Lost In the Prairies.....Found by God

Today one of my friends asked if I could make meals for her aunt.  Her aunt has fought uterine cancer in the past and last year went through a double mastectomy.  Last week she went to the doctors as she has had a cold she couldn't kick.  It appears that there are growths on her lungs and lymphnoids.  My friend advised me that her aunt has never asked for help through her previous trials.  However, she is acknowledging her need for help.  She is not a believer and as a result does not have "A" church to help carry her through this.  That doesn't mean that the church needs to abandon her.

Many people view the church as the place where they go to be fed.  Where they worship and fellowship with other believers.  What they don't understand is that the church isn't just a place, it's all believers.

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Ephesians 1:22-23 NIV84

As believers we are part of Christ's body on earth.  God made Him the head and we are the arms, legs, heart and lungs.  No one part is more important than the other.  We are unified.  Our human bodies aren't static.  They are in constant movement even when we sleep, they are working.

We are to do Jesus' work on earth.  To show the world the wonder of his presence through love and grace, not through condemnation and judgment.  That is how most non-believers see the church.  Jesus didn't hang out with religious people.  He was friends with the broken and needy - the unloveables.  That's who we are called to love, not ourselves.  A former pastor always said he wanted a t-shirt that said "Jesus-A Friend of Sinners."  

John reminds us that our love, like God's, is not complete unless it goes through us to another person.  It's not just about saying you love someone, it's showing you love someone.  This can be as simple as showing up.  Amy Sullivan just wrote a post regarding this, it is well worth the read.  We always think that this means going and "taking over" to show our love in action.  But love is a lot of times expressed in the simple things - a giggle; a hug; a prayer.  This week I was asked if there was anything that I needed by someone from my church family.  Just being asked showed her love and compassion for me.  She showed up.  The visiting pastor this week told a story of when he and his wife had heard the "A" word in regards to their son.  They phoned a friend (another pastor), he and his wife came over with pizza and beer and sat on the floor and listened and prayed.  The visiting pastor said that he didn't remember anything they had said, but he always remembered that they showed up.  They showed their love just being there.  

This week I will be showing up.  Showing God's love through my action of bringing a meal to someone that needs love, not judgment.  That needs to know the church is there for her.  To know Jesus loves her.  I don't need to tell her all this, she'll know just because I became the church for her by showing up.

I'm linking up today with the Soli Deo Gloria Sisterhood.

This week we are looking at love.  Not the passionate love  (Eros) of Valentines Day (which may or may not be a "Hallmark" holiday).  We are not going to be looking at Philia or friendship/brotherly love.  Although this is the type of love I have for all of you.  We are not going to be looking at love of family or our parents (Storge).  However, this is almost the type of love that Christmas represents.   We are going to be looking at Agape.  The love that God has for each of us.  The charitable, selfless, alturistic, unconditional kind of love.  The true love that only God has as He is perfect. 

He doesn't have any motives for loving us, He loves each of us just because.  One of my favourite lines in a movies is "No, I like you very much. Just as you are." (from Bridget Jones' Diary).  Not thinner, smarter, holier, happier, ...., God loves you "Just as you are."  He wouldn't have you any other way.   In fact, God loves us just the way we are so much that He sacrificed His one and only Son on our behalf to save us.  I know this isn't something we think about during the Christmas season, but think, that little baby in the manger died for each of us.  That is the ultimate sacrificial love that only God can give.  This kind of love amazes me.

I know I've shared this song on my blog before, but I had to share it with you today.  It isn't really isn't a Christmas song, but I think it's totally relevant with the Advent theme of Love. 

Whisper in my ear
Tell me one more time
the words i long to hear
that i, i am forgiven

hold me in your arms
draw me next to you
safely by your side
i know i am forgiven

and i will never truly know
just why you love me lord
i am so broken and so desperate
still you love me more
lord, i love your amazing love

there's a beauty in the way
you cherish and embrace me
in all my brokeness i know
i am forgiven

and i will never truly know
just why you love me lord
i am so broken and so desperate
still you love me more
lord, i love your amazing love

and i lift my hands
in worship at your throne
and i raise my heart
so thankful lord for what you've done

Last week my husband was playing on Youtube and watching his favourite comics. After a while he found a skit by Emo Phillips (NB: not for the easily offended) that made us laugh out loud. It was the type of joke that you want to tell others, but can never get it right.

However, it got me thinking about the Church. How many of us when asked about "What are you?" answer Baptist, Christian Reformed, Methodist, etc..... Growing up, the only religions I knew were Catholic, Anglican, United, Methodist, and Presbyterian. I didn't realize how many other denominations there actually were. I studied the break of the Catholic Church in history, but never knew the reason for the breaks within the Protestant Church or how soon they had come.

After I became a Christian within the Christian Reformed Church (Calvinist), I started to see the difference. In fact, when I visited with my future sister in law, before becoming a Christian, she told me about the break of her own church and that some people had stayed and some people had left and that neither to two spoke. In the church I attended , there was a visible difference between services - earlier being traditional and later being contemporary. I couldn't understand the rift and why people couldn't work it out, instead of pointing fingers as to who started it and who carries it on (still an issue at that same church today).

Even now, I hear about differences in denominations and the arguments over them. My husband and I just started attending a Free Methodist Church. When I mentioned to our new pastor that we had come from a Christian Reformed Church, she was shocked about us coming to a Wesleyan church.

God then calls us to be unified in all things as we are united in Christ. We may have differences of opinions over believer's baptism vs. infant; traditional hymns vs. contemporary praise and worship; teachers (Calvin, Knox, Wesley, ...)...... Are we not all believers in Christ? Do we not all follow Him and honour Him. Maybe its because of who I am that I find the divisiveness so disheartening. Most of my Christian friends are from many other denominations. We may have difference of opinions over doctrine, but have we had large fights over them and then never spoken to each other again - NO! The arguments over doctrine and denominations is so bad that Bible Study Fellowship (an interdenominational bible study) have a rule that you are not to mention the denomination you attend so that you do not offend others.

Luckily for us that God gives us grace! Grace to forgive and to be forgiven. How many of us have judged someones beliefs and discounted them before we really studied and prayed about it? Have you been victimized by other Christians over your beliefs and have you forgiven them?