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People today have more ways to connect than ever, but are disconnected more than ever. We have cell phones, texting, internet, My Space, Facebook, Instant Messaging, but we are disconnected from the people in the room with us. Families need spiritual unity. Marriages need to be one in the Lord. Husbands and wives need to be in spiritual agreement.
DISUNITY STORIES
A man was stranded on an island. Alone for a number of years. Finally he was located and some people came ashore to rescue him. Before they took him off the island, he wanted to show them around. He took them to his hut and said "This is the home I built with my own 2 hands." Then he showed them to another building and he said "This is the church I built with my own 2 hands." Then someone in the group said "Hey, what's that building over there?" And the man replied "That's where I used to go to church."
I don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but it seems like this is the American way. 2 cars, 2 kids, a dog and half a dozen churches we used to attend.
This isn't bad necessarily. There are times when God would have us move on, take our gifts, abilities, resources and energy and use them to serve another body of believers.
But too often selfishness, pride, unforgiveness, a mentality that the church exists to meet my needs prevails and we become disgruntled, we divide and there is disunity for the wrong reasons. Disunity grieves the heart of God and brings dishonor to his name.
I read about a church where there was division and it began over an argument at a potluck supper when a lady brought a congealed salad she made with Cool Whip instead of real whipping cream.
Churches have divided over whether the pianist should sit to the right or the left side of the podium, over whether the Lord's Supper should be served from the front to the back or the back to the front, over trying to decide whether a kitchen should be a part of the church building or not.
One church split over who was the real pastor. They had two pastors. Two groups thought they each had their own guy, and both of them got up to lead a service one Sunday. Both led the singing. Both groups tried to out-sing each other. Then both pastors started preaching, trying to out-preach each other. Finally, they just broke out into fisticuffs, and the police had to come in and break it up.
This from Landover, Maryland, August 1999:
100 years of Christian fellowship, unity, and community outreach ended last Tuesday in an act of congregational discord. Holy Creek Baptist Church was split into multiple factions.
The source of dissension is a piano bench which still sits behind the 1923 Steinway piano to the left of the pulpit. Members and friends at Holy Creek Baptist say that the old bench was always a source of hostility. People should have seen this coming.
At present, Holy Creek Congregation will be having four services each Sunday. There has been an agreement mediated by an outside pastor so that each faction will have it's own separate service with it's own separate pastor. Since the head pastor is not speaking to the associate pastors, each will have their own service, which will be attended by factioned members. The services are far enough apart that neither group will come into contact with the other. An outside party will be moving the piano bench to different locations and appropriate positions, between services, so as to please both sides, and avoid any further conflict that could result in violence.
(From a sermon by Bret Toman, Unity For the Glory of God, 1/3/2011)
I am told that when President Bush was governor of Texas he had to deal with a lot of conflict. According to the sources I heard on the news one night in December (I tried to check this our with different sources and was unable to confirm it.) He came into office with a legislature that was in the opposite party. Early in his term he met with the opposition leader of the legislative branch with the hopes of building a cooperative coalition for the future.
The meeting was a failure. There was no trust and no agreement. There was plenty of conflict.
At the end of the session as Bush got up to leave he suddenly reached over and grabbed the opposition boss with both hands on his neck and gave him a big kiss on the cheek.
The man was completely stunned. He got red faced and stammered "What did you do THAT for!".
Bush said, "If I can’t get your cooperation and help, I’m at least going to get a kiss!"
The opposition leader broke up laughing and that was the beginning of friendship and the end of conflict.
An American missionary was traveling across Korea by train. At a busy station an old man boarded and sat across from Him. The man was Korean and he addressed the American in his native tongue.
The Missionary responded in the only Korean phrase that he knew which was "I DON’T UNDERSTAND".
A few minutes later the Korean tried again, but the missionary could only say " I DON’T UNDERSTAND"
The Korean then tried a third question, only this time the American recognized a familiar word YESU which means JESUS.
The American pointed to himself and said YESU
the Old man did the same thing with a smile of delight on His face.
The Korean then unwrapped the bundle he was carrying . It was a large Korean a Bible
He turned to a page and pointed to a place that he wanted the American to read.
Remembering that oriental Bible are written from back to front . The clergy men took his own Bible and counted the number of books and chapters from the back to the place that the old man had pointed to .
The old man had pointed to Mark 3:35 "Whoever does the will of God is my brother"
The American searched for a suitable reply. He counted out and pointed to it in the Korean Bible. It was Psalm 133:1 "Behold how good a...
August 1999 Landover, Maryland
100 years of Christian fellowship, unity, and community outreach ended last Tuesday in an act of congregational discord. Holy Creek Baptist Church was split into multiple factions.
The source of dissension is a piano bench which still sits behind the 1923 Steinway piano to the left of the pulpit. Members and friends at Holy Creek Baptist say that the old bench was always a source of hostility. People should have seen this coming.
At present, Holy Creek Congregation will be having four services each Sunday. There has been an agreement mediated by an outside pastor so that each faction will have it’s own separate service with it’s own separate pastor. Since the head pastor is not speaking to the associate pastors, each will have their own service, which will be attended by factioned members. The services are far enough apart that neither group will come into contact with the other. An outside party will be moving the piano bench to different locations and appropriate positions, between services, so as to please both sides, and avoid any further conflict that could result in violence.
