I read this book one time called Holy Discontent and in the book the author wrote about pursuing things that break our hearts. Things that keep us up at night. Things that we honestly can't go another day knowing these situations are taking place. He said those are the things we should passionately pursue.
This is something that does just that for me. It's not a topic like human trafficking, or starving children, or domestic abuse, but it's a topic that keeps us from reaching our full potential.
Division.
Division is something that I have seen time in and time out disrupt God's work and ultimately steal HIS glory. We have to stop this my friends. I'm talking about the division of the Christian faith. We can't let division keep us from furthering His kingdom and leading more people to Christ.
There's church bashing. Denomination bashing. Ministry bashing. Christians bashing other Christians. Homeless bashing. Preacher bashing. Non-profit bashing.
This division among the church is NOT what God intended when he commanded us to be fishers of men or in Matthew 9:37 when he said, "the harvest is plenty, but the workers are few." We can't get the workers if we keep putting our own selfish desires before the will of God.
I don't know what God's will is all the time, but I do know it's not for me to create division amongst His children. We are all children of God and He loves us more than we can ever imagine. He pours out grace on us and He wants to see us live a life of fulfillment. He's called us to become more like His Son Jesus who was perfect and blameless on this earth. However, He knows we are human and unlike Christ we will fall to sin in this world. He loves us anyway. He loves us right where we are.
A study I did a few years ago in my women's group talked about "whose team are you on?" Well we're all on God's team. Let's root each other on. Let's cheer loudly for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are trying to pursue Jesus and pursue things that are God's will in their lives.
We ARE the team and this is the MOST important team we will ever be on in this lifetime. Teamwork is essential to bringing more people to Christ, but a team can't function when the players are fighting, arguing, blaming, cursing, and hating on one another. This makes me think of a story a friend recently shared with me.
My dear friend, let's call her Kat, was pumping gas a few weeks ago when an older gentleman said he noticed her t-shirt. She was wearing a Prayer Experience tee which is from an event our church hosts each year at all 3 campuses where you can freely come and pray over all the different areas of the church. So back to Kat. She thought to herself this would be a good conversation. . . Well, he told her, "do me a favor and read Leviticus 18 & 19." Pretty well versed in scripture, she already knew exactly what he just said to her and instantly he took her from what could have been a mountain top experience chatting with a gentleman about prayer and the Bible and he plunged her head first into a valley.
See Kat has 13 tattoos. She's an absolutely beautifully person, inside and out. She's become one of my favorite people because she's an awesome, Godly woman who is real and unafraid of what people think about her. BUT, that evening she was defeated. That gentleman let the devil use him and not The Lord. See I don't believe that Leviticus is talking about the tattoos that Christians get today. As any verse in the Bible you have to read it in context. But anyway, that's a whole different blog.
Regardless of the verse, Kat was angered because she thought what if she wasn't secure in her faith, or what if she was a new believer and now this gentleman has made her feel ashamed. IF, and that's a BIG IF, tattoos are sinful, what makes a tattoo any worse than a lie? Or any worse than judging? Or any worse than stealing? Or any worse than murder? See these are all the same in God's eyes and God doesn't put a weight or value on sin like humans do.
In a short 2 minute encounter this gentleman created division. When Kat shared this story my heart continued to break for the Christian church.
My fellow Christians, we are not perfect. We all make mistakes. Jesus was perfect so we don't have to be. That's the beauty of following Christ. This is not to say we defend poor judgement or bad behavior, but it's a total freeing experience to know and understand we don't have to be perfect.
Stop expecting others and other's churches to be perfect. We are all humans and humans are messy.
Stop creating the division for the sake of souls. People's salvation is depending on us. Let's band together. Really band together. Let's pledge to be of Christ and not of this world. This world is a cruel and ugly place. I am not of this world and neither are you. I love you. I really do. I love you with all your faults and hang ups because my faults and hang ups are the worst. I am writing this from an honest, real, and good place in my heart. I am pleading with you to stop bashing your fellow Christians, fellow churches, and fellow ministries. We are all here to know Christ and make Him known. We are not here to put on a facade and try to convince people that we're perfect or that we are any better than the murderer, adulterer, or prostitute.
