LIVING ROOM’S OPEN DOOR

I believe that Living Room’s Open Door is not about religion, regardless of what our beliefs might be or not be. It’s simply about Jesus and his immeasurable love for ALL of us—for people of all faiths or for people of no faith at all. It is about a love that will be healing if we place our trust in him.

It’s about looking to Jesus and his unconditional love for us and using him as an example for how we should live. All of us at the Open Door are each other’s brothers and sisters in that we all suffer from mental health conditions and have a need for the kind of love offered by Jesus and his Spirit.

There is one basic truth about Jesus that I want to stress and it is something that cannot be denied. I have learned from my own experience and from what I have witnessed in others, that trusting Christ and the immense love he has for us, will help bring healing to our mental and emotional struggles.

Religion is in many ways manmade as a way of worshiping the Higher Beings that different cultures believe in. For that reason, Open Door is not about religion. There’s one thing that we should all be able to come together on. And that is the truth about the man called Jesus who lived 2000 years ago—who he was and what he said. (How much better the world would be if all were to take to heart the things he taught!)

As a ministry that focuses on Jesus, Living Room’s Open Door should be free-standing—not governed or policed by religion or religious institutions. It should be about Jesus alone with obedience to him and his ways.

Most groups will want to follow the faith tradition of the facilitator, and that’s a good thing. Faith traditions are an important part of our culture—near and dear to us. But at the Open Door, looking to Jesus and his unconditional love as its foundation will always be the model to follow when we look for the healing of our battles with mental and emotional pain.

Groups that form should not be closed, but open to all who come with a need to be addressed. They should truly be an “open door” for all.

The above was guided by nineteen years of experience giving spiritual support in group situations, in one-on-one work, as well as in the writing that Christ’s Spirit has led me to do.

marja