Tag Archives: unity

The Keys To Presence Pt. 3

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

100_3019

We have been discussing four keys that unlock the presence of God in the church. So far we have discussed:

HOLINESS

AND PRAYER

Today we are moving on to discuss the third key which is UNITY.

Psalm 133 SAYS

1 How good and pleasant it is
    when God’s people live together in unity!

2 It is like precious oil poured on the head,
    running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
    down on the collar of his robe.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
    were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
    even life forevermore.

This thing called unity is like the anointing. The anointing brings the authority and according to verse three of this powerful little psalm it brings the blessing of God. Unity is needed in the body in order to walk in the anointing, blessing and presence of God. In short the church MUST HAVE UNITY IN ORDER TO BE EFFECTIVE!

So what is unity?

Well the adverb used in verse one is “Yachad”. It means together. It means united.

The verse could be translated “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people stand together.”

Unity does not require perfect agreement. It requires a common cause. I may not see eye to eye with everyone in the church all the time but when we get together on Sunday mornings to worship God all our differences go out the window so that I can focus on the One I came to worship with my brothers and sisters. I can push all my disagreement aside because worship is not about me or them. It is about God.

One of Satan’s biggest weapons is in making us think that we can  only be united with people who think just like we do. If we really think that way we might as well stop going to church altogether.

Unity comes at a price. That price is to stop thinking your ideas of the way the world works are the best ones and that only people who think exactly like you can be part of your club.

While that is true unity does require a solid foundation and that foundation is Christ and Him crucified, risen from the dead, coming to reign in eternal power and glory. That frankly should be enough ground for us to stand together and see the power of God ushered into our midst powerfully. Requiring anything else is just pride.

Listen, I am not saying that we cannot disagree. Every family has its disagreements but at the end of the day family puts its disagreements aside to work towards a common goal. That goal in our case is building the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father. Once we stand together to accomplish that, the presence of God will not be able to be held back.

All Our Little Boxes

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

I was reading one of J.S. Park’s blogs over at  J.S. Park Blog and when I commented, he suggested I expand on the thought  in a blog of my own.

I mentioned in my comment that , “It is one of the great mysteries of grace that God will allow us to keep our boxes if we insist on them. He will even visit our boxes because He loves the people who hold them. But He will never live in our boxes because they are too small to contain Him.”

When I talk about boxes I am not talking about issues of orthodoxy or righteousness. All Christians are called to adhere to the fundamentals of the Christian faith :

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.- The Nicene Creed

Further sin as sin is defined in the Bible. We don’t get to change the Word of God for the convenience of our culture, our family or our own popularity.

That said, there is a lot of space within this boat called Christianity and a lot of diversity. Each of us has our favorite version of Christianity, our own box, that describes how we are going to practice our orthodoxy and biblical obedience. I talk in tongues and worship to guitars. You play the pipe organ and insist all the women in your service cover their heads and wear dresses. You have sacraments. I have ordinances. You practice congregational leadership. I espouse an ecclesiastical model. You’re a house movement Christian. I am a firm believer in the organized church. Boxes galore folks!

You know, I don’t think God is as freaked out about all the different forms of Christianity in the world as we are. I think He visits people and churches in the ways they find comfortable not because their way is the best way or the perfect way but simply because He loves them and wants to be close to them, even if all their earthly brothers and sisters think they are a little whacky or a little stuffy.

But dear brothers and sisters let’s not pretend that because God visits our box on a regular basis, that makes our box better than all the others. God is bigger than all our boxes put together and trying to contain Him in your box and declaring He can’t move outside of it is a sure way to get the walls of your box  blown up and  thrown in the Holy Ghost trash heap.

You may think your box has it all over on mine. You are probably even able to point out all the flaws in my box and give a hundred reasons why people maybe shouldn’t visit it. Guess what. If I were so inclined I could find flaws in your box too and come up with just as many reasons why people shouldn’t visit yours. I’ll admit it, my box is flawed because it’s my box!  I am flawed! And your box is flawed because it’s your box and you are flawed.

In the end if God visits my flawed box and He also visits your flawed box maybe we ought to accept each other’s boxes like God does and figure out how to work together to get more people into the boat called Christianity. After all isn’t that what we are called to do?