Some want to live within the sound of church and chapel bells I want to build a rescue shop within a yard of hell.
Scripture illustrates the saying
A typical church service
People not shut out by the lack of seats but by attitudes
You can see it when you visit them.
The cold shoulder,
The holy huddle.
I guess it’s a comfort thing,
A fear of the unknown,
Or a belief that outside presence will disturb the flow of the Spirit.
What ever the reasoning the reality is that we are often experts at shutting people out
Are we sitting comfortably?
God’s Spirit likes to break into out comfort zones.
The weird thing is God’s spirit always has a way of breaking into our comfort zones
And sometimes he uses human need to do it.
Aidan interupting a sermon on 1 Cor 13.
Aidan’s little interruption and how I responded probably said more about love than my masterpiece of a sermon.
But Some times he has to tear a hole in the roof for us to really get with the program
The irony of the whole things is that we actually need people to tear holes in the roof to keep us all going,
Because with out it we go stale.
Part of being human is that we tear things apart we get cynical
We grow cold in our faith.
We think we know it all.
I don’t know why it is but for some reason when you sit to close for Jesus for too long you loose him.
I guess when you have Jesus on tap he often ceases to impress you like he once did.
Rather like a virus – we can become immune.
Luke 15 :7 99 and the 1 find the one throw a party
“In the same way there is more happiness in heaven because of one sinner who turns to God than over 99 good people who don’t need to.”
In the story V 26 “Everyone was amazed and praised God.”
We need the sick being made well to make us alive again in our faith
We need the lost coming to faith to keep our faith alive
When we see one person get saved it’s party time because it reminds us of what Jesus did for us.
Churches that exist purely for themselves are destined to die
A church that purely exists for itself is destined to die.
Or to become like a museum.
A rescue shop is a place where there is life because those who we see rescued bring life to our lazy faith.
Christians that exist purely for themselves are destined to die also.
The scary thing is it has nothing to do with being selfish either
Because with out that influence of the lost we grow as cold as any dead institutions.
Before we know it we’ve given a 1000 reasons why we can’t be healed.
We’ve convinced ourselves that we can’t be forgiven
Meanwhile some one is coming through the roof seeking Jesus, being forgiven and receiving healing.
If you are not desperate enough for Jesus to tear a hole in a roof to get near him then chances are your faith is growing cold.
You need to develop a thirst for Jesus,
Get hungry for him
Not for his work in your life - but to see his work in other peoples life.
