A Christian Viewpoint

This past weekend Crossfire had an open house and a grand opening service in our new building. A lot of work and sacrifice went into getting the building ready. I have been injured the last 2 months and haven’t been able to make any contributions of time or elbow grease. Yet Sunday morning the pastoral staff allowed me to participate.

I wasn’t there. I was at home. As I lay in my bed early Sunday morning my thoughts turned to the church and what was happening that day. Words came to mind. After a bit of mulling over what was coming to me I got up and went to the computer. I wrote down those words, printed them out and sent them to the pastoral staff by my wife’s hand. They graciously read my comments to the church after the worship service. Here is what I wrote:

In the last century of the last millennium
God reached down and stepped onto
the earth where we stand today.
His people erected a building.
Their hearts were touched by God.
From here they stepped out
Into the community
And beyond to the world.

You will become
a lamp on a hill
whose light will shine forth
for all to see.
God bless you all
on this day of
New Beginnings.

I wasn’t there but by allowing my words to be spoken… I was there in spirit. Thank you Roy and Patti.

I was listening to the 700 club on television today. Their theme was sexuality and their main story was about a study done by Jones and Yarhouse on the conversion success of homosexuals participating in gay recovery ministries.

The short story is this… some gays can change a lot, some a little, some not at all and some simply enter the celibate life. Quite a mix bag of results. Yet the scientific(?) community says that changing sexual orientation is not possible but can only lead to mental harm. This study shows that the truth is somewhere else. Though the sample community was small it shows that the homosexual may have room to maneuver.

Personally I view homosexuality as no different than any other type of obsessive, compulsive and/or addictive (OCA) behaviour. There are degrees of involvement. I was a weekend alcoholic. The rest of the week I was fine and abstained from drinking but on weekends I would start drinking friday evening and wouldn’t stop until early sunday morning… if then.

What other behaviour can count as obsessive, compulsive and/or addictive. Gosh, everything under the sun including religion. Of course there are groups where the OCA behaviour would be accepted. They flock together: druggies with druggies, alcoholics with alcoholics, homosexuals with homosexuals, and the list goes on and on.

Hopefully the church, or should I say a church, is the one place that a person can go to get the help they need to overcome their personal demon. There doesn’t need to be pointing fingers or shouts to repent. There needs to be understanding and a willingness to come alongside those who are trapped and help them to overcome the problem they face. This could take years of counselling to immediate conversion or anything in between.

What the person who needs help must admit is that their actions are wrong. Then seek the help of a loving church. If the church will not admit that certain behaviours are wrong then they condemn the OCA to his/her lifestyle. Those who think there is nothing wrong with their behaviour should be given a time to repent (change their minds about it).  If not, by-by. Yet if the church throws out the OCA who wants to change then they do a dis-service not only to the person seeking help but forget who it is that God came to save.

In all this we must show God’s grace toward the sinner and God’s love for the sinner. Whatever OCA a person has, their only true help comes from God and usually that means through a local church.

OK, that was two cents worth. What is your position on homosexuality or any other OCA activity?

Last night I had my first opportunity to lead worship at our evening service. Well, I was actually the only person on stage. Thankfully I had someone on the sound board and another on the power point presentation to display the songs we would sing. My thanks to them both.

So I was sitting on the stage with my guitar, prayed up and ready to go. I started strumming the first song and began to sing… oops. For the life of me I couldn’t sing that song. The beat and the words refused to co-operate with each other.  I stopped and chuckled to the congregation. Apologizing I explained that when I lead worship at our substance abuse meetings on tuesday nights something usually goes wrong. I said that at least we got “the” mistake out of the way and now we could proceed. It is nice to have a group of people who have grace and show mercy.

Gathering up my courage I started once again with the same song. This time we could all sing the song.  Four other songs were played in succession. My voice held up pretty well but the guitar playing began to suffer. I have arthritis and other problems that sometimes make it difficult to play. My chording hand began to go numb and I failed to play the chords cleanly. Foretunately the people singing along did not seem to notice the difficulty I was having.  At the end of the service many came to me and said that I did a good job of leading worship.

I sometimes find it hard to accept compliments. I have a defensive mechanism that kicks in and I usually try to minimize anything someone says to me. This was actually improper of me to do. Why? Because I didn’t have the grace to accept a kind word spoken to me. The Holy Spirit is such a gentleman. He used a feather of thought to convict me. I apologized to one person in particular for my attitude.

You see, I know that when playing the guitar I am limited. What I forget is the grace of God. Before I play I always ask God to help me out. That my mistakes don’t pull attention to me but that everyone will keep their eyes on Him while we worship and praise. He is faithful and has always helped. My problem is that I see the errors and not the grace. I am, however, learning. I’m just not finished growing in character and understanding of who He is and His grace toward me.

 It is always a privilege, never a right, to minister to other people. He is wonderful and I always thank him for every opportunity to minister.