WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK?

GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF JESUS:


     Paul wrote his letters to the early churches with great power and authority, and yet it was said by people when they saw him in person they were disappointed in his physical appearance because he was never what they had expected. Over the years that God was dealing with Paul, there were many things that Paul suffered besides not being trusted by those in Christ because of his earlier position held in the Synagogues to torture and kill all he could who professed Christ as Lord, and then of course those who hated him in the Sanhedrin councils for his conversion to Christ on the road to Damascus.

  Paul had a lot of other problems in trying to sustain himself and still work his ministry to establish churches throughout the then known world.  We are all thrown into the same mix as the rest of this world when it comes to our needs.  One of the greatest things we have as the church is one another to help in defending our faith, it is called unity.  It is a singleness of mind and heart that only comes when we can humble ourselves before the Father in the same way Christ did when He gave Himself literally to God as our living sacrifice for sin.
  Whenever I think about that kind of love for someone else without ever meeting them face to face it boggles my mind, and yet that is the same kind of love that God has asked us to have for those we are to love and care for in the church around us on any given Sunday.

 I was just reading in the book of
  Philippians 2: about the kind humility that is in question here for us today.  We are only called to give our testimony of love to this world by loving one another as an example  to this world of what it is to love, and yet, for the most part, we still continue to shun one another through the  petty differences that we ourselves have created to a separation between us hoping only to draw more people to our particular brand of Christ than the church down the street who is supposed to be preaching the exact same gospel as we are.

  I believe with all of my heart that God does want a revival in our world, but probably it will not be any more of what we expect that it was for those in the Jewish Synagogues who rejected Jesus as Lord the first time.  If we look around us what can we say today is the real witness of love and unity in the body of Christ?  Other than a remanent of people who are defying this concept of division in Christ by fellowshipping past the point of doctrinal difference there are very few today who are taking the chance to step out of their church door to really love as Christ has directed us to

The brands of Christ that we present to the world around us may show a difference in style of worship or taste in services, but they should realize that should be the only difference.  Instead of there being a separation and suspicion between churches there should be a unity of both heart and mind toward service to the community and toward helping congregations who are not as wealthy as others to complete various tasks of ministry they are called by God's Spirit to do.  Our personal call to ministry sees this throughout the world every day.  If we would unite and truly love as we have been commanded to the power of the church would be so great that the forces of darkness could never stand against it even for a moment.
It is my prayer that we who are genuine in Christ would begin to act toward one another in this way to break down what this world has carefully built up against us.  May you richly bless God through your life in Him.


THE UNWORTHY SERVANT