Love and
Unity
“Behold! How
Good and how Pleasant it is for the Brethren to dwell together in Unity. It is
like precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon Aaron’s beard. That ran
down to the skirts of his garments. As the dew of Herman that descended upon
the Mountain Zion; for it was there that The LORD Commanded His Blessing,
even Life forevermore.” Psalm 133
“I give you
a new Commandment, that you Love one another. Just as I have Loved you, so also
you must Love one another. By this all will know that you are My
Disciples, if you have Love one for another.” John 13:24-25
“Now this is His Commandment – that we should
believe in The Name of YESHUA The Messiah, and Love one another just as He
Commanded us. The one who keeps His Commandments abides in GOD and GOD in
him. We know that He abides in us by this – by The SPIRIT He has given us.”
1 John 3:23-24
“If
anyone says, ‘I Love GOD,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one
who does not Love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot Love GOD, whom he has
not seen. And this Commandment we have from Him: that the one who Loves GOD
should also Love his brother.” 1 John 4:20-21
GOD asks His
Church, “Why do you not keep My Commandments?” If there is no Love there is no
Unity and if there is no Unity there is no Life Eternal! The Scriptures above
say that if you don’t Love your brothers you do not Love GOD and if you do not
Love GOD you do not abide in Him nor He in you and if GOD does not abide in you
than you do not have Life Eternal! No Love, no Unity, no Eternity with GOD!
I did a
google search of Churches within 5 miles of my home, there were 19 and I was
surprised. I have seen several as I drive around, but I did not know there were
that many. All of them were less than 1.5 miles from my home. I do not have any
relationship with any of them, nor do I know anyone who goes to any of them. I
do have relationship with 3 local Churches that are outside the 5 mile search
area. I know a couple of my neighbors who are Christian but I do not know where
they go to Church if they do go, one of them Tele-Churches.
I have
visited a couple of other Churches in my general area, one of them is within
the 5 mile radius, I know that there are groups of Pastors that get together
for prayer and fellowship; but I am not aware of Churches getting together or
exchanging Pastors occasionally, or doing any other fellowship or ministry
together. This is one of the sins of the Church today, our lack of unity and
brotherly Love as seen by our lack of involvement and activity together.
To seek GOD first
we have to have unity, we (the Church) are The Body of CHRIST; Paul, Peter,
James and John all teach on the unity of the Body of CHRIST so how can it not
be a part of our doctrine and practice? To seek GOD first we must fast and
pray, study and teach, praise and worship, fellowship and minister. All of
these activities that we are called to do we are called to do them as
individuals, families, fellowships, ministries, churches and dominations. We
are not called to evangelize people to ourself or our group, we are called to
evangelize people to JESUS! We are not called to disciple people to ourself or
our denomination, we are called to disciple people to JESUS!
Today’s
Church in America is in the Build Bigger Ministry because we think we are the
Best or for greed and pride, either way it is sin! mega churches are not wrong
but they tend to cause isolation rather than fellowship with other smaller churches.
Having multiple campuses, all but the main location watching via video is no
better, except maybe in parking lot access.
Not all
Churches, ministries and denominations are isolationists. In San Diego County
where I lived for 43 years there has been a unity of churches and ministries movement
since the 80’s. There are several groups of pastors, churches and ministries
around the County that fellowship and minister together regularly. They organize
Church wide events and city or county wide evangelization events throughout the
county, state, and into Mexico. Some of the pastors have international ministries
and they invite others to go with them. In 1991 I went with a group from our church
that joined a group from a lager church to Russia, where we ministered in two
different cities. I am sure there are other groups like this all around the
country.
The point of
all this is to call us all too personal accountability before GOD! When we have
personal accountability we can have ministry accountability. When we have
ministry accountability then we can have unity. It is not about how big can we
be, it is about how effectively we are ministering the Gospel in our community
and discipling people to JESUS.
Every
Christian is Called to be an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor and a
teacher; these are the functions of a discipler.
Seek GOD
First!
