The way…

I’m a little bit conflicted about writing the following, so I’ll try and keep it brief. I wanted to write about the past week, but the following just keeps going around in my head, so I’m going to get it out. I may do another blog about what is going on on the ‘homestead’. For the homestead peeps. It’s definitely less heavy ha.

I just wanted to remind Christians of something. What I want to say is… your particular part of church, your denomination (or no denomination), the way you worship, the group you mix with, the way you express your faith, what you do……is not (shock, horror) the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through him.

I will repeat it again, your particular church is not the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is. the scripture is not ‘no one comes to the father except through (enter church name), it is: ‘Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Thankyou for listening. Bows and exits swiftly, haha.

I feel quite strongly about this, a long time ago, I was of the opinion that no one apart from Christians in my particular part of Christianity were ‘saved’. Then I took part in Street Pastors and swiftly realised that this was complete rubbish. I did literally go in suspiciously looking for error and non Christians, because of the impression I’d been given as a new Christian, and it was wrong. The ‘church’ is the whole church, the church of all believers, not just our own little bits.

I am not aiming this at Catholics like some might think, I’ve seen this attitude in both non Catholics and Catholics. I’ve seen Catholics mock the ‘other side’ as it were, undermining their decision to follow Jesus. They seem to be of the opinion that we ‘protestants’ think it’s ok to pray one prayer and then we’re saved and can go about our lives in much the same way and still have a seat in heaven. Well, that’s true to a certain extent, we, like all Christians, are covered by the blood of Jesus, covered by His righteousness, once we put our trust in Him, so yeah, our past, present and future sins are forgiven. But what you fail to acknowledge or realise is that once Jesus is in you. Once you have genuinely (and that is the key I think, genuineness), put your trust in Jesus and made Him Lord of your life. He makes you new, gives you a new spirit and the law is now written in your spirit/heart rather than just your head. So your life changes. The Holy Spirit speaks into our lives. But please, those who mock, don’t. We love God, we follow God, we make mistakes, we confess to God and repent, and we’re forgiven. We take it seriously (well, I do) and do all things because of the Love of God and the love that this brings out in us.

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29).

But also, on the other hand, like I’ve already mentioned, I’ve experienced the other end, where people who actually know very little about Catholicism or other parts of Christianity, develop a ‘them and us’ attitude and decide they know their beliefs because of (quite often anyway) what they’ve been told by other people in their particular church. What I will say about believing Catholics that I have either met or experienced online, is that they are reverent, deep, want to experience everything God has and Jesus is their saviour and they trust everything to Him, including suffering.

Another interesting thing is, I’ve been between worlds for quite a while now, looking and watching both Catholic and non Catholic worlds and what I find interesting is that the non Catholic world over the last two years especially has been preaching more and more on the way we live and the way we honour God with our lives. And the Catholic church seems to be preaching grace more and more often. It’s very, very interesting.

The church is the church and we worship Jesus. He is the saviour of mankind. We are not. I think one of the reasons I feel so strongly about this is that I’ve been like this, I’ve made assumptions on people, I’ve acted as if no one else on earth could possibly know Jesus apart from people in my particular church. And that was wrong. We need to listen to people, not make quick, glib statements and tell them our views.

Anyway, if you’ve made it though all that. You may have figured out that I’m trying to figure some stuff out at the moment. So I’m just trusting God and asking Him ‘what do I do?’ as I saw quoted on Heidi Baker’s facebook page the other day. We can trust Him no matter what, which is always good.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert 😀 (but I do have God’s spirit in me).

God loves ya people!

Cathy.