It is a great privilege getting to know pastors and congregations more here, in Bulgaria. The parallels with church life in Scotland are, not surprisingly, direct: for are not people everywhere those made by God to bear His image and reflect His likeness?
Men and women everywhere and anywhere are sinners who can be saved only by God's grace. And Christians are no exception: they are simply those sinners who have recognised that fact and who have also been told the Good News of Jesus Christ and gladly received it. How important that we don't lose sight of this. Pastors, elders, deacons, members: each one rotten to the core and capable of every sin imaginable, but that they find active support and aid from their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
If only we could keep this fact in focus. Christians so easily forget that not one of us has or will, in this life, completed the journey and process of transformational sanctification that carries us into complete maturity and Christlikeness. When we do lose sight of this, our perspective on ourselves and our expectation of others becomes warped. Christian living requires that forgiveness be unconditionally proffered by each one of us to others again and again and again. The pain that comes from struggling egos, disappointment, accusation, betrayal - this is all part of embracing and accepting others in love.
