We live in a very unbalanced world today. People are either right or left. No one seems to live in a straight line anymore. We are divided racially, politically, ideologically, rural vs urban, open borders-controlled borders, and more. We don't seem to agree on anything.
Is this unusual?
No. This country has been divided before.
One of the worst was right before the Civil War. This was one of the most divided times in our history. In 1858 when Abraham Lincoln won the Republican nomination for President he gave his "House Divided" Speech. Lincoln knew there could be no compromise even though his Democratic opponents were pushing for it. An avid Bible reader, he pulled part of his speech directly from the words of Jesus.
“Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
Matthew 12;25 NIV
We all know what ultimately happened. Civil War!
We cannot allow our differences to influence us to the point of violence.We are better than this.
"Hate cannot drive out hate, only Love can do this"
Martin Luther King
Yes, there will always be differences, but we need to find a way to move right and left closer to center. I also believe that we are not as divided as the media wants us to believe. We can find common ground if we have a dialog and work with one another. We need to try to understand the struggles our brothers and sisters have, and do what we can to help one another. As Christians, we need to focus on unchanging truth. God's Truth. Our church's need to teach Truth, Unity, and Love.
If your church shows you law while your heart screams for love, you are in a court and not a church.
Anonymous
We need God and we need each other. We’re not meant to be isolated and independent from each other, either as human beings or as Christians. We all need other people in our lives.
The Bible says,
“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,… but exhorting one another” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
There are burdens our friends can help us bear in times of crises. It is our duty to help our fellow man bear his burdens. It’s important to draw strength from one another, but it never replaces the strength that comes from fellowship with the Lord Jesus Himself. We are not to worry about our burdens. We are to roll them on to God’s shoulders, looking to Him for power to sustain and strengthen us. No matter how small your faith, you can count on him to hear your anguished cry and to answer.
As we live out our lives in this broken world, we are never far from pain, never far from calamity. Each of us passes through the dark valley not one time, but again and again. The Christian tradition is a trustworthy guide for those difficult times.
Crises come in many different ways, and God addresses them all in his word and by his Spirit. Even when we don't see or feel it, God is always faithful.
"If I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me" (Psalm 139:9–10)
Such times as these, are tremendous opportunities for the Gospel message to be shared. An old Bell Telephone advertisement said, “Reach out and touch someone.” A simple phone call or a handwritten letter can be used by God to brighten the day for souls in darkness and help give them peace.
When people find peace with God they are brought into the joy and fellowship with Christ and there is a beneficial effect upon the body and mind that leads to the preservation of physical and mental power. We should rely on Jesus Christ completely.
In Loraine Boettner’s book The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination.
” Boettner says, “in all its details, even the most minute, is but the unfolding of the eternal purposes of God. His decrees are not successively formed as the emergency arises, but are all parts of one all-comprehending plan, and we should never think of Him suddenly evolving a plan or doing something which He had not thought of before.”
God is in ultimate control of, and has decreed, everything—not just the larger scheme of things, but also the minutest details and the apparent happen-chance of our lives, including the mad, the bad, and the sad. It is in knowing and believing this that lies the secret of rest and strength in the midst of life’s ups and downs.
"We humans, not least we Christians, often draw a straight, linking line between our lives—our conditions within and our circumstances without—and God. That is why, faced with suffering and misfortune, we ask: If God is good, why is my health failing? If God is great, why is my wealth flailing? If God is, why am I not?
But: No.
We need to learn to DE-Link our existential realities and circumstantial instabilities from God’s eternal reality and essential stability. Why of course, sooner or later our health will fail; why yes, one time or another our wealth will flounder. We may be distressed when—not if—they do; but we should not be surprised. Indeed, we should expect them to fail: for they are not God. Only God will not fail. Only God is God."
Kethoser (Aniu) Kevichusa is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Nagaland, India
The prophet Habakkuk in 3:17-18 says:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation
Trust in Jesus, he is the way, the Truth, and the life.
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