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A Morning View Near the Wood Stove

I had this thought yesterday. Unity must be mutually inclusive. If not unity will not exist. We must be willing to include all who call upon the name of the Lord. Christian unity must be focused on the foundation of the gift of Jesus Christ. Honestly, nothing else matters. Yet everything else matters. We will never get along as long as Christ is not the focus. We must choose unity with the other over self indulging beliefs. We must be willing to learn from one another while not compromising our core foundation of Jesus Christ. 


Who is the #1 priority in your life? Does your relationship with Jesus Christ drive every part of your life? Do you spend time seeking Jesus in every decision you make? Sounds crazy! But if I am sold out for the Lord and Savior, then I need to be sold out. 


Perhaps we spend too much time striving to change another, while in fact we should allow the Holy Spirit of God to change us while the Holy Spirit is changing another.


“I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I’ll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.

I bring this up because some from Chloe’s family brought a most disturbing report to my attention—that you’re fighting among yourselves! I’ll tell you exactly what I was told: You’re all picking sides, going around saying, “I’m on Paul’s side,” or “I’m for Apollos,” or “Peter is my man,” or “I’m in the Messiah group.”

I ask you, “Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul’s name?” I was not involved with any of your baptisms—except for Crispus and Gaius—and on getting this report, I’m sure glad I wasn’t. At least no one can go around saying he was baptized in my name. (Come to think of it, I also baptized Stephanas’s family, but as far as I can recall, that’s it.)

God didn’t send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn’t send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center—Christ on the Cross—be trivialized into mere words.”  - 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 The Message  

Peace,
PB

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