7.16-Five years of help in messy situations.

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7.16-

Today is the 5th anniversary of my move to worship with the congregation where I worship, The Hills church in North Richland Hills, Texas.

It is a messy church like the one I grew up in.   Lessons from the Bible are taught that remind us to imitate Jesus, but we don’t measure up to His perfect standard.  We need forgiveness, mercy and grace.

We have been given a radical freedom of choice by our maker.  We humans are rebels.  We sin in prodigal son ways and elder brother ways. 

The church of my growing up childhood and youth days was a church of about 50.
The church where we attend here in is a church of about 5,000.
The churches have this in common.  They are messy.  

 Thankfully, we have God’s unfailing love available to us during the hard times of our family life and church life.

If you are lost and confused.  If you are in trouble and being rejected by others these kind of churches might be the ones for you.

People whose children didn’t turn out exactly as they had hoped are here.
People whose marriages have strife are here.
People who are bored with their jobs and overwhelmed with their jobs are here.
People who misuse and abuse, drugs, alcohol are here.
People who misuse and abuse food, prescription drugs, television, movies and social media are here.
We even have recovering judgmental, Pharisees here.

In these five years
I have attended
-worship services where Jesus Christ was lifted up in song, prayer and teaching.
-Bible class where we tried to understand this amazing book with teachers and students who have been missionaries, service men and women and corporate executives all over the world. 
-home groups for support and encouragement with couples trying to grow in an imperfect marriage and singles learning to live alone effectively.
-men’s groups where men started their day trying to push themselves to live in an ethical and caring way in the workplace.
I have spent a total of 49 years teaching and supporting this type of work.  The last five years of fellowship and friendship have been like the growing up years I enjoyed in my home, rural community church of 50.  This church is 5,000 living in a metroplex.   In some ways it is the same loving mixture of joy and sorrow.

If you need to be helped from a time of lostness and confusion and want to be loved, accepted as a real, honest, I’m ready to start over and get better sinner, then these messy churches are the place for you.

Matthew 16.
18 I also say to you that you are [l]Peter, and upon this [m]rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 

Larry Wishard
7.15.18

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