One Body, One Spirit, One Lord

Some of you may remember me mentioning what I am calling the Church Unity Project. Well, I am asking now that you will pray for me in this venture as I am preparing to start reaching out to churches in my area with this mission.

In Ephesians 4:1-6 Paul says, “There is ONE BODY and ONE SPIRIT - just as you were called to ONE HOPE when you were called - ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM, ONE GOD AND FATHER….”

This is what drives me to reach out to local churches in hopes of uniting so that the people of our community could see the Love of Jesus. Jesus left heaven where he had riches that we can not even fathom, to save us. He left all the riches and glory of heaven to become poor, even by biblical standards. He did this out of a generosity that longed to see none of his creation go to Hell. If he was willing to leave all of that to come to earth to be poor and with the knowledge that he was going to die on the cross, why are we not reaching out with the love and generosity of Jesus and meeting the needs of our community.

Now with all this talk of One body, etc. I am not trying to say that all churches should be the same. Paul wrote letters to 7 different churches. If all churches were intended to be the same then he could have sent one letter, sent it via bulk rate mass mailing and saved a bundle on postage. But, he didn’t do that. Paul recognized that each church faced unique struggles and was comprised of unique people yet, he wrote that we were all One Body.

So, I am still not sure what God has planned for Matt Norman, but what I do know is that those that labor for the Lord never labor in vain, the Bible says so. I also believe that God has given me the vision for the Church Unity Project. So, if I labor for the Lord and begin to work towards the vision that he has given me, then I believe my labor will be fruitful. Besides, Paul also said that we are but the planters and waterers of seeds, but that God provides the increase. So, the pressure is off of me. All I have to do is love on people and tell them about the wonderful things that God has done for me, and leave the rest to God. I also don’t think I can handle the thought of the opportunities I might miss, and the people that I may not get to minister to if I wait around for that bolt of lightening that tells me it’s time.

So, I beg your prayers. I believe that God has given me a vision; and with this vision I believe he has given me a message. Part of the vision that God has given me includes me delivering his message about church unity to the churches that I reach out to. I have never delivered such a message (unless you include the youth service I preached at when I was 15; the recording of which could have been mistaken for an obscene phone call), and I have never received any formal training in how to prepare or deliver a sermon. However, I believe that God has given me a message that he wants me to deliver in person. My heart begins to pound as I type this, both at the thought of delivering this message and even at the thought of typing this on here. As I type I can hear the enemy whispering in my ear…”What is your pastor going to think if he hears about this?” “You can’t deliver any message you haven’t even been to seminary.” “Just because your father was a preacher doesn’t make you one.” “What makes you think that people are going to let you come into THEIR church and deliver YOUR message?” “What are you going to do if people don’t like the way you deliver this so called message?” “How do you know this message is even from God?” “Maybe you should just wait a little longer,,, you know so you can be sure this is a God given vision.” “Are you sure this message is actually from God and not just a matter of your own personal pride?”(this is a good one as the enemy knows that pride is my biggest downfall).

Well, I think Jesus said it best after being tempted by the devil, “Away from me Satan! For it is written worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.” (Matthew 4:10). Well, that is exactly what I intend to do. I am going to worship the Lord my God and I am going to serve him; even if it means stepping outside my comfort zone and doing something I have never done before and have never been trained to do.

So, again, I ask you to pray.

This entry was posted on April 29, 2008 at 21:17 and is filed under Thoughts on Things. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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