Unity In Diversity

Don't lose your head over it all!!



Romans 12:4-5 " For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members of one another"

During this election season the one thing I see very clearly is that we as a nation do not always see things so clearly! Some groups are passionate about some issues and others about a whole different set of issues. Some see morality and the value of human life as being the most important issues. Others see the economy and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan as being of the utmost importance. Who is right? Or are all the issues important? We are a nation divided in so many ways. Blue and red, left and right.

I wish that things in the church were better but that is not the case. And just like the political arena , we as Christians are grappling with the idea of unity. The desire of our hearts is that the whole world would see things the way we do. But, is that reasonable? We all cry out for unity, we attend "all church gatherings", and proclaim from pulpit to pew that we are all one body. In the words of Rodney King," Ca, Can, Can't we all just get along?" Isn't that what God wants? Doesn't the word say in Ephesians 4:3-6 that we should be "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."? In Psalm 133 we are told " Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore."

The question is how and where do we draw the line? Do we have unity at the expense of truth? Do we sacrifice unity at the expense of holiness or righteousness? Do we lose the focus of God's grace and not fight legalism so that we can have "unity"? I think that in the three above mentioned passages is a real key to understanding God's heart and how we can reconcile these seeming contradictory issues. In each passage of scripture the way that unity is pictured is by the "body" adhering to the "head". In the scriptures there seems to be this idea that unity is a natural consequence of getting directions from the head, which is Christ.

In Romans 12 as you follow the flow of the whole chapter, the apostle Paul is talking about proving, by being a living sacrifice, what is the will of God. Dealing with first things first, how do we be a living sacrifice? Romans 12;1 " Present your bodies... which is your reasonable service". How do we do this? We do this by resisting conformity to the world and embracing the transforming work that God wants to do in our minds. What does the world think? The world thinks that life is all about self. In contrast, God's desire is that we would "lose ourselves" and "consider one another more highly than ourselves". We need to see ourselves as only a part of something much larger than ourselves. We are a part of something that God describes as being like a body. Each of us has a function that is for the health and strength of the whole body. We each have something that we bring to the table of God's bounty. Those things have been given as gifts, for us to offer back, to the good of the entire body. Those gifts are given by the Holy Spirit. The head or mind of the body is the Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is like the nervous system. All the will of Jesus is communicated to the body through the Holy Spirit. As each member obeys the will of the mind (Jesus), by the Spirit, we begin to act as one body. We then become a reflection of the one who give life and animation to the body. But we only act as one body as we do our part and our part only. Division within the body comes when one part of the body begins to reject their role in the body.That part of the body may try to make itself distinct from the rest of the body and separate itself. Or part of the body may begin to assume the role of another. This spasmodic, epileptic action causes the whole body to function improperly. And this can be one of the problems that we see in the church on a local and a global scale. In this analogy of the body there is something else that can happen. One part of the body can see the spasms the body and seek to remedy the situation by trying to beat or restrain that part of the body into submission. In other words we can see what is wrong in part of the church and begin to try and control the spasms by attacking that part. We think that legalistic rules, scathing public rebukes, and systems that we set up to prevent that from happening will somehow fix the problem. But this can further agitate the issue in so many ways. Like a claustrophobic trying to escape a confined space that part of the body begins to react even more. They are now in what is perceived as a fight for the validity of their existence as a part of the body.

So what should we do with the spasmodic parts? To just let them continue to spasm creates disharmony and to attack or suppress them causes only more violent reactions. We need to first understand what our role is to play. Don't abandon your role to devote yourself to trying to fix that part of the body. Second talk to the head of the body. Pray!! Pray!! Pray!! Now wait to see what Jesus would have you to do. If He wants to use you He will tell you. If He tells you that He wants to use you, He will also tell you how. In any case the remedy is to get the spasmodic part of the body to listen to Jesus and respond to the Spirit. Our best encouragement is not always in the confronting the issues ,which can be just symptoms of a larger problem, but in going to the root of the problem. The root is, how do we get them to connect with the head? If they begin to listen to the head again they will act in harmony with the rest of the body. Well, like a manual for the body, God has given us a record of His will in His word, by His Spirit. To expose how one part of the body is not listening to Jesus we need to be able to share with them what listening to Jesus looks like. He has given us that information in His word. To that end, Ephesians 4 gives us further insight. Jesus rose from the dead and gave gifts to the church. What are those gifts? The gifts that he gave were the leadership of the church. He gave some "apostles, some prophets; some evangelists; some pastors and teachers;" (Eph 4:11) Why did He give these men as gifts to the church? The scriptures go on to say that he gave these gifts for this purpose: " For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things which is the head, even Christ." (Eph 4:12-15) The shortened version of this passage is that God gave church leadership to keep people connected the head of the body. The leadership God provided is supposed to do this by equipping believers with the truth from God's word, and encouraging them to have a mature relationship with Jesus. If the body has those things verse 16 tells what will happen next. If we are connected to the head "from whom the whole body fitly joined together," then we will be "compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part." This will in turn make "the increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." In summary of this entire passage in Ephesians 4, Jesus as the head directs the body, and he directs the body through the word and those He has gifted to the body in leadership. Unity is born in submission to the head. If we all get our orders from Jesus we have unity.

