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John 1:5-7 This is the message we have heard from him
and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we
say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not
practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from
all sin.
Jesus says that we will be
disappointed if we search for ourselves in the natural world. “Simon the
fisherman could have explored every region of his ego prior to his encounter
with Christ but he would not have found ‘Peter’ there” The true identity of
Peter, the man created to preplace Simon, was “hidden in the mystery of
Christ’s soul.” (pg. 38, Connecting)
If advice or instruction is
at the center of our programs we will not heal many hearts and souls. The power
to influence lives does not come from our efforts or the efforts of others to
obey our words. Power is not unleashed when we explain how their messed up
lives are in violation of God’s standards, His law.
A community of healing does
not rest on getting people to do what is right. It does not depend on analyzing
the psychological forces causing the problems and then trying to fix what is
broken. A community that heals is one that believes in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. It is a community that “provides forgiveness of all sin, a guaranteed
future of perfect community forever, and the freedom now to indulge the deepest
desires of our hearts, because the law of God is written within us – we have an
appetite for holiness. Communities heal when they focus on releasing what’s
good.”
The center of a forgiven
person is not sin but the capacity to connect to others within the community.
As members of the community of Christ we experience the fruit of Christ’s life
here and now. The calling, therefore, of the healing community is to lure
others into this community for their healing and God’s glory.
