10 I beg you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree with each other and not be split into groups. I beg that you be completely joined together by having the same kind of thinking and the same purpose. 11 My brothers and sisters, some people from Chloe's family have told me quite plainly that there are quarrels among you.12 This is what I mean: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another says, "I follow Apollos"; another says, "I follow Peter"; and another says, "I follow Christ."13 Christ has been divided up into different groups! Did Paul die on the cross for you? No! Were you baptized in the name of Paul? No!
1 Corinthians 1:10-13(NCV)
According to the World Christian Encyclopedia (2001), there are reported to be over 38,000 Christian denominations in the world. As you can see from that statistic since the church first began in the book of Acts, there has been a shift in its focus and we have allowed division to come in and separate us. It would be one thing if 38,000 different denominations united together to do the work of the Kingdom, but instead it has been “my denomination is better then yours”, “we are the only true church”, and on and on, we have done like the disciples did here in Luke 9:49(NLT)…
49 John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn’t in our group.”
But that did not please Jesus, look how He replies in verse 50…
50 But Jesus said, “Don’t stop him! Anyone who is not against you is for you.”
All of this division just shows that man has gotten in the way of God. We have created our own rituals and traditions in our churches, but are they Bible based or are they man founded? It is not God’s will for us to be divided; His will is for us to be ONE…
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one…20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:11, 20-23(NIV)
We all have roles to play being members of the body of Christ, but if we’re all divided and all of the different denominations are isolating themselves and moving in different directions, then the body of Christ is flopping around like a fish out of water. Remember "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25)
It’s time for us to stop analyzing everyone else’s denomination and start looking at where we are ourselves. Read the Book, hold up the Word against your church and see if they align, if they don’t, that doesn’t mean you start a revolution in the church or get yourself out of order. If you see something is not lining up then it’s time to start praying, pray for your church, pray for your leaders, and ask God what He desires you to do, if He wants you to stay and do something, or move on (if you move on don’t be bitter, continue to pray for that church because it is God’s will that we all walk in the truth, and ask God to lead you to a church home where He wants you to be).
It is time for us to be mature Christians, it’s time to take our blinders off. The blinders of tradition and religion, all those things that have been passed down from great granddaddy or great grandmamma. Just because they did things a certain way does not mean that it’s the right way. We are to follow what the Word says to do, not what man, tradition, religion, etc. says.
We are not saying this to knock anyone or any denomination because we are all one body, we are saying all of this because we feel the move of God, we know His hearts desire concerning His body and how He sees His children coming together. It doesn’t mean denominations will necessarily be brought down, it just means that we will all begin to work together, communicate, fellowship, etc as we are supposed to, AS ONE.
We pray this has been a blessing on your life.
Daryle and Tracy Houston
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
No comments:
Post a Comment