In Old Testament times, justice and law worked on the principle of “An eye for an eye.” (See Exodus 21 for some examples). It was a little like the “Wild West” where scores were settled personally between families. (Think, “I am looking for the man who shot my paw”).

What happened, though, if you killed someone accidentally? What if you were cutting a tree down and it fell on your helper? Well, the law made provision for that, too. The Israelites set apart six towns and called them “The Cities of Refuge.” (See Joshua 20). If a person killed another without forethought or malice, he could run to one of these cities, plead his case and find safety. If the man’s family came demanding retribution, the people of the city would protect the man until his case was heard in court. The “Cities of Refuge” were meant to be places where mercy and understanding reigned and where people were treated “fairly.”

Those cities are long gone, but the Spirit of them should still reign in one place: the church. Ideally, the church should be the safest, most accepting and most gracious place on earth. It should be this way because it is filled with those who know that they need grace, forgiveness and mercy. We all make mistakes. We all need mercy. We all need forgiveness. We all need help. In fact, we make an even bigger mistake when we try to hide our faults and pretend to be perfect all the time.

A few months ago, our Premier, Brad Wall, released a video of his campaign ad bloopers.  In this minute and a half video, we see the Premier forgetting lines, muffing words and even tripping over a step while talking. Overwhelmingly, people loved this video because it took away all the slick, fake “politician” stuff and showed him as a real person. We all goof up; he was just brave enough to show it on “YouTube”.

The first message of the church should be, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23). However, we need to remember the second part of that passage, which says, “…and [all] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (verse 24). 

In God’s Kingdom, sin is never acceptable, but sinners are always accepted (because that is the only type of person there is).

If you are looking for a safe place to seek God, please know that you would welcome here any Sunday morning.