The Answer To Leaving My Family
1. Work it out: (Matthew 18:15-20 NCV) ""If your fellow believer sins against you, go and tell him in private what he did wrong. If he listens to you, you have helped that person to be your brother or sister again. {16} But if he refuses to listen, go to him again and take one or two other people with you. 'Every case may be proved by two or three witnesses.' {17} If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him like a person who does not believe in God or like a tax collector. {18} "I tell you the truth, the things you don't allow on earth will be the things God does not allow. And the things you allow on earth will be the things that God allows. {19} "Also, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about something and pray for it, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. {20} This is true because if two or three people come together in my name, I am there with them.""
2. Love God first: (Mark 12:33 NCV) "One must love God with all his heart, all his mind, and all his strength."
3. Love others more than self: (Mark 12:33 NCV) "...And one must love his neighbor as he loves himself."
4. Understand that relationships are more important than worship: (Mark 12:33) "These commands are more important than all the animals and sacrifices we offer to God.""
These verses are words from God. All of faith that exists is a reaction to a word from God. We either believe it or not. Maybe you can think of other scriptures that show why I am so concerned for the hearts of my family who treat the family as if it were unimportant.
Jesus said (John 17:21 NCV) "Father, I pray that they can be one. As you are in me and I am in you, I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me." Before you beat me up over the fact that Christians can be one and still be in different buildings, I understand that statement, but consider in your area why those people meet in different places. I wonder how happy God is with our division.
I think it's time that Christ-followers everywhere unite. No, not necessarily in buildings, but in spirit. Will we ever be "The church at Florence" or "the church in Nashville" or fill in the blank with your city's name. That's how it existed in the New Testament. They were united in Jesus while meeting in all kinds of venues: homes, synagogues, marketplace, etc.
May God help us to be the "ONE" that Jesus prayed in some of His last utterances on this earth.
2. Love God first: (Mark 12:33 NCV) "One must love God with all his heart, all his mind, and all his strength."
3. Love others more than self: (Mark 12:33 NCV) "...And one must love his neighbor as he loves himself."
4. Understand that relationships are more important than worship: (Mark 12:33) "These commands are more important than all the animals and sacrifices we offer to God.""
These verses are words from God. All of faith that exists is a reaction to a word from God. We either believe it or not. Maybe you can think of other scriptures that show why I am so concerned for the hearts of my family who treat the family as if it were unimportant.
Jesus said (John 17:21 NCV) "Father, I pray that they can be one. As you are in me and I am in you, I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me." Before you beat me up over the fact that Christians can be one and still be in different buildings, I understand that statement, but consider in your area why those people meet in different places. I wonder how happy God is with our division.
I think it's time that Christ-followers everywhere unite. No, not necessarily in buildings, but in spirit. Will we ever be "The church at Florence" or "the church in Nashville" or fill in the blank with your city's name. That's how it existed in the New Testament. They were united in Jesus while meeting in all kinds of venues: homes, synagogues, marketplace, etc.
May God help us to be the "ONE" that Jesus prayed in some of His last utterances on this earth.
posted by Keith Davis at
10:38 AM
3 Comments:
Keith, I echo your sentiments about being united. Back when I attended the church where you now minister, there was talk of uniting with another coC here in Florence. It was a very exciting idea, at least to me. I couldn't see why anyone would object to it, but obviously there was quite a bit of objecting to it, enough to keep it from happening. People from both churches talked of being concerned that we would "lose our identity." To me, if we have an identity other than being united in Christ, we NEED to lose it! Anyway, I lost a lot of my idealism during that time. Guess you could say, the rose-colored glasses came off and I began to see the church as she really is - composed of immature and broken people who, for the most part, have no clue what unity in Him really means. I am sorry that you are going through a hard time right now. You and the church there will be in my prayers. If there is anything I can do for any of you, let me know! I still count the folks there as family in the best sense of the word!
By
Connie Lard, at 5:14 PM
Before we go any further with this blog on disunity, let me assure you that I am not in any "hard time." Creekside is indeed a great place to be right now.
I feel for you (Connie) when you say that you've lost your idealism. I pray that you can regain that again. I refuse to lose that idealism for which Jesus prayed--that is unity amongst His believers. Yes, I get discouraged. Yes, satan never stops the attack. Yes, people will continue to be who they are, including myself. But I will not give up on my Lord's passion for unity in Him. I refuse to give in to "religion" in the place of family.
You mentioned how you could help. We all can help by beginning right now to lift one another up in Jesus instead of tearing down. We can begin again to lift up the cause which is Jesus to the world. We can begin again to look toward the ideal and work for it one day at a time.
By
Keith Davis, at 7:21 PM
Maybe "lost my idealism" wasn't exactly what I meant. I do still meet with a wonderful group of Christians and try to be an encouragement to them, as well as try to hold Jesus up to the world in my every day life. What I guess I should have said is that I learned that there are a lot of things I simply have no control over, and I quit trying to control the behavior and attitudes of other people. The church is composed of very flawed human beings (including me) and if unity happens, it will be because God causes it to happen, not because of something I do. It really lifted a burden when I realized that.
By
Connie Lard, at 8:53 PM
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