Unity

[Soldier4Christ]

Eph 4:1  I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Eph 4:2  With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Eph 4:3  Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.


Someone has drawn a helpful analogy about the importance of unity in the church to the life of a honey bee. As I understand it, honey bees cannot live in isolation. You always keep bees (plural), you never keep a single bee. If you isolate a bee, you can give it the most favorable temperature, you can give it plenty of water and plenty of food, but the bee will die within two to three days. There is something about the community of bees that keeps individual bees alive. You can keep bees, but you cannot keep a bee.

In a sense that is also true of the church. One of the chief sources of our strength is our unity. If we are not as vital in our witness as we might be, it is probably because our bonds of love are not as strong as they might be. We, the church, must have an intense fellowship with one another.

Dear God, remind me often of my need for study and fellowship with my brothers and sisters in the community of faith. Amen.

[nChrist]

AMEN PASTOR ROGER!

The gathering together of Christians means many things, certainly:  praising the LORD, giving thanks to the LORD, and worshiping our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

This gathering should also involve edifying each other, strengthening each other, and encouraging each other for the work that God wants us to do. It's absolutely amazing that all of these things are happening on Christians Unite with people we've never seen. God has allowed us to bond together in actions that are SURE to please God.

Here's some thoughts about Christians Unite and other places where Christians gather on the Internet:

• We can and do love other Brothers and Sisters in Christ without ever seeing them.
• Our friendships here are not based on the things of this world (i.e. status in the community, wealth, expensive clothes, or other things of this world.
• Most of us do have the nice habit of trying to encourage, strengthen, and build each other up in the things of the LORD.
• Most of us do pray for other people here with needs, illness, and trouble of all kinds.
• Most of us do care deeply about the other people here and the hosts of guests who read the posts on the forum. In fact, many of us have written messages specifically for people who will probably never become a member here.
• Where two or more gather in the name of JESUS, JESUS is there with them.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Ephesians 4:11-13 NASB  And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:5-8 NASB  Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord -- for we walk by faith, not by sight -- we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.