Christian Community and the Power of God

Communication, as many can attest to, is a crucial factor when it comes to relationships, not least in marriage. Take one's relationship with God: talking (and hearing!) from God through prayer is vital for knowing more of who God is, his character, yourself, the world, relationships, etc. I heard a wise pastor once say that you need prayer just as much as you need food. If you don't eat, you will grow sick and malnourished, leading to death, and if you don't pray, there is no relationship with the God who was gracious enough to create you and love you.

Anyways, Chelsea and I have definitely learned so much from each other while we have been in Sierra Leone. We have had a greater dependence upon each other as it can be stressful at times. As Chelsea has said before, we understand why Jesus sent out the disciples in pairs of two, rather than alone, because having someone else with you, experiencing the same things with one another, helps tremendously when having to cope with certain things, and also takes a lot of pressure off of you when 300 Sierra Leoneans are staring at you when walking down the street! When things go bad, or not the way you expected them to (which is usually ALWAYS), it is much more manageable to deal with.

One of the most amazing things that I have discovered in the past year is how one’s beliefs about God, the world, and everything in it, can change and transform with time. God has definitely showed me my ignorance in the past, as even though I acted out of love, I handled situations without knowledge or wisdom. Take for instance, when I would take people through the Ten Commandments and convince them that they were guilty of sin and deserved punishment; then to offer them the solution through the cross of Christ. To simply treat the climatic action of God through Christ as a remedy for one’s personal sins, is to miss the point of that action of God altogether, and fall guilty of cheap grace. Instead, God’s action was for the redemption of the whole cosmos, and one’s personal sin should be seen in that light. Through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, lies the promise of total restoration for creation. Therefore, as God’s family, we are called to serve justice (putting things to right), in anticipation of God’s final act of new creation, when he transforms the whole world. In the past, my whole portrayal and conception of God was somewhat focused simply on personal salvation rather than communal salvation. Now although we all are with sin, I now see that that way of sharing your faith to be inaccurate with anything in Scripture. Instead, it portrays God as a distant deity way up in the sky that has a bunch of arbitrary laws, and if you break them, then you will be punished. I think that is why many people have rejected Christianity in the Western world. A lot of Western Christians see God in that way because that is how the justice system is ran in North American society, and many other places of the world. Now I'm not saying that God rather looks past sin, and says "everything is okay with you, go on now and live the way you please." Instead, he offers restoration and redemption for those who believe and trust him so that we can truly live as he intended, namely, as true human beings. Human beings who understand what life is all about (i.e. Love, relationships, justice, beauty, etc.), and how everyday is a challenge to overcome the evilness within us, and trust God with everything. Now I know evilness seems to be such a violent word because you only see or hear it when people or the news are labeling murderers, rapists, child molesters, and the like. However, the Bible is clear that evil runs through the middle of all of us, and we are capable of good or bad. It is what defines those who desire to be self-sufficient, and run their lives the way they see fit, rather than living as Jesus is Lord. So, God offers forgiveness, and then challenges us as his people, to live by that forgiveness. Where the world is in pain, we are called to serve justice and peace in the name of Christ, by trusting God that he will work through us to transform any situation, no matter what the difficulty. And with that comes a promise, that no matter what we may go through, we can always have the hope that God loves us, and that he has placed us "in the right" on the basis of faith in Christ; granted that, any church that takes this seriously will be on the way to the only victory that matters: the victory of the cross of the Messiah, lived out in community and under the eyes of the watching world. And if we work as the single family of God, those of the watching world will be eager to join as they witness the loving light of Christ. To me, who wouldn’t want to join a community whose purpose is to offer itself in loving service to others? All for each and each for all.

“Love must be as ferocious as evil.” ~Mother Teresa
This quote is a good reminder to the body of Christ, that no matter what evil we are faced with, personally or communally, we must rely on the Holy Spirit for the power and strength to act in love.

Blessings to all,

Mike