Unity and letting God revive Christianity

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roaringkitten

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I wrote this about a year ago when I was in college(FSU), it speaks about general complacency in the college life of the Christian. It is meant to give a college perspective of the Christian roles in this world....It also largely applies to the body of Christ in general.



A fellow believer told of an analogy tonight. When you walk around late at night, there are usually lights scattered about but not too eye catching eh? I'd say the light poles on our campus are about 50-100 feet apart in any one direction. The light isn't focused and is just enough to get us place to place. But when you look at a football stadium at night with all its lights on its pretty bright. Almost brighter than day. In order to produce this much light there must be a large collective effort by thousands of light bulbs. You see, the light here at the stadium at night is FOCUSED. UNIFIED. In ONENESS. It sticks out. When a college's campus ministries arent working together and/or when believers within a college body are off doing their own thing then our light is dimmed. We become like those sporadic night lights that get us place to place. We are the salt of the world. Salt is useless if it loses its saltiness. We must take our light and create the stadium light effect. We need to stand out.

One thing that I'm having a burden for as of late is community. Christ modeled this through his teachings and examples throughout scripture. What this embodies is unity. Oneness. Just as the Godhead represents. God has been speaking to me that unity is accomplished with all campus ministries and believers working as a unit. Just as one man cannot reach a whole campus by himself, so each ministry cannot possibly gain the most potential working independent of each other. A body cannot stand divided amongst itself! What would happen if the different parts of our bodies started working independent of each other? We'd first get REALLY sick then die. This is what people see the body of Christ today. They see division and chaos. It's great that each campus ministry and believers are producing fruit, but it would be much greater/efficient if we did this God's way. Overall, apathy is killing the fire. Complacency is killing the fire. Division is killing the fire......until the fire goes out. It is my prayer and vision that our campuses are reached by uniting our ministries and believers together. Jesus prayed this before he was crucified:

John17: 20-23: "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

Read Ephesians 4:1-16. It tells us that we all have been given unique abilities to serve God and fulfill the Great Commission.
Romans 12:4-8- "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not have the same function, so in Christ we who many form one body and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us. If a man's gift is prophesizing, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully".

We weren't all called to do the same things, just as every part of the body is unique and has it's function. When one part of our bodies suffers the rest of it follows suit. This is why the body of Christ is suffering in this day and age. Churches are off doing their own thing. Some are bringing man's desires and goals in place of God's goals, teaching a prosperity gospel, treating church as a business meeting. "Religion" is creeping into Christianity. "Religion" is something God has been telling me is what divides us from God. "Religion" is quickly taking our Church and replacing what God wants with what worldly culture believes. Note that when Jesus was speaking about the pharisees, the "religious leaders", He was reprimanding them for focusing on the ritual itself and hypocrisy and not on the object of their faith. Christianity is rooted in Christ. Rooted in the eternal. Rooted in Love. Rooted in the eternal. Sadly, these qualities are being dulled by the Church today. Division is rampant(non-Christians see denominations as division), complacency is common(Christians living like the world when God tells us to not be of this world), and the true message of Christ's Love and forgiveness isn't being perceived how it ought to been seen by the world. This is a perspective issue. Too many times we forget that at one time we were on the outside looking in. In terms of college, I feel that revival starts with the individual looking to the reviver-God. You must have the desire to want to be used by God to do great things. Ask God for the fire he wants all us Christians to have. Unity is something God is pleading for us Christians to embrace and practice.

This is how Christianity should be shown to the world. . Unity in Christ is powerful. God wants to do great things for our campuses. Nothing is too big for God.

I hope after reading this, you would put these words into practice. Revival is coming to FSU. It will happen elsewhere! It's a matter of when we get completely unified and let Christ lead.




As an addition to this topic I would like to add that some things we do as Christians may be done with the right intention, but is perceived as something else by the world.....For instance, the body of Christ has many denominations....Many Christians think this is great and mean it well, but the world may see it as Christianity divided....I've talked to non-Christians about this and this is what they tell me...In closing, Christ sees us as a unit-the body of Christ, not as pentecostal, baptist, etc...The church is not brick and mortar, church is Christians as a whole with Christ as its head...This is UNITY.
 
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