Unity

[Robert Cragg]

Last night I was thinking what would be a good Scripture for today, as I was thinking I had the TV tuned to a Christian channel and the Preacher said " I want to talk today about unity and how it effects the Chuch."

So without getting into long discussions I would like to ask anyone who cares, to give a response to what unity means to them as related to the church, I'm mean the Church that Jesus is the head of.

My thoughts are if some off us are not focusing on the Lord and what some of the scriptures say about this, the first thing in my mind is how many times myself and others in the Chuch have been hurt by others, I must admit I have been hurt many times by others.
What does anyone else feel about this. Does it led to distruction of the churchs that we attend or better said does it hinder growth as a christian?

[canny]

To me Unity means acceptance of other Christians whatever their denomination or not

That is nothing to do with the doctrines preached, the hierachy have their own agenda no matter where you end up, the people who love Jesus, do not...

[Chuckt]

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

I feel it is family and God first and then other people. If Jesus is Lord of my life and if I'm reading His word and following him then I'm responsible to follow Him.

Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

We can walk together on essential Christian doctrine and we can avoid the non-essentials.

Acts 5:29 Then Peter and the [other] apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

I don't see the problem as unity. If we're all following Him then we should be unified. The problem is people who aren't willing to read their Bible and people who won't stand up for Him.

A disciple of Christ should probably read twenty five chapters a day of the Bible for the rest of his or her life. What God wants us to do is against our nature and unless we're reading what God wants us to do, we will be less willing to do it.

[iamowen]

Unity basically means ONE ! When we are united we are one.
Now for the other part ! Hurting, and does it lead to destruction ?
Here I may sound uncaring or even callous, but I am none of those. We as beleivers are not, repeat, not to take offence. If we do then we have been unforgiving somewhere. You cannot get hurt if you do not take offence ! However, we sometimes do ! When we do we must repent, forgive the other party, and move on. Being unforgiving, bearing a grudge, being hurt are but one and the same. I have learnt that I cannot forgive sometimes ! BUT we are not told to forgive if we can or want to, but to forgive ! When I find it hard I take it to HIM, tell HIM honestly how I feel and my innability to forgive, then leave it with HIM and forgive. HE takes it away and makes it real ! Before long I am aware that I no longer hold anything against that person and can live without hinderance.

[Galaen]

I agree, unity should be a oneness (if that is the correct spelling). We should be united for Jesus and the preaching and teaching of The Word. It should not matter what denomination we choose to worship under as long as The Word of God is being taught. We must lose so many people because of our inter Church squables and this is wrong, we should be building each other up and encouraging one another, laughing with those who laugh and crying with those who cry. Jesus taught us how to behave with one another and we should follow His example our main theme between us should be the Love which Christ gives us. Unfortunately, so often the main theme is who is best and which denomination is the most fashionable. Change starts here and it starts with me, if I change my attitude and love as Christ loves me then others will see it and be attracted - what a revival we would see if we could all do this!

[smellycat]

we are the church,the buildings rot and deccay and fall down,unity is with Christ.unity is following our saviour,expecting a new life in a new place.not succuming to the world,or being tricked into thinking this battle is over.for us we have peace,for our unsaved brothers we need to help.

[laterunner]

Have a look at my post in ''World Religions'' '' A balance view or what'' that's a unity that ''They'' could be proud of.

This has just struck me.
Is this the unity of some if not all of the Christian countries.??

The JW's fervant door knocking,

those baptist types who bible bash all & sundry,

the chuches which endeavour to ''Tickle the ears'' of their congregation,

those who try to keep us from the revelations of the ''End times'',

those who try to keep us on the straight & narrow in the Word or even the ''Dead letter Word''.

those who run to the ''Outback'' so that they are not contaminated by ''the world''.


Could you fill in here others of the ''Christian/christian'' church who have little unity.????????????????????????????????????
[/quote]

[Galaen]

Have a look at my post in ''World Religions''
'' A balance view or what'' that's a unity that ''They'' could be proud of.

