Sometimes I just get tired,ooh so tired

Sometimes, Christians make me tired, bone weary, dog tired.

When listening to ALL to "criteria" that is spewed forth my way by some well meaning Christian I want to crawl up in bed and sleep the day away. It can be all to hard. I get tired just LISTENING to what I "have" to do in order to be a "real" Christian.

To become a Christian, what is actually demanded of Us? That we believe Jesus Christ is the saviour, that he died on the cross for us,at least as I understand it. I can't see that anything is asked of us. Not being good, not being "religious", not belonging to Church, not doing good deeds and acts,not being baptised. Non of these things are a pre-requisite to becoming what we commonly call a Christian. On a really simplistic level all you really have to say is 2 little words.

"I believe".

P.S. this particular line of thought for me is a work in progress. I type something then go away, mull it over and come back a little later and revise, edit, delete, then the process starts again. Its not going so well, incase you were wondering, what's in my head and what ends up on "paper" looks nothing the same!

Wider, broader, deeper, stronger

I bounce around a little between churches. Its not that I like or dislike one more than the other, it's just that I always feel I am on the outside looking in. I have issues, what can I say!?

Anyways, on Saturday I attended Citylife church in Knox. Deb Hirsch (I have probably not correctly spelt her name, sorry about that) was being interviewed. Deb is a woman who was living a lesbian lifestyle. Since that time she has found God, or more importantly, God found her and she is now married. Both Deb and her husband run a ministry in the USA that runs for people within the Gay community. It's a topic that is "to hot to handle" for most churches, at least it looks that way from my perspective.

The topic and the host of problems, both in the "real world" and biblically, that this unique minstry faced was extrodinarily interesting and eye opening. My first reaction was amazement. "OOH MY GOSH! There are normal people withing the church.!!!" Strange first reaction, isn't it, when you consider the topic being discussed. It did gladen my heart no end to know that inbetween bible bashing homophobic christians and liberalism there was a middle ground, which previously I had not been able to see. Even if I could have seen, I would not have been able to verbalise anywhere near as well and still couldn't.

It also covered the topic of acceptance. Accepting people where they are at. Accepting people first BEFORE repentance. Not expecting people to repent and conform BEFORE they walk into a church and THEN be accepted. There was so much food for thought and I was so very grateful for that.