All Bleeders Are Welcome

A life altering event happens. An invasion on your life takes place leaving you wounded and bleeding badly in the middle of the ocean. Where do you go now? You try to swim to the rest of the group and attach yourself to the rescue 'raft' but the group rejects you cause you are bleeding too badly and will attract sharks. The group drifts off to sleep and so you decide to try to swim over to the them again and you find one man still awake. He courageously tends to your bleeding wounds & welcomes you back to the group. This was the picture of one of the survivors stranded at sea after the 1945 Japanese torpedo invasion of the USS Indianapolis Ship. Unfortunately this picture is a familiar picture in many churches today too isn't it? We hear the language, "Keep the bleeders out so they don't affect the rest of the congregation. It's just not safe having them around the rest of us." And yet, thankfully, there are some courageous ones who step out and tend to the wounded and bleeding people. What I love about Celebrate Recovery is that it says with great boldness and courage, "If you're bleeding, come see us. No matter what hurt you are carrying, you are welcome here." Celebrate Recovery reminds us thru a living example that the Church is not a hotel for the healthy, but a hospital for the sick, wounded, bruised and bleeding. Above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love" will cover a multitude of sins." 1Peter 4:8 If you're bleeding, swim on over, grab the raft, and let us point you to the Rescuer, Jesus Christ. Rodney Holmstrom