God created us to be ONE with Him and with one another. He took a big risk in creating human beings and giving them individuality, consciousness, choice, free will; the Creator's desire being that man's conscious choice would be oneness. And, oneness is impossible without conscious choice. For, there is no unity, no delight of love, no harmony, no good in being, where there is only one.
Two at least are needed for oneness; and the greater the number of individuals, the greater, the lovelier, the richer, the more divine is the possible unity.
John 13:34 - "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
John 13:35 - "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
John 15:12 - "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
John 15:17 - "This I command you, that you love one another.
John 17: 20-23 - "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Monday, February 15, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Is There a Gap Between Your Theology and Your Reality
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4:7-12 NIV)
On this whole planet no one has physically seen God. But, if, we love one another … the Bible says if you want the world to see and believe in your Jesus Christ ... it’s not about getting a great preacher who can put a good sermon together; and, getting a great band and super programs and everything else; it's not these things that are somehow going to convince the world that God exists. But, if the church would actually live like the church and love like the church, somehow that is going to give a picture of God; in some way God will reveal Himself so that He is seen and experienced. That will only be accomplished by the way that we love one another. And, obviously, that means more than a handshake, and a “what’s your name?” during a greeting time.
Doesn’t it make sense that if a man lives on earth and dies on a cross and comes back and begins talking to you, and telling you that if you will believe and follow Him, and that if you do you will live a million years and more, like FOREVER; doesn’t it make sense that a person who believes that Person and begins to follow that Person, will think differently than what he used to think? Doesn’t it make sense that he will act differently? Doesn’t it make sense that he will begin to live the same kind of radical life, conforming his life to be like that Person who was able to raise Himself from the dead and promise the kind of things He promised?
If the church would actually live like it believes, live like the church and love like the church, it would give a picture of the church that is so absolutely supernatural that it will look differently than most Christians live like and most churches look like today.
Is there a gap today between Christian theology and Christian reality? Or, let me ask it in another way: “Is there a gap between your theology and your reality?” If the answer is, “Yes,” then it sets you up for ridicule. I mean, if you really believe this stuff about Jesus, then why doesn’t it show? Why is everything except what you say you believe, showing?
On this whole planet no one has physically seen God. But, if, we love one another … the Bible says if you want the world to see and believe in your Jesus Christ ... it’s not about getting a great preacher who can put a good sermon together; and, getting a great band and super programs and everything else; it's not these things that are somehow going to convince the world that God exists. But, if the church would actually live like the church and love like the church, somehow that is going to give a picture of God; in some way God will reveal Himself so that He is seen and experienced. That will only be accomplished by the way that we love one another. And, obviously, that means more than a handshake, and a “what’s your name?” during a greeting time.
Doesn’t it make sense that if a man lives on earth and dies on a cross and comes back and begins talking to you, and telling you that if you will believe and follow Him, and that if you do you will live a million years and more, like FOREVER; doesn’t it make sense that a person who believes that Person and begins to follow that Person, will think differently than what he used to think? Doesn’t it make sense that he will act differently? Doesn’t it make sense that he will begin to live the same kind of radical life, conforming his life to be like that Person who was able to raise Himself from the dead and promise the kind of things He promised?
If the church would actually live like it believes, live like the church and love like the church, it would give a picture of the church that is so absolutely supernatural that it will look differently than most Christians live like and most churches look like today.
Is there a gap today between Christian theology and Christian reality? Or, let me ask it in another way: “Is there a gap between your theology and your reality?” If the answer is, “Yes,” then it sets you up for ridicule. I mean, if you really believe this stuff about Jesus, then why doesn’t it show? Why is everything except what you say you believe, showing?
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