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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion January 15, 2007 Unity is a Priority |
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Frontline Devotion for Monday, January 15, 2007 by Fritz Foltz
Ephesians 4: 4-7 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Lately I have heard a lot of people claim that we should abolish all religion, because it divides people. We can understand their concern. Some American Christians have acted mean-spiritedly toward anyone who does not agree with their position. Shiite and Sunni Muslims are killing one another in Iraq. Protestants and Catholics have been battling for decades in Northern Ireland. In the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulture at the very tomb of our Savior Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Coptic, and Ethiopian Christians constantly fight about control of small areas of pavement.
However, that is a perversion of our faith, an example of how we do not practice what we preach. Throughout the New Testament we find passages such as today’s lesson that make unity the highest priority among Christian virtues. The goal of the church is to bring people together-Jew and Greek, free and slave, rich and poor, male and female.
There is something in the human spirit that yearns for this harmony and peace. We must be a people who are unafraid to pursue it in practical, everyday ways. If institutional religion, for whatever political reasons, refuses to unite Jesus’ people, individual Christians can still confess belief in the Holy Catholic Church and do all they can to show what that means.
Any one who studies history realizes we shall not achieve unity by destroying religion. Secular governments have been just as bloody in wars and just as divisive in politics.
Spend your day trying to bring people together, reconciling enemies and settling disputes peacefully. Be sure to do it in such as way that the compromises do not water down the Gospel. But also be sure that you do not allow your position to prevent you from appreciating that of other people. This is not easy to do in this world, but we should be showing the way for others.
Let us pray. Bring us together in your love, Father, that others might be attracted to the Gospel because of the way we love one another. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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All are welcome to join and share in our Devotional Ministry on the "Frontlines" of the world. Frontline Devotions are sent via email daily. Sign up by clicking on the box to the left. Pastor Dave welcomes feedback. Contact him at pastordave@goodshepherdonline.org. |
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