Is Christ Divided?

The following is a blog that I wrote back in January 8, 2011 and never posted until now.

I was reading in 1 Corinthians last night and in the first chapter Paul is admonishing the Corinthian church about their quarreling among each other. Paul is concerned because of the division among the brothers in Corinth. From what I can gather from reading the text is, some of the men there have started to assert that their experience was better or more real than their fellow brother’s experience… That’s an issue in itself but I want to talk about Paul’s response…

Paul had laid out to the church there that he’d heard what was going on between them… His first question to them in verse 13 was…

“Is Christ divided?”

I can imagine the emphasis that Paul meant to have in this question! As I was reading this it made me think of the emphasis we should put on that question as well. In a time where division is as commonplace as the church buildings on opposite corners of the same intersection, with each group of attending people thinking at least something contrary about the other group and the error they’re possibly, or worse yet, likely in… We would do well to seriously ask ourselves that question, often in fact.

I recently was at a large church event, that was terribly disappointing because of the commercialization that it underwent in the production of this particular event, while there I was talking to a couple who were on the outset trying to get me to “join” their “church” and how they had finally found their faith family there after trying out several other churches in the area etc… I don’t mean to dis anyone, but this is a problem, division so common that we go around to different churches until we find things that are familiar to us or that we like… the worship songs are better here then the last church we went to, this Pastor is more interesting than the last… What ever happened to finding things that are intimate? Things that are really life changing and that challenge us into those changes? What ever happened in searching until we find Christ?

Mainstream western christianity has become so mundane and sentimental that it’s mostly powerless in all its aspects, ministry, evangelism, worship, bible studies etc… I mean all of them!

Where is love?

I recently heard a sermon by the late David Wilkerson that is extremely powerful titled ‘A Call to Anguish’ (you can YouTube it). It is an extremely powerful word that he delivers and no doubt from the Spirit, he is essentially asking where the Church’s ability to cry out to God go?… but I have to ask, where is love? It only makes sense to me that true love, or the the longing for such love, for someone or something would ever be able to produce the anguish that Wilkerson speaks of… It seems though that true love has been removed from this age… the very thing that Christ said we would be known by… has been laid aside to allow other things to take its place! Beloved, if we would try ever so much harder to fit into God’s plan rather than trying to fit Him into our boxes He would then be able to open our eyes to His will because let me assure you He is bigger than any box we can imagine.

Let me suggest a change of mindset…

Instead of us responding to alter calls and always “accepting God into our hearts” why don’t we give our lives to Him, and do everything to be known by Him? We need to be known by Him if we want to have any shot at eternity. Commit yourself to other real disciples, taking care of one another, walking in obedience to the commands given in scripture, and together pray for God’s will and guidance, scripture tells us that the Spirit will lead us into all truth. Ask God to reveal His love to you and train you how to wield it! I assure you it is a weapon that is unmatched! Love is to sacrifice ourselves… So be prepared! Be prepared to be inconvenienced, to be ridiculed, to be put on the spot, to step out in true faith, to have late nights and early mornings, to have all manner of trials… these are they that God has chosen for his disciples…

“If we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes.”

Let us overcome all things that stifle God’s love and take back the faith!