prayers for teresa

Please pray for Teresa who has been ill for sometime. Teresa is a wonderful mother, wife and grandmother.


Thanks

CAN GAY PEOPLE WORSHIP GOD

I met a gay christian in a coffee shop in Shawlands. We got talking because she was reading a book I had read by Ulf Ekman, The foundations of the Christian faith. After speaking for a while she asked if homosexuals should be allowed to worship Christ. At this point I had no idea she was a lesbian but it would not have mattered to me anyway as my answer would have been the same.
I said that we are all sinners and not one of us is worthy of Salvation and it is by God's grace that we are saved and this grace is open to everyone. I added that if we are willingly sinning then we need to stop sinning and come to that cup of grace. It was then that she told me she was in a relationship with another female and they both went to church. I could see this was troubling her and knew I would need to choose my words carefully from now on.

Being a homosexual or a lesbian or an adulterer or a thief or some one that cheats on their taxes are all sins in God's eyes but God does not hate the sinner, only the sin. I know many people believe one is born with gay tendencies but I am not going to go into that.

I shared a little about my own life and how I was saved and also how I still battle against certain things.

But moving back to the question "could she still go to church and worship God?" I said it is better to be amongst other Christians and hearing the word of God. So far she had not told anyone in her church she was a lesbian and I said that was a wise decision because so many would frown on it even though they themselves live with sin everyday.

I said it may be wise to seek advice from a pastor from another church if she does not feel comfortable speaking to her own pastor. There was a lightness to her after our conversation and I hope she does speak to someone. I knew I was not the right person at that point to guide her as I am going through my own battles at the moment.


To me sin is sin. As a catholic we used to have small sins and big sins. The bigs sins would send you to hell the small ones, well they would just attract bigger sins. In a childish way it made sense but sin is sin and we are so quick to judge.

God's grace is open to all

THE RIGHT CHURCH

If you look around Glasgow you will find there is no shortage of churches to go to but which one is the church for you?
The only way to find out is to try before you buy. I would suggest attending a few churches and then whittle it down to 3 or 4. Think of finding a church in the same way you would buy a house. No one would just look at a house from the outside and then decide to buy it. You would have a look inside and check it from top to bottom and if interested you would send in a surveyor. But when it comes to the church you will be the surveyor because only you know what you are looking for.

I would suggest avoiding fundamentalist churches because I believe they do more damage than good. Just because a church claims to follow the word of God to the letter does not make them a good church. Most of these churches miss the message of Christs love and in fact miss the message of love.
I would also avoid churches were the pastor preaches for 45minutes or more because most people can only keep their attention span for 20 minutes at a time.

Find a church that is faithful to the Gospel
Find a church that believes in the gifts of the spirit
Find a church that shows love(believe me you will know it when you see and feel it)

Remember you are responsible for you're own salvation, so its up to you to find a church were you can worship God in Spirit.

The danger is to rely on you're pastor Elder friend etc

If you seek God with all you're heart He will direct you to the right church for you