and guilt and hell and short-comings and what not. While those general ideas are true, that’s not the end of it. Not unlike the saying, “it’s darkest before the dawn”, there are things that are the illest, but it sometimes does take getting through the ills of life. For example, with God, many times it’s after the fear that comes the love, after the suffering comes the joy (like Jesus and the cross and the resurrection), after the guilt comes peace, after the anger comes patience, after selfishness comes kindness, after rudeness comes goodness, after rejection comes faithfulness, after violence comes gentleness, and bad choices some self-control.

When Jesus died, God put the punishment for all our sins on him. If we believe this, then we don’t need to be punished for them anymore. Also, Jesus came back from the dead to show us that they really are paid for, that there is life after death. We might not be in Heaven yet, but this life we live, with still live with God. All this only comes through Jesus. Sounds narrow, but what if it’s true? There is only one God and God is real. He created people good and to be godly (not God-like), but we aren’t in how we live. Repenting, which means, practically speaking, “to turn around”, is what we all need to do. It might seem like a bad thing at first cuz of what we have to admit our wrong-doings, but it’s such a great thing afterward cuz of where we end up. We went from good to sinful, but forgiveness through Jesus and following his ways, that’s what makes us (increasingly) good again. Did Jesus say, “repent for Hell is near”? No, he said that it was because Heaven was near.

If we run this race thinking that beating bad or evil is the goal, then we better cross it, because it’s really for the stuff after the finish line that we run – cuz that’s where the goodness is. Guilt for our sins is real, but so is forgiveness and it usually comes after admitting them and being sorry about them to God. Hell is real, but God’s original place for people wasn’t there, but with him (Hell was made as a prison for the devil). Through Jesus we live a new life – not just a better one. Let’s stop focusing on the negatives in life and people and treating them accordingly. Let’s run the race, but let’s make sure that we also run for the life after the finish line.