>Once upon a time there was a porn starlet who was well-know and quite famous for the few years she "acted" but, no, I will not name her for sake of those who might be triggered. Then, God intervened and put enmity between her and people in the industry, so she called it quits. She decided she had always wanted to be an operating theatre nurse, and so studied hard, and got lots of experience and was on her way to a new life. And then, one day, a operating room technician recognised her, and the chattering teeth of the hospital staff made sure everyone knew about her past life and began lasciviously hitting on her, treating her like horsesh!t, and regarding her as "unclean". Eventually, no one at the hospital would sign-off on recognising her training and she couldn't be a surgical nurse. So, she quit that, and went to school to learn the criminal justice trade, as well as make-up academy, but she couldn't get a job. No one would hire her because they, presumably, also knew who she was.
>And now the real kicker: she got married and went to church with her new husband and his teen kids, and yet while the floor didn't open-up and consume her with flames, she always felt fearful someone there would recognise her, if they didn't already, and the hospital rumour ring would happen all over again.
>So, she returned to porn.
This story makes me very sad.
While it is quite clear to me that despite her church attendance she's not a Christian – because she apparently thought nothing of returning to a vile industry – I cannot help wondering whether years more in a church might not have brought her to Christ.
Yes, yes, I know God is sovereign and no sparrow dies without the Lord's will, so I know this is her path the Lord has put her on, but it got me thinking about how we treat people who are coming to our churches at least trying … maybe not to be Christians because they don't believe yet, but are trying to live apart from their old sinful ways, are trying to build a new life for themselves, and yet their past is always catching up to them, their past will not let them escape it.
For a people who believe fervently in renewal, ought we not applaud such people, encourage them to press on, particularly making sure they understand Christ alone can renew lives? Does not even Christ say in Revelations 2:21 that He gave her time to repent? I don't know what happened at her church, but her situation is not the point, I just thought it would be sad if churchfolk did begin a whispering campaign behind her back, just as hospital staff and employers did.
So, I guess my question is this: what does /christian/ think? Should sinners be mostly free from their sins even if they haven't repented yet?
Sidebar: It also made me think we should return to the two-tier church services of the earliest brethren, one for "seekers" though I hate that term and one for actual believing members of Christ's Church willing to be bound by the Ekklesia. And I know the apostolic YES! churches at least have remnants of that in that communion is off-limits for some, but I mean an actual two separate services. That's how they used to do it. One would immediately follow the other, but still.
<mods READ what I'm trying to do here before offhandedly deleting shit