Real life happens to the best of us
Watching a PBS show called, “Grantchester,” I realized the whole drama hinged on inappropriate relationships. The young Anglican priest, who is obviously in love with a married woman, wrestles with his faith and his feelings. The detective, who has a good wife and four children, has an affair with his secretary on the police force. A gay assistant priest falls in love with a woman, but is not sexually attracted to her. All in all, everyone is doing something wrong according to “what is right,” while solving one murder case after the other.
In the case of the priest, he has been in love with this woman even before she married. However, his explanation for not asking her hand, is, “he thought she could do better.” Eventually, coming from a rich family, she married into another rich family. However, there was no love between her and the approved husband, because her heart is still with the priest.
What needed to happen, is that the priest should have followed his heart in the first place. Failing to do right in the beginning leads to much of the drama in the TV series. Though they solve a murder each show, the sexual sub-context is often more interesting.
Take courage and at least try the obvious
In the second example, the police inspector, has a nice, faithful wife and four children. However, he falls for a woman with whom he works closely at the police department. The woman is smart, single, and obviously loves him. Yet, because of society and fear of his wife, he hides his relationship which leads to eventual disaster.
In that case, what he should have done, is tell his wife of his feelings for the other woman. Letting her know that, though she is love of his life, and his children are precious to him, he would like keep a relationship with the other lady as well. Of course, in that time in England an open relationship would not have worked professionally, but at least he could have both without lying to either.
Don’t let shame ruin what you do have
In the third example, a man who is gay and feels a calling to the ministry, could not bring himself to tell his girlfriend about his sexual orientation. He strings her along until she becomes frustrated and gives him back their engagement ring. Again, failure to be honest destroys the relationship. While I do not believe that homosexual relationships are appropriate, at least she would know what he was dealing with.
The truth is, because many of us are bound by our culture, family traditions, and church teachings, we doom ourselves into failure. Like blinders on a horse, we cannot see anything beyond what others lead us to look at. We allow virtually everyone else to guide us but God Himself. However, the Tabernacle Experience is about to change all that forever.
There is a place for everyone in the Body of Christ
There is a place for everyone in the Body of Christ. No one need be left out. God is about to tailor make a place for you in His house that you never believed possible. When He does, you will fit perfectly. This is going to require trust so that He can lead you outside of your box. Practically everything Jesus says to do will appear, at first, against culture, family, and the church. Your trust of the Holy Spirit will need to supersede what others say when they accuse you of sin and threaten you with “hell”. Like Jesus on the cross, you must trust God with your very soul, knowing that if He says it, you can do it.
Christians go against the world, because the world is against God.
From the first century, it has always be so, has it not? Disciples of Jesus believed in a risen savior while the Pharisees did not. Fourteen centuries later, those who believed salvation is by faith, had to stand with Martin Luther against the might of the Catholic Church. Anabaptists sometimes did jail time for belief in baptism by immersion. Those who were filled with the Holy Spirit, as evidenced by speaking in other tongues, were sometimes committed to insane asylums. People who believed God is one, rejecting Trinitarian beliefs, were outcast.
Now, in these latter days, people who believe in Divine Divorce, will be cast out for His name’s sake, too. People will shout that you are breaking “holy vows,” and defiling, “holy matrimony,” when, in reality, you are simply being led by the Holy Spirit.
Accomplish God’s will on earth
Our purpose on earth is to accomplish God’s will. If a marriage prevents us from doing that, we fail. If the church’s “holy vows” strangle our ability to follow Jesus, they are against God. Many of us need to repent of our marriages, just as much as we have repented from any other sin. The church is not the arbitrator of the voice of God, for we hear His voice for ourselves. The truth is, many clergymen are master manipulators. Pastors will put all manner of pressure on us to do what they think is right. They will not spare the sheep, consider what they are going through, or see the big picture in God. They are in their positions precisely because they perpetuate their denominations doctrine without fail.
Live your life through revelation
In conclusion, we cannot fix the normative church, for it is broken. In fact, church as it is historically thought of, is an impediment to God’s will in our generation. All dogma is last century. What our Lord is moving us into is a life lived through revelation. The center of all revelation is God’s son Jesus Christ. We agree, not because we share a core set of teachings, but because we know a single person. We are a Christ-centered church, who does His will when He says it. Remember: The man-child emerges from the body of church, then is caught up to God and His throne.
