2 Churches

-
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:16–23 (NRSV)
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. 18 Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

*Meditation:
            One thing that frustrates me about the Christian Church as a whole is that it seems at times that there are two churches at war with each other. On the one side we have the gospel of personal salvation folks who act like when a believer accepts Jesus as their personal savior that they have somehow finished their work with that person. Not realizing that the scriptures teach that coming to faith is the starting point for our Christian walk not the end of it.
While the other church pretends that salvation is not that important as long as one does good works one will end up on God’s good side. It is just as futile to walk the Roman road with someone to leave them stranded at the end and say you are on your own as it is to open a lemonade stand at the end and offer no further direction. No wonder the church has lost her power in the world.
You cannot have a gospel of political peace without the Prince of Peace or a gospel of bread for the world without the Bread of Life. Nor can you lead people from a life of sin without showing them a world of sinners in need of salvation. You can’t show people the Prince of Peace without showing them how that Prince can heal an often broken and divided church. Giving people the Bread of Life without giving them bread for their bodies is the worst kind of spiritual malpractice. Jesus would reconcile us not only to God but to each other.
It is the truth that God is love. In God’s wisdom that love runs both vertically between God and humans, and horizontally from human to human. Any gospel that preaches less than that is only half a gospel. Let’s work to reunite the church. And being of one mind let us love all people with a love that deserves to be called “Christian”.

Prayer:
Lord unite us in your love. Make us one as you Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. Keep our eyes on what brings glory to your kingdom. Give us hands and feet to go and serve the world that your kingdom may both grow and be changed into a place that can be recognized as “God’s Kingdom on Earth.”


*The author acknowledges the book “Abusing Scripture” by Manfred T. Baruch for some of the word pictures used in this blog post. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcoming the Unwelcome

-
  Scripture: Luke 7:36-38 (NIV) 36  When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37  A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38  As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them. Devotion:             First of all, some warnings to my readers. This post will exceed the 500 words I try to limit my posts. Second, this post will contain content people may find offensive or otherwise unfit for print. Please understand that my purpose is neither to offend nor upset but to provoke thought and, hopefully, respectful dialog.             We will use Luke chapter seven as an aid to interpreting the events that occurred last Thursday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. On that da
Read more

Father Forgive Them

-
  Scripture: Luke 23:33-34 (ESV) 33  And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34  And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Devotion:             The situation Jesus finds himself in here in today’s scripture is difficult for us to even imagine. A sham trial, no credible accusations of any kind, let alone any deserving of death, and yet here he is. A brilliant Rabbi, a teacher of the people who never led even one person astray from God’s will. This Holy One of God soon to be food for vultures.             This man who had done nothing wrong had no one in all the crowds who would speak up in his defense lest they be next to face the cross. An innocent man hung between two scoundrels. No voice from heaven declaring that this was the man that they were killing was actually the true Son of God. (See Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5, John 12:28) No the heaven
Read more

Transgenderism letter

-
  This is a copy of my letter to my senators, representative, and President Biden. January 15, 2024 Dear President Biden, Senators T. Duckworth, R. Durbin, and Representative D. LaHood             I am writing to you because I am concerned about the situation affecting our children and grandchildren, namely transitioning them from one gender to another. This nation must adjust course concerning these “interventions” because they are dangerous, irreversible, and life-changing. Our country should not be permitting these procedures on minor children under any circumstances. We must also make sure that adults who seek this care are given informed consent as to the risks versus benefits of sex reassignment treatments.             There are many drawbacks to gender-affirming care for minors. Besides the loss of any ability to give or receive sexual pleasure and sterility these treatments cause, there are social and psychological effects that we have no way of identifying because these
Read more