1 Corinthians 6:1-20 MSG and 1 Timothy 1:5-12 MSG

Often we seem to get bogged down in the details, mired in the trivial, we strain at gnats. How often in church meetings do we get lost on the font size? Distracted by the attendance figures? How many times do we tell fellow believers they are wrong? Is it worse to threaten an abortion doctor or to shun a teenage mom? When the Pharisees brought the adulterous women, why didn’t they bring the man? If grace covers all sins and all fall short of the glory of God, then why in some places can’t homosexual people become members or women become preachers? If biblical marriage is one man and one woman then why did David have so many wives?
We have been discussing in our Wednesday night class several difficult topics and where the Bible leads us to make choices regarding those topics. We have employed the full use of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral of Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason. Often times after an hour of hashing out details and politely arguing sides we find that we are far more often on the same page, often even the same sentence, only arguing over the verbs or nouns. As a body we should have these discussions and find those places where we agree and build on that foundation. If we present the foundation to non-believers and not make them pick sides on the extremes they will be more likely to stay and join the conversation and continue the traditions, bring new experiences, and maybe even provide a little reason to the faith.

God loves us and wants a relationship with us.
He came to Earth so that he would know our pain.
We’re working on the rest, come join us as we flesh out the details.

God, please bind us together in your son’s name so that we can share grace and mercy. Work through our lives so that we can bring about your will on earth as it is in heaven.