PUB
LISH
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note
Than I am [anything] …
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray
also for those who will believe in me
through their message, that 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. I have given them the glory that you
gave me, that they may be one as we are
one— I in them and you in me—so that they
may be brought to complete unity. Then the
world will know that you sent me and have
loved them even as you have loved me.
John 17:20-23 NIV
Troubled Times
Black Lives Matter vs All Lives Matter,
Liberal or Conservative, Democrat vs
Republican, Kneel or Stand, Tougher Gun
Laws… Less Gun Laws, Fox or CNN, MJ
or Kobe or LeBron—choose, choose,
choose, and choose OUT-LOUD… RIGHT
NOW! Let your choice be known —
(enters) Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube.
We have become a people thirsty to choose
and to have what we have chosen heard. I
do not know if we have ever seen a day
where the demand to amplify choices have
been so prevalent. As a result, we are
experiencing an unprecedented season of
division. We are in trouble, and I'm afraid
that we don’t even know it.
By we, I mean the Church… the Body of
Christ… the Believer.
10 Inspire. Encourage. Challenge.
I want to preface what I will say next with this; there is
absolutely nothing flagrant about choosing... However, it
is what we choose outside of Christian rectitude that
threatens the integrity of the whole. In other words, no
matter what side of the debate-fence I am on, regardless
what I have declared to be right or wrong as it pertains to
the issues of today, it’s imperative that my stance be
influenced only by who I am, rather than what I am.
I want to remind you that the Believer, has but one true
opponent. Only one who is worthy of passionate beauty
salon soliloquies and social media rants. Only ONE truly
deserving to have the proverbial line drawn in the sand.
The one is Satan… He is our adversary, he alone is the
enemy.
Satan is a master diversionist. He has successfully
onto
diverted our attention away from
the issues. How? Summed up in a phrase—
. The Church, in this season, has
placed more value on what we are as individuals,
than who we are as a whole.
In today’s culture, it is far more noteworthy to stand up
because you are a Black Man or a White Man, than it is
to stand-out as a Godly Man. It is far more admirable to
declare, “I am a Republican or a Democrat” than it is to
proclaim, “I am SAVED BY GRACE”.
We are in the midst of a war, and it is strange, to say the
least, to gaze upon a battle where soldiers on both sides
have coats of identical colors. Brother vs Brother, Sister
vs Sister, Believer vs Believer! I am blown away that we
have fallen for this, that we are not the wiser. Have we
forgotten, have we not heard—a house divided against
itself cannot stand? Or is the expectation to be united
with another people? No. The heart of God is for us to
find our identity in Him and thus have our passions, our
convictions, and what we choose as our beliefs to be
aligned so that we may be ONE. One, because the
mission… our mission, revealing the Love and Person of
Jesus Christ to the world cannot be accomplished any
other way.