What's up Doc(trine)?

My recent blog about smoking has caused me to think some more, and (as ever) I'm thinking about church. Recently I was having a conversation that got rather heated about the Doctrine of the Church of England, and how I believed that the C of E (on the whole) were about doing good things, and not about seeing manifestations of God; or Miracles, you might say.

Their point (as this was a room of C of E people) was that everything is a miracle, and Jesus was about Love, so we should Love God, Love each other and Love ourselves. That is the Christian way.

I then had a further discussion where I raised the question; what is more important (in the realm of being a Christian); acting in the supernatural realm of God, seeking his manifest presence and taking authority over sickness, demons etc; or living a humble life, sharing all you have, doing good deeds, and really loving all those around us.

You may be asking yourself why I've segregated those two, because I think we all realise that both are equally important to the Christian life. We only need to look at the headlines of Jesus ministry to see that Love and Power were his gifts to the world.

However I find in mondern church, that the two ARE segregated! The churches that really press in for the presence are not really involved in the good deeds stuff (soup run, school evangelism, homeless help, prison visits), but they do see people healed, set free, and at times an open heaven over what they are doing. Conversely, many churches that don't seek that manifestation are more significantly involved in the good deeds stuff, but often don't even ask for the healings!

I don't know why there is this segregation, and I don't want to name names and give examples here, but I hope you can see what I mean.

Personally I LOVE the spiritual realm, I love experiancing God, I want to experiance more, I want to touch him, I want to feel him, I want to worship him!!

But I've just been struck with another thought. Let's say you have a really good friend, she has a Daughter. One day, there's a problem, I don't know what the problem is, but you are there, and able to help her out. This may even be financially. You know that if you speak to your friend, you'll get your money back, or they'll do something nice to repay your efforts.

Shouldn't that be how we treat other people, our best friends child?

Woah, deep, back to Tuesday afternoon banter with spreadsheets.