How odd it is that the same people who tell me that this is not a Christian country are the same people who tell me that this will be an Islamic nation within ten years and they are happy with it and then in the same breath continue to say that they want a 'non-religious' nation as they don't have a belief!
How odd it is that, when things fall apart and life has sunk to its lowest point, come a knocking on the church door to find acceptance, forgiveness and support. The Church is full of hypocrites and run for the benefit of a God who condemns and prevents people from living the way they want and yet, when the fruit of living for ourselves falls from the tree it's not the world - it's not our families - who offers support for the previously endorsed actions!
How odd it is that when people come up to me with a list of the so many reasons God cannot exist I can find people whose lives and the fruits of their engagement with God tell me something very different.
A few years back when the Labour Party were in power Prime Minister Tony Blair's 'king of spin', Alastair Campbell, made the statement, 'We don't do God'. But in fact Blair (and many other MPs) did indeed do God and God features large in Westminster. He might not be mentioned but He is there and the Judeo-Christian heritage of our nation is there for all to see.
A few years back one of the then MPs told me that their greatest fear was that one day the nation would eschew its Christian heritage and would become an epicurean, self-serving, culture. A society that would endorse postpartum abortion, euthanasia and 'assisted suicide' making our green and pleasant land into what they described as Gehenna!
Interestingly, a few days back, some people put their names on a piece of paper stating how they wanted a non-Christian society. Unsurprisingly, many of those who signed want to live in the very same world my MP friend didn't!
I exist to be a signpost to a place of safety - a place of acceptance and support and care and so much more.
Yes, there are attitudes and lifestyles that I consider wrong (but they don't remove the relationship or the fact that I'm there for you).
Yes, there are mindsets and beliefs that I don't think are compatible with that which the Bible calls us to make our own and assign to God (but I won't throw you out of the church).
Yes, there are standards I expect you to keep, and promote, and things I expect you to do (after all, I expect the same - and more - from me) but I know that you'll not always manage to make it happen too!
Church - a place where brains are engaged - dialogue engaged - facts are not ignored
Pity the world can't make the same claims innit?
Happy St George's Day
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