Thoughts from Culhwch

It’s sometimes great how from time to time we realize how God works. We struggle for some time with one sin or another, and finally get the nerve to admit to a brother. Suddenly, God blesses us in that very moment. I think this is part of how Christian community is supposed to work. We are supposed to go to one another as the broken individuals we are, to support each other and hold each other accountable, which means giving each other advice for how to overcome the things we are struggling with. It changes everything. But it doesn’t work when we only half way do it. I cannot simply say to my brother that I am a sinner, I must be free and open and admit that sin. When I do, I find that God has prepared a way out.

In the sermons that I have heard over the last month, one point stands out above the others. Over and again, I hear how we as Christians cannot be a place where other’s see Christ at work unless we are able to admit that we need God not only on Sunday mornings when we feel all Godly and ready to sing with each other, we must also show others that we need and seek God when we are broken, and confused (breaking and confusing too). The thing is, if our worship never makes room to say that we have been healed, and yet still need that healing, then we lose track of God’s work, we lose track of what God is doing with us and with others, we lose out on the very thing that God gave us to speak most powerfully of this ministry that has been entrusted to us, that is, our testimony. A testimony is empty if it never admits our need, our want, our lack. We have to be there not just as saints, but as sinners whom God has touched. Without openness about our sin, we have no gospel. Our purpose is voided.

It’s not easy being honest, its not easy being what God has called us to be. And the moment we admit that we fail on both counts, we suddenly find God’s care, God’s joy in calling us back to the flock. And that joy both its cause and its working out in our lives is one of the most powerful things we can share with others.

I guess the real question is, how do we do it. I think it starts with finding friends that can hold us accountable. I think it starts with finding ways to show our faults to those we worship with. Finally this process ends in true worship. Worship that sees the power of God to enact change in our life and in the lives of the others we support.

So I guess it comes back to how we worship. Do we worship in spirit and truth? Or do we worship with clean hands and dirty hearts?
~David