Differences…

There are so many divisions in our world today. Between people and countries and religions, and even those can be broken down into many categories which I really don’t want to address here. We divide our churches and our schools by popularity and wealth and we divide the towns and cities that we live in along those same lines as well. Then there are the racial and cultural divisions and a host of other problems which follow those lines. What is the reason for all of the divisive feelings and issues which crops up along all of these lines? Who or what started it?

The answer can be found in Genesis. Satan came along and divided the first couple from their idea of Who God is and what their portion should be in the world. Once that was done, it broke the relationship between Creator and creation and from that point on there has been a dividing line in every area of life on Earth. Why?

The reason for the divisions between religions and people and all of the other areas in life is specifically to keep us from unity. Unity of mind and purpose as well as between cultures, but especially keeping us from being united in our fellowship of believers and in worship of God. Think about all of the denominations which were created simply because one group in a church didn’t agree on the way to worship or how.

Divisions between cultures and individuals caused many problems for Jesus and His disciples as well as the problems which we see today. The message that He was teaching was not popular and today, He would be put out of the church because of the hard teaching which He said in His day. What happens when these things happen to your family, whether it is your family or the church family that you belong to?

The dividing lines are sometimes easy to see and sometimes they are invisible, until you see it happening in your life and in your church. Why do we allow these divisions to happen when we are supposed to be united in Christ? The reason? Because we are human and we don’t consider the One that we serve or should serve! Our lives are taken up in minutes and seconds every day and we let little things creep in and steal what little time that we have to give to each other and to God.

Today, I went to see a movie about an American hero, Chris Kyle, and I just finished reading his memoir too. He was an incredible human being, but most of all, he was genuine and totally committed to everything that he did. As his wife said in part of the book, “when he loved you, he jumped in with both feet”. That is how we are supposed to love each other and Jesus as well!

Think about it this way: God cares about us all and He jumped in with both arms and His feet when He went to the cross to redeem us! He didn’t consider it below Him to bring us into a true relationship with Him, that is just what Jesus did..He was all in when He loved us and showed it by going to the cross for us so that we could be redeemed by His blood.

There isn’t supposed to be any half-way Christians because being half-way doesn’t count. You either are or you’re not…you are either all in with both feet or you turn away and say “Let someone else do it, not me.”

Christians are not supposed to be trying to walk a thin line between being a sinner or a Christian and truthfully it can’t be done! It is simple…you either are or you’re not. Yes, I am repeating myself, but the point is important and it is so simple even a child can understand it. Consider your soul and your eternal home while you have time. Chris didn’t know that his time was up that day, and we don’t know when our time will be up either.