What do we do when there are two different orders for two different parts of the body?
#1: We ask are both scripturally valid?
If they are then
#2: We can ask are both parties submitted to the authority of Jesus and His headship and the leadership structure that He has appointed?
If there is no seed of rebellion in either party we proceed to
#3: Then we can give the freedom to both parties to function as God has called them to.
There can be unity with diversity.

Psalms 133 describes this for us in picture "how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." This unity starts when the oil of God's Spirit falls onto the body from the head down. We cannot have unity at the expense of truth. Ephesians 4 tells us that unity should come from "speaking the truth in Love." To the degree that we are willing to let the Holy Spirit direct us will be the degree to which we will live in harmony and unity. So this begs the question, will there ever be unity? All we can do is, our part, to obey. The only lasting unity we will experience that can't be wrecked by the weakness of humanity, will be under the new leadership of Jesus in the new city made without hands, the new Jerusalem. Looking forward to that day!!

A Word On Wisdom

James 3:13-16 "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your heart, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work"



What a powerful scripture for me today! The scriptures tell us that knowledge has is like a double edged sword. While knowledge is good and is a gift from God ( Prov 2:6). The bible also warns that to have knowledge can also cause us to become proud and arrogant (1 cor 8:1) We are not to reject knowledge because a lack of knowledge or to reject knowledge is to is to bring God's judgment upon yourself (Hos 4:6).

Doesn't this all sound so contradictory? I think James helps us to sort this all out. God wants us to have and increase in knowledge but how we hold this knowledge will determine the fruit of it in our lives. With knowledge comes great power. We have power to bring life or to hasten death. We can set people free or use that same knowledge to condemn. God tells us to use our knowledge with "meekness". I looked up the phrase "meekness of wisdom" in the Strong's and the word picture came to life for me. Meek wisdom is wisdom that restrains the right to pounce on someone because you are right. It uses knowledge with a sensitivity to those ways in which love can be best expressed and truth can ultimately set free. Right knowledge has all the strength of a giant elephant at a circus. If the elephant should choose to, he could pick the trainer up by his twiggy little neck and toss him like a rag doll across the ring. But all that power is being controlled. If I feel the need to overpower someone else with my knowledge I violate the law of love and my wisdom is inconsistent with the heart of God.

What a good reminder for me as a Dad!!!

Examining Our Excuses

Prov 22:13 The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets!

Our command from the Lord is to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15). Often we neglect to actively share our faith though. And when looking for excuses it's not to share, it becomes really easy to put it off till another day. So stop "lion" (LOL get it lion like"Lying") to yourself and get going. What are our reasons? Here are eight I think everyone has used at least once!!

O-live This Promise!

Psa 128:1-6 Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.
The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.

I have just been reminded lately of the simplicity of God's design for the family. Last night Kristal and I got a phone call from a family in great distress. There are so many issues that from the outside the situation seems overwhelming. To sort through each individual hurt is a task that would be too burdensome for anyone to do. The question is not so much,"How did we get to where we are?", but,"Now that we are here what do we do now?" I believe countless hours of counseling are wasted in trying to sort through things that have already taken place and yet we have no ability to go back in time and undo those things. If you and I will begin from this moment to live like Paul and "forget those things that are behind", then we can start from right now to experience the joys of victory.

So, where do we start? According to Psalm 128:1 we start at the fear of the Lord. Why? because you will eat from the crop that you plant. You will either sow to the flesh and reap corruption or sow to the Spirit and reap life. If you live a life satisfied in the Lord and have the genuine joy of the Lord coming from that life of abiding in Him, God guarantees that you will see the effects in your marriage and children. Nothing is "hotter" to a husband or wife than a satisfied and genuinely joyful soul. Nothing inspires kids to want to be with their parents like having a house filled with joy. Wives clinging to their husbands like vines to a house and kids solid and kids growing and bearing fruit. This is God's design for the family. The easiest way to have the family God wants for us to have is to spend time at His feet. If He is lifted up in our lives He will draw all husbands and wives, and kids unto Him. I wonder if all the issues of marriage can be traced back to this as the root issue? The healing begins with coming to Jesus! That's the way it was in the gospels and nothing has changed in the 2000 plus years since. What do you think?

The comfort of His Jealousy

This morning I read a devotional by Spurgeon in the "morning and evening devotional". How strange it is to think of the vehement passion of God to guard our heart from everything that would leave us less satisfied than Him. He is a jealous God but not for His own needs. He is jealous for ours! Selfless jealousy? Seems like a contradiction, but doesn't love require that you want the very best for the object of your love? What do you think?

"God is jealous." —Nahum 1:2

Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that He would not stop in heaven without you; He would sooner die than you should perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you. When we lean upon Him, He is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend—worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, He is displeased, and will chasten us that He may bring us to Himself. He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in Him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with Him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. He would fain have us abide in Him, and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials which He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon Himself. Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that He will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies. Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!