Blessed are those who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

We have just hosted a Living Waters "taster" conference for the Manchester area. The conference was called "The healing of relationships through the power of the cross." Lisa Guinness who heads up Living Waters is an excellent speaker who clearly enables people to hear that we live in a fallen world and that our past experiences have left us wounded. But God wants to heal those wounds and restore us.

Lisa says that in many parts of the Church today there is a crisis of confidence in the cross; they have no message of hope for those who want to change. But we believe that there is redemptive power available through the blood of Christ for those who want to be holy. The cross is the place of exchange where we leave our filthy rags and receive our robes of righteousness.

Those who want to be holy are often too ashamed to ask for the help that they need. Shame keeps people isolated in the darkness. We wear masks in church for fear of being rejected if our true nature was made public. How can we create a church where people can be honest and real? How can we create a church where grace and mercy are experienced?

It takes time to absorb all the teaching and even longer to learn how to live a life of holiness, daily trusting in the grace available rather than slipping back into unholy or unhelpful ways of easing our aloneness. We need to learn how to press into the Lord for comfort and strength. We have to cling to the cross, to fall forwards into the Father's arms. We have know how to live by the Spirit so we do not gratify the desires of our sinful nature (Galatians 5:16).

Learning how to do this is best done with the support of other believers in an accountability relationship. We are relational beings, designed to function best when connecting with others. The deepest experience of koinonia comes when we walk in the light with one another (1 John 1:7).