November 9, 2018

“Us: The Hope of the World”

I once knew two people who had been best friends since second grade. Everything they did seemed to involve the other, and they practically lived at each other’s houses. They were like brothers. While both claimed to be believers, neither had a strong walk with the Lord.  Then they went to college where things only got worse. Yet still their friendship remained. Occasionally they would talk about God but mostly in an academic sense. Then one day one of the young men got invited to go to a college ministry, and out of rather impure motives (a girl) he went.  And on that first night he experienced something new. He had a personal encounter with the living God. This came through the assembly of believers in which he found himself, and it was attractive to him. As he continued to spend time around the group, he saw them pray together and eat together and worship together and study the scriptures together. They asked each other hard questions and asked him hard questions.  He never heard any of them speaking poorly of each other or excluding individuals or being nasty with one another. He began to grow in his faith as he had subsequent encounters with God while growing deeper in relationship with this group. As he grew, he began to see his best friend and now roommate differently. He found that he loved his friend now more than ever and wanted for his friend to experience eternal and abundant life in Jesus the way he had. So he began trying to talk more about the things of God with his friend. He tried to invite him to events and get him around his new friends. However his friend said to him, “My faith is my own, and I don’t need anyone else telling me what to believe.” His friend never would dive deep into a walk with the Lord nor would he seek out a group of people with whom to share his walk. To this day nothing about his friend’s faith has changed. It is as it always has been nominal at best.  The point of this story is that the Christian faith was never meant to be a private endeavor. It is personal, and we do each have value as individuals. But Jesus’ heart was never for us to be lone rangers. Instead we are called to be part of an unique set of people in this world called the Church. We are not called to be independent but rather interdependent. Please join me this week as we consider what it looks like to live out the oneness of God in our world today. I would love for you to consider the following verses, John 17:20-21,

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 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.

God bless and see you Sunday, Clayton Kreisel