All written word is "The Opinion" of Thomas A. unless otherwise noted...
|
|
Regaining
Trust John 12: 20-26 It has been a while since I have written a sermon. Ever since my incident at church, I have been having difficulty with my faith. My faith is still sound, but my trust with the church I have been attending has been greatly damaged. It’s sad enough that an elder does not know how to build trust among the parishioners. There are ministers on the news these days from the Catholic Church who have done terrible things. I’m sure it’s not just confined to Catholics. I believe every church and institution that deals with family and children as a percentage of evildoers. However, when the church loses your trust, it is very hard for the institution to regain it. I myself have been struggling with the trust issue. I have not been attending church because my trust has been broken. Moreover, once someone has lost your trust, it is very hard to regain it. And that is as it should be. Yet to satisfy the needs of serving Christ, I need to forgive and move beyond someone else’s limited understanding of truth. I forget how many other Christians live in fear. Just because people go to church does not mean they do not live in fear. It is sad. I myself have not wanted to return to the church for fear of rejection once again. It would be very easy for me to quit church and just say I don’t need the institution of religion. I could say I have my own Web site to preach. I cannot allow myself to be scared away from the church. I forget how powerful Satan is. He has dominion of the world. The church is in the world. Therefore, Satan has dominion even over our churches. I think realizing that’ shows how important it is for those of us who do good to attend church. We must not allow Satan to influence the congregation. It’s an easy cop out to complain about churches, and the hypocrisy and not go to the church and try to change that. Jesus Christ did not walk away from the church with the synagogues, he ran in, turn over the tables, and said this is my father’s house. If I’m going to imitate anything in this life, I’ll imitate Christ courage in attending church. In today’s Scripture I like verse 25 “Whoever loves his own life will lose it; whoever hates his own life in this world will keep it for life eternal.” I do hate my life. I will not end my life, but I will trust in Jesus to keep his word. We all do things we are ashamed of and at times with all the good intentions in our hearts we continue to do the same shameful things. I forgive my brother for his shameful actions and I ask for his forgiveness. I will still have a very difficult time while I attend church. Most importantly, I attend church because of my belief in Jesus not to impress people. May God have mercy on my soul and guide me into the right actions with my church. Thomas A. SUTOR P.O. Box 2343 Lompoc CA 93438 Rockhawk.com
|
All written word is "The Opinion" of Thomas A. unless otherwise noted...
|