Hurting or Helping Others?

The church today is under more of an attack than at any time in its history. Its a different kind of attack, though, because we don't see the enemy like they did in years past.  David saw Goliath, Paul saw the "preaching of the church" during his time as an enemy of Christ. William Tyndale had the leaders of the big mega churches of his time....Knox had human enemies that Satan worked through.  They were physical beings with a devil's agenda but still it was seen through the hand of a human enemy.
 Today we don't see Satan's attacks through human beings all the time.  We see many attacks against us  through internet, cable or smart phones, etc....but the attacks are just as ugly, just as real.
 It really doesn't matter how an attack comes, it is how we handle that attack that is important. 
Many times we don't handle them well at all. When this takes place we have wounded warriors. 
There are some things that we should never do, like never outwardly celebrate someone's error/problem, mistake/sin....never help pass that person's fall around, or never add to the gossip of that error. When a person falls, our response as Christians is not to make telephone calls to tell everyone around you.  Our job is not to get on facebook and make leading statements that hint to trouble and continue to stir the hurt. Our job is very clearly stated in the book of Galatians 6:1...We are to do everything we can in a proper and dignified way to bring a brother or sister to a healthy healing.  This involves much love, many hugs and the necessary steps to make a total and complete restoration.
Gal 6:1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.  (NLT)

Go ahead and throw it

Safe?

Being safe. Yeah, every one of us wants to be safe.  We have codes on our computers, ADP for our homes, secret numbers to our phones, the list goes on and on and on.  We are all trying to have a bunch of everything - but having all this stuff is killing us trying to keep it from being stolen. I have a book at home with all the codes & passwords I need in order to open different accounts/items/stuff.  (You should have seen K and I trying to remember the combination number to open the bike lock connecting our bikes while on vacation!!!!)
Being safe is a big issue in today's society.
In C.S.Lewis classic tale, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver tell the children about Aslan, a mighty lion who serves as a type of Christ-figure.  Feeling somewhat leery of a lion they ask, "Then he isn't safe?"   SAFE? Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe....But he is good!
Today our churches are so focused on God's goodness that we've forgotten He's a lion.  ?Do any of you know a lion that is safe? He is not safe... not safe at all.
We have made God comfortable in order to make Him acceptable to as many people as we can.  This is not necessarily a good thing. God demands much of us and throws down the gauntlet to the fatal disease of complacency that infects us.  As Christians, we must be reminded that we are a people of faith and that we really are to live our lives in compliance with the will of God. Sometimes that "will of God" forces us out into the scary fields of discomfort and risk.

Symptoms of complacency abound in the lives of those who claim to follow Jesus. Church attendance continues to decline. Sharing our faith has become rare.  Prayer has all but faded out of the daily practice of most Christians. The ethical and moral behavior of Christians doesn't stray too far from that of unbelievers in general, whether we look at divorce rates, pornography consumption, or premarital sex. Churches struggle to get enough members to serve in Sunday school and other ministries.

Worst of all, we've grown comfortable with this.  Its become the norm for the Christian life. We love God, but not passionately.  We change, but with little convictions. We give, but not sacrificially. And sadly, we have relied so heavily on being saved by grace that we've forgotten we're 'saved to do good works'.  And most people think that God rejoices to have us on these terms. God is good.  But he is not safe, and only at our peril do we think of God as a tame lion.*

Jesus came with a radical agenda:  'Transform the world - one soul at a time'. Our job is to meet every sinner around us and infect them with the call of the gospel. And that is not safe!

*excerpts taken from "Not a Safe God" by Tim Riter  (want to read this terrific book? We have it, just ask when at "The SUB".)