Skip to main content

I love the local church



I find myself at times fiercely defending the local church and church leaderships, mainly from christians who have been hurt by the church and in essence have still not forgiven the people from which the hurt has come.
We all get hurt by the things that can happen in church, but it is not in ‘church’ we are hurt by, it is in ‘relationship’ with people and those people happen to be in the church, but for me I simply see these things as an opportunity for growth in myself and learning to love.  I am continually asking the Lord for ‘more’ and often the ‘more’ comes in way of a challenge in which to love someone and in the learning of these lessons I find I become more like Christ, which is the prayer I am praying asking for ‘more’.

Without the challenges I have faced within the ‘local church’ and the christians that I am around, I would not be the person I am today, or carry the message God has given me, because these things have helped contribute to the growth of my character in the Lord as I have submitted to His word and Holy spirits leading and guiding in learning to walk through these challenges.  So I am forever grateful and thankful for everything the Lord has taught me and continues to teach me in the ‘local church’ and alongside the other christians that I am around.

So…
I love the local church
I love coming together to worship God.
I love the people of God.
The local church has always been a place of growth for me.
I love seeing people healed, changed, delivered and set free.
I love the family the local church builds
I love serving God.
I love to serve God in the local church.






Popular posts from this blog

"A man's enemies will be the members of his own household" Matt 10:36

Recently we have been pondering how to deal with situations in our family that don't line up with the word. What action do we need to take?  Are we being too harsh?  Do we accept the behaviour or be considered by those around us as "too radical" or "too black and white"?  "Where is grace in all of this? How do we love the sinner but hate the sin?  What about forgiveness?  What is the role of discipline?   What makes that sin any worse than lying?  What is true love?  And there are a lot more questions going through the mind in how to work through this and know God's will and desire for the situation and the person. And firstly to say we have not come to any conclusions and are growing and learning day by day in this but I want to throw it out there. In Matt 10:34-39 says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn "a man against his father, ...

"I am ruined for the ordinary"

“I am ruined for the ordinary” A statement that can possibly be to some, come from a place of judgement, or it can be from a place of there is more in the Kingdom of God that I am yet to experience or understand, revelation that I have tasted of something that actually shows me that I have not tasted of anything yet.  A place where there is such a contentment and joy in what I have seen and longed to see and yet a revelation that there is way more "beyond what I think, ask and imagine" (Eph 3:20) and one that spurs me on to seek and discover all the fullness that could be ours in the Kingdom of God. When we as Christians see other Christians going places or experiencing things that we don’t understand or perhaps we have not yet moved in, we can either become jealous of that person and judge and bring them down to our level, exclude them from our lives or we can choose to be excited by what is happening and be encouraged and spurred on in the Lord for the more than ca...

Kiwi Culture verses Kingdom Culture

The above is the title of a book that I have on my heart.  Whether or not it ever makes it there we will see but in the process I want to put some thoughts down and see what it opens up. I grew up with phrases like "God helps those who help themselves" or "Too spiritually minded to be any earthly good".  There are many many more that I am sure you know of - I would love to hear them so please blog me about them or Facebook me so I can add them.  But phrases like that that we grew up with that actually have become a part of world view and things we base our lives on.  Things of our culture that are so much a part of culture that we think is actually a part of the bible or at the very least is no big deal in God's eyes; like sarcasm.  I have had to question some of these phrases - "where does it say in the bible God helps those who help themselves?"  "What actually is sarcasm and does it build up and encourage people?" etc. Jim and I lived ...

Our words create our worlds

  Last week I had a vision and I saw fire coming up from the ground and water coming from the sky, it was chaos and people were running for their lives as disaster struck. I was asking the Lord about it as it felt like judgement coming and I was trying to reconcile judgement with my God that I know who loved the world so much that he sent his only son to die for us not to condemn the world but to save the world, and he said to me - Sarah "your words create your world."   Everything God created was good and in Genesis we see God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth.  And through Jesus, God has given us authority and dominion over the earth, the same authority he gave Jesus now lives in us to those who believe.  And I realised that as a people we can reap what we sow in respect of our words.  The power of the tongue is powerful, it either tears down or builds up, life and death is on the power of the tongue.  In John 1:14  "The Word became flesh ...

Obedience and Commitment are big things in Gods Kingdom

Reading in Acts 7 this morning the story through Stephen of Abraham being told by God to " Leave your country and your people and go the the land I will show you"   So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.  He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground.  But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child." As I reflected on this and the journey of Abraham stepping out in faith into a land that he received no inheritance in but a promise of what was to come for his descendants of which we live in the fruit of that, I thought of todays generations in which often is only doing things that we want to do or that will benefit us personally as we live for 'today' not worrying about tomorrow.  A sense of if it feels good then do it, if it doesn't then we will move on -  perhap...

Is the reality of your heart different to what people see?

I had this dream and in this dream I went to stay with some people but they had no room in the house for me so I stayed in my caravan. But as I went into their house, the kitchen was a disaster, it was full of rotting food so much so that there were maggots growing and moving, there was stuff everywhere.  The people in the house were off helping a handicapped person which was good, but the state of their kitchen was a disaster.  So even though I didn’t know where to begin in cleaning up I started to clean up as they needed a hand and as I started to clean up the people in the house came and helped and switched on the waste disposal unit and the kitchen began to take shape again. I believe this is a word for some of you.   Although you are helping others and doing good things, in the process, your own house, your own heart, is in a mess and you need others to come and help you get started.  The kitchen in dream language often means the hear...