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[Home] Copyright 1999/C.Harper .
A woman was doing her last-minute Christmas shopping at a crowded mall. She was tired of fighting the crowds. She was tired of standing in lines. She was tired of fighting her way down long aisles looking for a gift that had sold out days before. She was sick and tired of Christmas and wanted it to be done.
Her arms were filled with bulky packages when the elevator door opened. Of course it was full. Still, the occupants of the elevator grudgingly tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her load to enter.
As the doors closed she blurted out, “Whoever is responsible for this whole Christmas thing out to be arrested, strung up, and shot!” Many have felt that way. Several on the elevator nodded their heads or grunted in agreement.
Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator came a single voice that said, “Don’t worry. They already crucified him.”
How much power can people in agreement have? The answer: the power of life and death. During the brutal reign of Joseph Stalin, who murdered 30 million Russians and bought godless communism to Russia, Stalin, let it be known that he planned to murder the Jews of Russia. When the believers in England heard this report, they committed themselves to fasting and prayer for the Jews of Russia. Praying in the spirit, they found the Demonic forces that drove Joseph Stalin. Three weeks later, Joseph Stalin had a brain hemorrhage. 16 gifted brain surgeons worked on him for eight hours, and still Joseph Stalin stepped into eternity, on March 5, 1953, to meet the son of God, a Jewish rabbi from Bethlehem
Winter was coming on and a hunter went out into the forest to shoot a bear out of which he planned to make a warm coat. By and by he saw a bear coming toward him and raised his gun and took aim.
“Wait,” said the bear, “why do you want to shoot me?”
“Because I am cold,” said the hunter.
“But I am hungry,” the bear replied, “so maybe we can reach an agreement.”
In the end, the hunter was well enveloped with the b...
This was something that blessed me from Craig Hill’s book, Deceived! Who me?
Some of you have seen this small radios that can only operate in two bandwidths or range of frequencies, AM and FM.
If set to AM you can only get certain stations that you will not get on FM and if you tune it to FM you can only get certain stations you will not get on AM.
Our spirit is something like that. Some of us, our spirit is AM and others are set to FM.
AM meaning Adamic Man => Such people cannot relate or feel or know the presence of God intimately. Your spirit is in agreement with your soul and body. No Conflict.
FM means Forgiven Man => Such people can tune to God and your spirit is always in tune with the Spirit of God. And it is not in agreement with your body and the flesh (which is the principle of sin walking through your body and mind). This creates conflict.
Your Spirit has been transformed. So whether you walk by your spirit or by the Holy Spirit you will be walking in the Spirit because they are both in agreement.
ADVICE FOR DATING
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."
POINT OUT: Is this statement provided by Jesus, is this a suggestion? Is this a good idea? What is this? This is a command? And if we fail to love in such a way, we are technically sinning.
THE BIG QUESTION: Now this is the tough stuff, if the boy does not love the Lord his God with all his heart, all his soul, and all his mind, can he love your daughter with all his heart, all his soul, and all his mind? No way. So this is the first checkpoint.
LETTER FROM FACEBOOK: ANONYMOUS BUT FROM PUBLIC SETTING (I NEED ADVICE)
"I desperately need guidance in this new situation. This may seem a bit long-winded, however, I must tell someone I actually want to influence me more so than my parents. Please bare with me. Here is the situation.
I have a boyfriend who smokes, drinks (without getting drunk), and whose friends are party people. He is a country boy, but I like it enough because he treats me with gentle kindness and respect. He has promised to quit smoking for me, and has gone from half a pack a day to 3 cigarettes a day. He has started reading his bible again, and says he is a Christian, but I am not convinced. He wants to be baptized and wants to know more before he commits to it.
I love being with him. Especially since he respects the fact that I am waiting for marriage, if you catch my drift. Yesterday, my Dad yelled at me, quite loudly and disrespectfully about me taking my boyfriend out to dinner and paying. They don't want me to drive him around with the money they give me. All the while I was being pretty much verbally attacked, I just sat down and listened to my Dad without a word, except "yes sir" and "alright."
A couple of nights ago, my boyfriend said he loved me. I said thank you, not "I love you too" just to be in agreement with the moment. I didn’t say I love you back, because i am not sure yet. He wants to propose to me eventually and take me to Fiji. He is truly in love with me, it seems.
He has a long history of getting in trouble, which he doesn't talk about very often because he is very embarassed of it. He is mature and grown up for twenty years old. But my father thinks he should "man up" and take me out and do all the paying, which I think is not fair and seems like a double standard to men...I have incredibly strong compatibility and caring for him. I DON’T want to lose him or leave him, but unless he gets a serious passion for God, quits smoking, and gets a reasonable office job at the company (which he is promised), then I am forced to make a decision that will not only break his very heart, but torture mine. i feel trampled on by my parents, and displaced in my love life. Help. I’m very very serious about this one. I beg you, give me tough love if you must, but spit the truth to me."
