Sanctuary.
The word sanctuary always raises up pictures in my mind of beautiful quiet spaces.
You know with candles and incense and stuff like that?
It's a calming kind of word.
The original meaning of the word is a sacred place, such as a shrine.
People would see these places as kind of safe house. So today one way the term sanctuary has come to be used for is any place of safety.
A sanctuary in Christian terms can be a sacred space such as a church.
In legal terms it can mean an immunity to arrest for fugitives, a part of English law from the fourth to the seventeenth century.
In political terms it can mean a person asking a Soveriegn authority for the right of assylum.
So it seems to me sanctuary, which ever way you look at it is all about safety and security.
The Salvation Army Prayer Centre I help to run is called sanctuary 21.
Last week it didn't feel so safe.
We have a large number of people who gather every day in our place, many of whom are struggling with alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction, and other forms of criminality.
This sometimes brings unrest to the camp.
Last week a fight nearly broke out between a few of the lads.
Sanctuary 21 didnt feel much like a sanctuary at all.
The incident was nearly a disaster.
That afternoon I met with the City police chief and a drug addiction expert who is employed by the police. We discussed the earlier incident and agreed to put some extra safety measures im place. During the conversation, both police officers commented how they were excited by the headway we were making with these guys. The drug addiction officer brought up a guy called Micheal. When Micheal came to us over a year ago, he gave us a list of establishments he was barred from in the city. He asked us to see if we were on it. We said he was more than welcome here. Micheal was imitially a very aggressive guy, he was angry and raging inside with bitternesss and resentment. He is addicted to drugs and had a problem with theft. He was also prone to violent behaviour. Throughout the year our team has sat with him, talked to him, listened to his aggresive rants, fed him, clothed him, loved him. The police were saying what a dramatic change had happened to Micheal. He is no longer aggressive, hes trying to change old habits, he hasn't stole for months, he is changing.
Micheal has been changing. He has had lots of prayer over his life.
The police chief then said a significant thing.
"I think this is the only place he feels safe. The only place where people give him the time of day "
I thought yeah.
Sanctuary.
I visualised Samuel 22: 3.
My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Sanctuary isn't just a building.
Sanctuary is God himself.
Sanctuary is God in us.
We can be living sanctuary's.
If we ourselves cling to the only safe place there will ever be.
God.
If we cling to the rock, others will see God in us.
They will sense God in us.
They will experience God through Jesus in us.
I guess if we aren't finding refuge in God then we are guaranteed to be insecure.
Heres the thing.
The world definately doesn't need an insecure Church.
The Micheals of this world need a rock to cling to.
A sanctuary.
So I guess all that is left to say is lets make sure we are clinging to the rock of our salvation.
Lets make sure we can say with absolute certainty
My God is my rock.
My sanctuary.
