Author: Carol Purves

Do we still have disunity in our churches today? Do we believe our denomination is the only correct one? It has been said that denominationalism is the curse of reformation. I always say that as we enjoy different types of holiday, so Christians like to worship in different ways. But the bottom line is whether our church is following Biblical principles. We must not say Pastor X says, rather we need to say ‘the Bible says.’ Nor should we say this commentary says this and that, rather ‘the Bible says.’

The way we worship is not the only correct way. We can never judge and say ‘They’re not Christians.’ Are we thereby doing God’s work instead of allowing Him to do it? God alone is the judge. Sinful splitting in churches and intolerance because of race or class is the devil’s work. Listen to God, read His Bible.

Paul was a great letter writer. When he wrote his first letter to the Corinth church he is writing to a church set n the middle of an extremely heathen city. There was the danger that the church will absorb aspects of the wicked city into their church life.

Paul doesn’t begin his letter by condemning them, instead he uses the words ‘I always thank my God of you because of grace given you in Christ Jesus.’ Those affirming words would have won them over straight away. The chastisement would come later. In our evangelising, praise should always come first. We need to use friendship evangelism.

Some modern day leaders are bombastically full of themselves. This is not the case with Paul. One example is where he is writing to the Corinthian church.

In the first chapter of his first letter he is repeatedly pointing to God and Christ. The first verse states who he, Paul, is, but qualifies it by stating that he is ‘called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.’ Every phrase points the reader to his God and there can be no higher recommendation. He wishes them ‘grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ He continues in the same vein, God is the ultimate. The emphasis is where it belongs.

If God gives us a message twice He is definitely trying to tell us something. In the last two days God has spoken to me three times with the same message. In a communion service the words came twice that God loves to spent time with us; He loves to walk with us. Often we pray that we will walk with God, but this thought turns everything on it’s head – God loves to walk with us.

Then the next morning in a prayer meeting the thought very much was that God delights being with us. The leader gave each of us a message. Mine was that God was saying to me, ‘Carol, it is a delight to spend time with you.’ It’s mind-blowing that the creator of the universe can be happy spending time with me. I’m not sure that I can comprehend it properly yet. Psalm 18:19 says ‘He brought me into a spacious place, He rescued me because He delights in me.’

So h9ow should we as Christians deal with Extra Grace Needed people? We need to remember that we also are sinners. We fall short of God’s standards. At the present time we are in danger of being a generation who discard people when they don’t fit into our pattern. God loves and died for everyone, even the difficult ones. As God never gives up on people, nor should we. People need compassion and not judgment. We never know their whole story, so how can we judge on partial information?

Unity in Christ is what God asks for. People who worship in a slightly way are equally loved by God. each denomination needs to build on their strengths and unite with others to build a stronger bond. Heaven will be full of difference and complex people, we can embrace that here and now.

E.G.N. – extra grace needed. I’m told that the minister of my church during my teenage years kept a list of all the members of the congregation. Then each week he would sit in the pew where they usually sat and pray for them. Beside the names of some people he had written the initials E.G.N. That stood for extra grace needed. No, we never knew who had that doubtful privilege.

Unfortunately we all know people like this. The words ‘walking on egg shells’ comes to mind. It is very easy to offend them, they can take what you say the wrong way. As teenagers we used to say that in heaven ‘their harp would be out of tune and the cloud they were sitting on would be damp.

You can see I wasn’t very good as a young person and probably should have known better. But I do hope I and my family weren’t E.G.N. people in our church!

Two brothers but chosen by God for different tasks. Moses was born to be a leader; God chose him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt into the desert towards the promised land for forty years. Aaron did not have the same leadership qualities but he had what we would call today the ‘gift of the gab.’ Moses did not have the confidence to speak up in front of Pharaoh but Aaron did. Aaron couldn’t perform the miracles that Moses did. Moses was the man for that job. The two brothers pooled their gifts to work for God.

We all have particular talents, which used with others will bring about God’s plans. We can’t take someone else’s talent, that belongs to them. God chooses the particular talent for each one of us.