What if we adopted these words as our welcome statement for our church?

“Come as you are. . . . You don’t have to dress up. You don’t have to be any particular age. We couldn’t care less who you voted for in the last election. And please, don’t feel the need to pretend about anything. Maranatha Church is a place where God meets seeking people who are far from perfect. That means anyone is welcome, no matter where you are on your spiritual journey. So learn at your own pace. Ask questions. Seek. We believe you’ll find what you’re looking for. You’ll learn how to relate to God. You’ll experience Christian community. And here’s the big thing—you will change. Join us as we seek God together. Just come as you are.”

(Adapted from “No Perfect People Allowed” by John Burke)

“Let us remember: What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander… Let us not forget, after all, there is always a moment when a moral choice is made….”

(Elie Wiesel, survivor of Auschwitz, author, and Nobel peace laureate)

This is the real issue for us all. As Jesus followers, we desire change – for us and for the world. Its easier to blame and protest others, than deal with our own growth areas. But Jesus has helped us to see that change needs to start from within, with the log in our own eye (Matthew 7:1-5). There are many problems in the world, and we are one of them. We are ultimately responsible for ourselves, for how we lived and loved and served in the world.

Change begins with me!

A poem by Gerard Mandley Hopkins that speaks of the grandeur of God in and behind everything we experience in this world… and yet fail to see and appreciate… even worse we ‘smear’ all over it. But it is still there! In a few places I’ve added my own thought of what the words mean.

“The world is charged (energized) with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil (shaking tin foil in sunlight);
It gathers (spreads) to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck (recognize) his rod (sceptre, rule)?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod (walked all over);
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare (empty) now, nor can foot feel, being shod (our shoes keep us from feeling).

And for all this, nature is never spent (never loses its God worth);
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things (buried, hidden within);
And though the last lights off the black West went (sunset, everything going dark)
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward (sunrise), springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods (hovers, flutters, like a bird, Genesis 1:2) with warm breast
And with ah! bright wings.”
(Gerard Manley Hopkins)

“Being someone who disciples others does not mean that you are perfect, and because of that you show them how to live. It means making yourself available to be observed at all times by your students, showing them what your relationship with Jesus looks like. It means showing them what it looks like to apologize and admit when you are wrong; it means showing them what humility looks like and being willing to become lesser in the eyes of others; it means modelling what healthy conflict and confrontation should look like; it means modelling what my dependency on Jesus looks like and how I aim to make my relationship with him a priority every day.”

(Janelle Sennema, currently serving as team leader with YWAM in the country of Georgia)

“Contemplative prayer, in its simplest form, is prayer in which you still your thoughts and emotions and focus on God Himself. This puts you in a better state to be aware of God’s presence, and it makes you better able to hear God’s voice correcting, guiding, and directing you. Instead of coming with a ‘to do’ list for God, you come with no agenda. The fundamental idea is simply to enjoy the companionship of God, stilling your own thoughts so you can listen should God choose to speak. For this reason, contemplative prayer is sometimes referred to as ‘the prayer of silence’.”

(Jan Johnson, When The Soul Listens)

“God’s mission of drawing wanderers into his family always takes place in the midst of ordinary places and relationships. This can take just as much energy, finances, and careful planning as a trip across the ocean. In some ways it might be more uncomfortable than sleeping on a dirt floor and eating strange food. Our mission trip started the day we were born; it ends when God calls us home. Our mission with God plays out in how we walk, talk, eat, commute, party, pray, participate, communicate, spend money, make money, and invest our time wherever we are.”

‘Staying Is the New Going: Choosing to Love Where God Places You’ by Alan Briggs.

“The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.”

(C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity)

This coming Sunday I am speaking on Genesis 38, the sad story of Tamar. I have found the “Read Scripture” videos from Bible Project very helpful for understand the bible. Watch these videos if you want to get a sense of how the story of Genesis 38 fits into the rest of the book, and the rest of the bible.