Carol Purves

I came across this phrase recently. ‘I am a fractured, forgiven work in progress, reconciled to You through Jesus.’

How aptly that described me and no doubt you. I am fractured, swaying from opinion to opinion, my feet on shifting sand. One day I feel I’ve made a reasonable job of being a Christian, the next I’m floundering in sin and broken actions. At times I’m praising God for his wonderful ways, then I’m blaming him for everything I’ve done wrong in my life.

The next word in the phrase described me as being forgiven. All my many, many wrong doings have been forgiven. That hardly sounds possible. I am reconciled to God; I am forgiven, restored and reunited with the Eternal One. This is only through Jesus, dying for my sins. Forgiveness is never an easy matter; it wasn’t for Jesus. The cost was high. Now I can say with confidence, ‘I am a fractured, forgiven work in progress, reconciled to You through Jesus.’ Amen

I can just imagine Jairus standing right on the shoreline, watching for Jesus’s boat drawing nearer and nearer. In his desire to be the first to speak to Jesus his feet were probably in the water. His daughter was dying, he needed to be the first to speak to Jesus. He achieves his objective and makes his request made known to the Healer. Then calamity, Jesus gets side-tracked. He stops to talk to a poor sick woman. The delay was desperate; she was only a woman anyway and his daughter needed help as soon as possible.

Then came the shattering news; his beloved daughter was dead. Did those few minutes make any difference? In a rational state Jairus would know that the time spent healing the woman made no difference. Did he gleam a fragment of hope as Jesus proved once again that he was the Healer? This is a story with a happy ending. The delay made the miracle greater. Our God is a God of perfect timing.

Some modern day leaders are bombastically full of their own importance. This is not the case with Paul. One example is when he is writing his first letter to the church at Corinth.

In the first chapter of his first letter, he is repeatedly pointing to God and Christ. The first verse states who, Paul, is. But he qualifies it by saying that he is called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. He wishes them grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He can speak no higher than that. In just the first verses he refers to God by name about a dozen times. The emphasis is where it belongs.

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.