Divide and conquer. It's the oldest trick in the book. Adam blamed Eve and the division began, it was part of the fall. Today we have left vs right, husbands vs wives, parents vs kids, gays vs straights, and churches vs churches. If we are divided we will fall...........it's a basic principle of human existence and it's been true since the fall.
President Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying "together we stand, divided we fall". I'm sure someone said it before him, but hey that guy wasn't Lincoln so the credit goes where it goes. But wait a minute.............doesn't the Bible say something along those same lines?
Let's see, 1st Corinthians chapter 1, verses 10 through 13. Since your probably not going to go read that right at this moment, let me share it with you.
10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and [that] there be no divisions among you; but [that] ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them [which are of the house] of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
OK, so I guess it does. And for good reason too. It is soooo important. This has really been on my mind for oh the past like 5 months. When I walked out of the store that day, looked at the mountains and said something like "yeah, OK, you are real, and you won't leave me alone for some strange reason, you've blessed me beyond what I deserve and I want to give back to you, please show me the way" Then late that day I thought about what I had just said to God and remembered all the reasons I hated church and christians............I had to make myself a promise.........."PEOPLE WILL NOT STOP ME FROM DOING THIS!". This aint' about who anymore, I let it be for so many years, it's about God and just giving it all to him because of what all he has given for me.
So back to the united part. I'm a little bit on the angry side today and it led me to write this, (you know, channell your anger type of thing)...........it may or may not make any sense to anyone that reads it, but it sure is calming me down.
You see the world watches Christians.........better yet Christians watch Christians...........and what they see is a bunch of buildings on every street corner in America. They think the big ones are the ones that are doing something right. The small ones, well they must be poor or old fashioned cuz they never grew up. The old ones......well must be a family church but I bet the acoustics are amazing. And that's just what the Christians all think. The world just looks at it like a place to avoid especially on Sunday mornings.
Then there's the people that go to those church buildings. The big ones have the nicer cars in the parking lots so there's money there. The small ones usually has a big ole Cadillac in the parking lot, must be the old time preacher. The old ones, the cars are all dirty and there's only a few, but that's OK cuz they all know each other anyways. The world doesnt really see any of those cars cuz they stay away........especially on Sunday mornings.
My point here is this: we judge, we divide, we assume, we gossip, we divide, we don't support, and eventually we will fail. Actually we are already failing. It's kind of hard to convince someone that Jesus loves them when we don't love each other. How are we supposed to be the light if we keep our light hidden under our very own roof and never let it shine anywhere else.
Why does a brother judge a brother? Why can't one church promote a special event or happening at another church. Why don't we ever come together to support each other. Why do we gossip about what's going on at the other church? We are a divided body. Some of us are following Paul, some Apollos, and others Cephas, when we ouhgta be following Jesus.
Well their music is too loud, or their preacher is too boring, or their kid ministry is too lame. OK, those are great reasons to be or not to be a "regular" attendee at a particular church. But that is NOT a reason to not support that church, or to take it a step further and discourage the support of that church.
We all have different tastes and likes and that is a positive reason for having options when it comes to going to church BUT, we are all part of the same body of Christ.
If we can't all stand together, we sure can all fall together. If we are so afraid of members going to another church for a visit and then never coming back, we might want to look in the mirror and see why they'd want to leave in the first place, cuz I promise you, no Christmas program is that good. If we decide that we are following God's plan for our church and a member decides to leave, then maybe that person's plan from God wasn't the same as our churches plans. It doesn't make one right and one wrong, it doesn't mean that we "lost" anyone. It should mean that God's plan is being followed by all parties and in that we support and love each other. It should mean that we have now extended our ministry of our church beyond our own doors and God's will is being done because of it.
I found a church that made me feel welcome like a lifetime member after only being there a couple of times. I sensed the love, I felt the fire for God, and the judgement part that typically comes with a church environment seems to be missing. Oh, it's not perfect, and I'm sure things will pop up, but if I keep my eyes on the leader (not the pastor, but God) then those things will roll away like water under a bridge. That doesn't mean I won't visit other churches, or support other churches. The work I do allows me to be blessed by serving with other ministries and churches, and I love that. I wish some of these places had services or events on weird days like Mondays, or Saturday mornings so I could go back and be part of them more often. (that's a subject for another blog........)
Eliminating divisions among God's people is a burning fire deep inside me. I have seen these divisions keep some people that I truly love away from church altogether, and unfortunately because in America we so associate church attendance with God following, these people also turn away from even trying to follow God. The truth is there is NOT a single church in the world that will get you to God. If they say they are you best run away.............fast. And the other truth is you don't need church to be a child of God. You don't need church to get to heaven. You don't really need church for anything. It is nice to have a place to go that supports you in your work efforts for Jesus. It is nice to have a place to go to and be around like minded people. It is nice to have a place to go and be taught about God's word and to discuss it. But these things are benefits of being a "Christian", they are not requirements to being one of Gods children. And if we are a part of one group of folks for a long period of time, without expanding those boundaries, then we have become isolated.............it's pretty dern hard to "go into the world" when your stuck in isolation.
So I urge you to support one another. Pray for each other, show up at a different church once and awhile and hug a person or two, let your congregation know about the happenings at other congregations, love one another. Paul said that he "beseeches" in "the name of our lord Jesus Christ that there be no divisions among you". Think about that..........he declared something in Jesus' name. Ya think he was serious there? I do. I think he saw then what we see now. Trust me when I say your church is nothing more than a building, and if you think for one moment you have any more importance than that, then you've missed the boat. God doesn't need you (but he does want you). God doesnt care how big, small, or great sounding your church is. God doesn't care what church you go to. God doesn't move in some churches and not others, he moves when people allow him to move within themselves. I hope you allow God to move within you, and in doing so you just stop this church game. Love one another, support one another, the world (and Christians) are watching you.
Finally, if you read this and your thinking..........."yep, that's why I stay away from church". Well first off, let me tell ya, churches are made up of people, and people are people.........we all do some pretty dumb stuff while thinking we got it all figured out. If you let people be the reason that you don't go to church, I'm ok with that. People can be very hurtful, prideful, arrogant, rude, obnoxious, and all those other things that just bug ya. But if you let people be the reason you don't believe in God, or dont' follow God, then let me beg of you to reconsider. God loves you (and us crazy christians too) despite ourselves. He wants to change you, he wants to be real in your life, he wants to bring people into your life that have a real love of God in them, even if they ain't perfect. He wants to love you just the way you are with all of your imperfections. See that's why Christians aren't perfect, cuz God loves us just the way we are, he doesn't wait on us to get our act together to welcome us home, he welcomes us home and then quietly helps us get our act together. The forgiveness is there, we just have to accept it. If you'd like to accept it or even just chat about it, email me or leave a comment.
I have a burning desire to be used by God to bring Christians together, I'm not a prophet but I think the time is coming when churches will be persecuted to the point of most of them going away.....but even if I'm wrong, I still want to see us join together for the good of God, in this the world will know that we are God's people.
Love one another................
dP
