The more mature I get, the more I realize how simple life really is. For a large part of my life, I've spent chasing the wind of money, success and acceptance from people. But I've realized that the only things that really matter are things that are eternal: your relationship with God, your family and your fellow believers.
Point to Ponder: It is my responsibility to protect the unity of my church.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
What am I personally doing to protect the unity in my church family right now?
Verse to remember: "Let us concentrate on the things that make for harmony and the growth of our fellowship together." Romans 14:19
My response:
This chapter should be required reading for every member of every church in the world. We all suffer through the same problems. Basically, what it comes down to for me is that our church community must be considered our family. And everything that we do for our blood family, we should do for our church. It's vital that we pick a church that we're comfortable with and believe fits us the best and is spiritually fulfilling for you. Once you make that decision, you must treat the church as family.
Our families aren't perfect, and neither is our church. We protect our families. Yes, we have squabbles, but in the end we stick together. Don't let anyone denigrate your family. So don't let anyone denigrate your church.
And be realistic. Don't let the ideal rob your of the real in your church. If you're going to pick on every imperfection in your fellowship, you will never be satisfied. It's what I call the missing tile syndrome. If you see a missing tile on your floor, that's all your going to focus on, that missing tile. You are ignoring the 499 other tiles that surround it and say your floor is ruined because it's missing a tile. If we pick at that one flaw in your church, you tend to forget all the wonderful characteristics about it.
In the end, our church is our family. Through thick and thin, we stick together. We rely on God to get us through the rough spots. We go through phases and we grow and make mistakes and experience life and our journey with God together. We were made to fellowship. There is no greater fellowship than that where you get at your local church. Be blessed.
There is a line in this chapter that gave me great encouragement! I am sure many of us do the same thing - trying to please everyone. I am always told that we cannot please everyone all the time. This chapter reminded me and pointed out that even Jesus was not able to please everyone! How can I do that if even Jesus could not do it?
ReplyDeleteThe truth is, we are all different and have different preferences. We will not all agree to everything. I love the line that says, "...we can walk arm-in-arm without seeing eye-to-eye on every issue."
The church I belong to is far from being perfect. However, it is family to me. Someone once said our church is a church of sinners. That is true. We are sinners working for the Lord. As we work for Him, we learn and discover our ultimate purposes and in the process, develop fellowship that is genuine and authentic.