tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25723085.post-1144594076162651892006-04-09T23:39:00.000+01:002006-04-09T15:47:56.176+01:00Most people would be a little embarrassed to have unexpected company when their house was a mess. Have you ever stayed in a hotel when room service called? I was staying in a hotel in Hungary, a knock came at the door and I found a smiling gentleman ready to clean the room.<br /><br />I was so embarrassed - suitcases and crumpled clothing all across my unmade bed and wet towels all over the bathroom floor. I apologised profusely but the young man replied graciously in broken English, 'No problem, Sir. For this reason I have come to put your things in order.'<br /><br />The Bible says this is exactly what Jesus Christ came to do for us. To put our lives in order! He doesn't demand that we first straighten up our mess. Instead, He offers to clean them up for us.<br /><br />The Cross reminds us again about a Saviour who came, 'to seek and to save the lost!' (i.e. those who are in a 'mess'). He doesn't expect us to get our act together and sort out the mess before He comes into our lives. That's the process He begins when His Spirit comes in and takes control and for many of us there is a lot of mess to still sort out - and, like the first disciples, we need to recognise that we are a 'work in progress'. Jesus thanked His father, '... for these men that had been given to Him out of the world…' and through that core of disciples, the good news spread and the church grew throughout the then known world.<br /><br />People empowering! - these men and women had repented of their sins, had been baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit and they were used mightily by God. In the first 360 years of church history, church membership was entirely about 'function'. It has only been in the last 200 years that it has been rendered into a 'formality', not too unlike joining a club where, at worst, some will pay their dues and turn up. Others will not even do that. Somehow a badge of 'membership' makes them out as kosher for this earth and the next?! Sounds weird.<br /><br />When you look at the description of the early church, it certainly didn't look like a people who had 'got it all together'. The people of Corinth, for instance, had a reputation of living in a city which, in the ancient world, was hard drinking, unruly and sexually promiscuous. When Paul turned up to share the message of Jesus, he wasn't surprised that when they came to faith they brought their reputations with them!<br /><br />Paul doesn't go into a panic and throw them out of the church because their life styles don't fit the bill. Neither does he fly into a tirade or disown them because their conversion didn't furnish them with an impeccable set of morals and a middle class outlook to suit. He takes all that he saw in their lives, and that which he didn't see, into his stride and like his Saviour, Jesus, thanks God for them and begins to encourage them to patiently and lovingly direct Christ's saving love into their love for one another. His approach was Christ affirming, Holy Spirit liberating and people empowering! The mess became a movement... 1 Corinthians 1:28!<br /><br />Long may it continue...John Lewis - Gorsley Chapelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657989495797534537noreply@blogger.com