As I was perusing the different news media this morning catching up on current events, I remembered something God said to me five years ago. I was just laying on my couch in quiet meditation after praying one day and I clearly and distinctly heard Him say, "Beware of division." I sat up and quickly reviewed things happening in my life, my church, my relationships. Was it a warning for me or did it hold a deeper significance outside my own personal sphere?
I admit I didn't ask the right questions when I heard this. I was just baffled. I'm not some super disciple, just a regular one whose still learning and growing with Christ. I pondered the meaning of it and even prayed against it - probably not as whole-heartedly as I should. I soon learned that lurking on my own job was betrayal and division. It was a rocky year and subsequent years after, but I survived it. Backbiting and rejection followed. However, during that time, I learned to trust in God more and man less. I discovered that organizations can't protect you, but God can. In fact, it seems that the more people come against you, the more God blesses you. Sweet communion was the outcome for me.
Then it happened in a ministry that I was involved in at church - division. Again it was a difficult period and I saw and experienced some heart-breaking moments. I saw some injustices and some unkindness that was rather hard to swallow; injustices toward others. It hurt more because it came from the church where you expect to be embraced, loved and treated fairly. Again, God was teaching me something. Perhaps to hang on to His unchanging hand and not the hand of others. Surely it was a test of my faithfulness - a test I'm not quite sure I passed. Yet, I am still hanging on.
Now in hindsight I can see the division that has occurred since the moment He said, "Beware of division." I see all the "issues" dividing the nation; even globally. I see the division politically in our government. I see the divisions racially. I see the divisions in our communities between those who are sworn to protect and those they serve. Unfortunately the list can go on and on. But I don't believe God is all that concerned about the political climate. He's Sovereign - He'll use whomever He chooses to fulfill His purposes on the earth. However, God is concerned about justice and righteousness - I have that from His own mouth. Okay, so look in the Bible and find out for yourself. He is concerned with the TRUTH.
God is concerned about the division in His church. It's His body. It was this division that caught my eye this morning as I read the news about the different controversies regarding this and that in the church today; some of it political, some of it not. For example, it's almost 2020 and we're still arguing about the roles women play in the church today, seriously. If God can open the mouth of a donkey, then He can surely use a woman to speak His word, too. Didn't He send Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to tell his disciples that He is risen? Which by the way, they didn't quite believe. I believe that the Holy Spirit is infallible, but this dust we call man is surely fallible. The Holy Spirit showed me that getting His body aligned was going to hurt; it was going to be painful. I believe we're still in that processing of alignment.
All of this reminds me of yet another period of division - one that is yet to come. That's right - the division that God makes when He divides the wheat from the chaff or the goats from the sheep. Matthew 3:12 says, "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Later on in Matthew 25 it says, "And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Yes, the King will come again. Will you be found doing the things that please Him? There are plenty who are lost and without hope. There are many who don't have the necessities we take for granted. Will you be the voice God uses to share His word, spread hope and demonstrate His love?
Okay, so as a disciple of Christ maybe I shouldn't read the news so much, although it does help me focus my prayers. Paul admonishes us to, "set our minds on things above, not on the things of this earth." (Colossians 3:2) Maybe that ultimately means to live, work, and serve on the earth always keeping the end in mind.
So, that's another day on a disciple's journey.
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