I had a dream where I was listening to the unmistakeable sound of Metallica... And at the beginning of one of the songs there was this little bit of talking... And I so wish that I could remember the exact words, but it was something along the lines of Grace, the way Paul taught it! And they were saying that the world is currently no different to the church because the church has this warped view of grace, where they (the church) can do whatever they please because they are "under grace"!! But as Paul said when he first preached it, should we continue sinning then? By no means! Would we as a church look completely different? Yes, certainly!
What was said in my dream was that if we, the church, got a hold of what grace was actually about, we would change! I've heard statistics that say that there is more divorce in the church then in the general world, which is partly why the church looks like a bunch of hypocrites to the world! If we truly understood what throwing off the old self and putting on the new meant, and if we understood that grace is love tempered with mercy and discipline, in all its abundance of blessing, then we would be a different people. Set apart from the world, not looking like a clone of the world. In grace there is repentance of sin. Repentance being that we understand what sin is and what sin did, and we turn from it, walk away from it, never to return to it! "if my people who are called by my name, would humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways"... God opposes the proud person... To humble yourself is to loose the pride. To turn from your wicked ways is repentance. It is saying that God is infact sovereign, He knows best, and we should follow him in a humble manner, doing only what He tells us as individuals and as a church to do! (Just the way Jesus modelled for us.) If we all did as Jesus did, seeing and hearing, then doing, the church would be much better off!
If we go a hold of how utterly sinful sin really is, how it cause the righteous Son of God to be scourged to within an inch of His life, to be beaten and generally have all of His Fathers wrath poured out on Him, for our sake, then the humiliation of being nailed alive to a cross and being left to die, for our sake... If we truly understood that, we would not live the way we do! The church would function the way it was meant to. We wouldn't grumble and fight and carry on like a pork chop!
We've been trying all this time to do it our way and in our strength, and wondering why nothing is working! What if we tried something that is really old, but new to our thinking... Do only what God wants us to do (which is found out by prayer, seeking Gods face and listening to Him, then doing what He said). Say only what God wants us to say (again, this is by prayer, seeking His face...). And moving together with one another in grace and mercy toward each other, without gossiping and back stabbing each other, and holding fast to what God says!
The church would be so different if we lost the man made programs and simply sought God in prayer, learnt what Grace and Mercy and Repentance of Sin are truly about, and lived with the understanding that God is sovereign and just and His ways are NOT our ways, and His thoughts are NOT our thoughts and He is so much wiser then we could ever dream of being! And if we just understood that He gave us a way out of sin... The blood of God... And a way out of sickness... The Body of God... (Communion). There is so much more to life then what our busy little minds can comprehend. I guess that is why God said, "be STILL and KNOW that I Am God"... Being still can require a little humility. Knowing may require a little repentance. I Am is not we or us, or even me, it is Him and Him alone. Be still and know = humble yourself and turn and seek... He is the Almighty Sovereign Lord, we are one of His creations. Him first, us second, not the other way around.
