Sunday Thoughts from the PEWSIDE

So today I went to the local baptist church after a few sundays of absence. A lot of things ran through my mind during the course of the service. 

it started with the children's message- Today the lady that spoke held up two signs: one that said DANGER: KEEP OUT, and one that said WELCOME. She the proceeded to ask the children where each sign would be found. For the danger keep out sign, many of the children answered: construction sites, military bases, bedrooms, etc. For the welcome sign they said as follows: Grandparents home, Their homes, classroom, cities (the welcome tooo....). Then she asked what sign should be posted in front of our church?- It got me thinking. What sign is in front of our church? Are we welcoming people into the fold or are we keeping them way or steering them in another direction due to the large warning sign posted in front. If the latter what can we do to change?

On to the message

Today pastor spoke about our values and what we hold as important in our lives. He asked who or what dictates the values in our lives- He said that many even say that america is currently in what we like to call a value war or moral dilemma.  He started off his message by telling us of the great wall of china about how it was built to keep out invaders and it was tall, wide and strong. Yet there were three successful invasions of china despite the wall. He then explained that it wasn't the walls fault that the invasion happened, the invaders didn't break the wall to get through, they didn't climb over it or even walk around it. They got through by bribing a gatekeeper to let them through. No matter how strong the wall is it couldn't withstand the lapse in judgement or moral failings of a gatekeeper. 

The passage that the message was derived from was Phillipians 3: 7-11

" ⁷But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." -via biblegateway.com

he then asked what things made up our values and listed a few that might: tv, friends, education, family, self proclamation

As a christian where should our values come from?- They should come from the love we have for God as paul states in phillipians; everything else amounts to garbage. Lets re-focus our lives and set our values and priorities straight.

The final thing that caught my attention from the sunday service was an old woman who gave a testimony at the very end. She testified about her grandson who was arrested the past week for doing something wrong, she stood up and thanked the church for their prayers and also warned the church to be careful for their action for they are responsible for them and to seek guidance from God in all things. - It made me marvel at her courage and her willingness to trust the church with such a delicate matter. Growing up in the malayalee penticostal church one of the first things I have come to learn is that the church is LAST place you go with your personal problems, GOD is the first- but the church is filled with people who are more then willing to rip apart your delicate situation and make it unbearable to survive. I think that this woman, this church is an example that we need to follow- When believers come with problems, the church is a hospital which DEF. needs to be taught a thing or two about HIPAA. Its not a media center to be made public what happens there or is said there needs to be prayed for and made victorious and no laughed at for week-ness. We are all only a step away from falling, God's Grace is what keeps us standing. Lets try to become better at helping and welcoming others into the church and praying for them without making them into a showpiece. Thanks.