It seems in Christianity that we are more like cattle than sheep. We all follow the same trail without the question–’where is this leading me?’ I notice this as many debate the topic of gathering in church buildings or homes, whether we should speak the truth (no matter how offensive our attitude is) or be quiet, whether we should give up ‘our’ ministry on facebook or not. It all seems to come back to the same place…‘me’.
Does God need me? No. He did fine before ‘me’ and He will do fine after ‘me’. Can I contribute anything to His work? This is a harder question to answer. I believe two things come into play here and we all need to answer this question after much thought: Are you doing this for your own personal satisfaction or for His glory? Please only answer this after you have asked the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the Truth.
Jesus said that we are His witnesses. Witnesses of what? Consider this: the only thing we are truly witnesses of is His work in us! I can quote all the greats: George Muller, Hudson Taylor, Charles Spurgeon, Tozer, etc, but I have only experienced my own relationship (or lack thereof) with Jesus. I only know Him as He is to me. Yes, I can relate to others. I can understand where these men may be coming from, but they are great because of their own experiences, not from sharing someone else’s. They spoke of the reality that Christ was to them not the reality that He was to someone else.
There is a distrust between the brethren. I believe this comes from lack of testimony and revelation of that individual as we see the way we each respond out of that distrust. There is no foundation to build on. We see one another post quotes, opinions, scripture but hardly ever ‘personal’ anything. There are bits and pieces at best but they don’t make up the person on the other side of the conversation. I am bringing my perspective (that you don’t know) and you are bringing your perspective (that I don’t know) and then we are left to muddle through with assumptions about each other. This is found across the board in all areas of Christianity here in North America. There is no true fellowship…the kind where we bear witness of Christ at work in us through our past, present and future. Coffee and donuts, quotes and scripture are no foundation for the body of Christ to function from. There is a person–struggling, victorious, tired, restored–in that fellow believer. I am sure that I am not alone when I say that I want to hear what Christ has done for you-from start to finish-the good-the bad- and the ugly. Let’s stop letting Satan divide and conquer. We are not only allowing him to cause division through our petty misunderstandings but we are showing the world that we don’t love one another as Christ commanded us. Christ in us…this is not just superficial…it should not be taken lightly. Let us hold each other up under the magnifying love of Christ….we should not be so easily miffed…not be so easy to hit delete…maybe, we might even begin to pray for one another to grow more so that we can, each and everyone, be encouraged by the growth we see in each other….this is unity.