This has just struck me.
Is this the unity of some if not all of the Christian countries.??

The JW's fervant door knocking,

those baptist types who bible bash all & sundry,

the chuches which endeavour to ''Tickle the ears'' of their congregation,

those who try to keep us from the revelations of the ''End times'',

those who try to keep us on the straight & narrow in the Word or even the ''Dead letter Word''.

those who run to the ''Outback'' so that they are not contaminated by ''the world''.


Could you fill in here others of the ''Christian/christian'' church who have little unity.????????????????????????????????????

[/QUOTE]

All this shows is disunity, perhaps if we spent more time in building each other up instead of pointing out each others faults we would actually be more united. It sickens me to see what is happening on this site. We are a Christian site but it seems to me each day I come on here there is another squabble breaking out. People misunderstanding what someone else has said and taking the huff or, even worse, those who appear to deliberately wind others up.

As Owen said, unity is oneness it means we work together. The Christian Church is in unity in the fact that we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, that He is the only Son of God and that He died for our sins. We need to be building on this not pulling each other down. We don't all develop at the same rates or speed. Sometimes we do not develop in the same way but so long as we are heading in the same direction and our goal is still the same then we should respect and help each other. We are part of the best family there is and sometimes it appears to me that all we ever do is disagree about it all. There are some very nice people here but unfortunately they seem to be getting shouted down by those who appear to seek to destroy rather than unite.

Unity - state of being one; concord; agreement; harmony; artistic harmony and symmetry; a thing forming a complex whole; agreement in feelings, ideas or aims. Check this out with the Bibles teachings about the Christian family - it agrees with it. Now check out all the disharmony that purports to be Christianity and see what the Bible says about that - if it ain't from God it ain't Christianity.

[Robert Cragg]

All that has been written about today, is what I've been trying to say for awhile now, but believe It or not God was and is just using me as a vessel to speak through what is going on right now through others words is a miracle,
because some are starting to get it. God loves us we are His children, but He does not want us to argue and tear others down, He wants us unified in love for each other and when we don't understand things pertaining to scripture and the Bible, He wants us to come to Him in prayer and asking for His wisdom, and He'll teach us. This is not about different Church denominations and doctrines, It's about the Church that Jesus is the Head of, and Christians like us make up the body.
Yes there is those who preach and teach the word but should have Gods anointing to speak the truth, In OT times the priest were anointed with oil,
Read Leviticus 16:32, That oil they used was a refference to the Holy Spirit, that is what is meant in Acts 2: where in verse 1 the key to the first church having the anoiting of the Holy Spirit is the words ( with one accord) means, then they could be given the gifts they needed to build the church, we should never stop reading the word and studing, God wants us to come to Him for the truth not man, remember the word of God is Holy Spirit inspered and God breathed, just like God breathed life into Adam, but this is all Spiritual, and you can't understand spiritual knowledge by listening to man, because the world is filled with false prophets, and false teachers, so we are always to be checking everything we hear through God's living word, we are living in a spiritual war that started as soon as God created the earth, when we argue and fight we are doing the work of the devil to split us apart.
The OT had the priest of the tribe of Levi, starting with Aaron and his sons, but a new type of priest hood, is now the messianic priest hood with Jesus as our High Priest, it's begging was when Abraham meant Melchizedek, back in Genesis 14:18, but did not start offically until Jesus entered the world, and grew into the first Church when Jesus was resurrected and came and he sent the Holy Spirit to the first church back in Acts 2:1 but again the key for the first christians to receive power and the gifts was the fact that they where in unity or as the scripture says they where in (one accord) what was key to that is they where waiting with no knowledge of what would happen, but they were all focused on Jesus.
PTL!

[eddybear]

We don't all develop at the same rates or speed. Sometimes we do not develop in the same way but so long as we are heading in the same direction and our goal is still the same then we should respect and help each other.

This is a very good point. We all need the ability to see that Christians from different traditions to our own may have learned things that we are still blind to. That is the positive side of a site like this, where we can learn from each others' walk with Christ.