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John 17:20-23
My pryaers is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, THAT ALL OF THEM MAY 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 loved them even as you have loved me.
With all the bickering, and stone-casting, and cries of heresy, lies, and deception I read on here, I wonder what these verses mean to you all. Jesus wants us to be a united in Him. He wants us to stand together and love one another like God is in Jesus and Jesus is in us so that we can show the world. How are we showing the world that we are united in Christ when all we do is bicker and fight and try to prove each other wrong instead of uplift, guide, and teach? How often have you corrected someone, not out of concern for their eternal soul, or out of love for them, or out of glory to God, but simply because you think they are wrong and you want them to believe what you believe?
How are we, as Christians, going to do this? We've got Catholics standing here, Baptists over there, Pentecostals on that side, Presbyterians over there. What does the world see? They see a bunch of people who all have the same instructions, the same message, the same job in this world and yet are divided over some of the silliest things imaginable. All the bickering over whether God is one being or three, or if infants should be baptized, or if sabbath is a sunday or a saturday, we sound like a bunch of pharisee's and are completely forgetting what God wanted us to do. He wants us to love one another as Christ loved us, and to stand united as God is united with Jesus.
That's what that means to me, I'm very interested to see what others have to say.
(and yes, my verses were taken out of the horribly wicked NIV given to my husband by a priest on our wedding day)
My pryaers is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, THAT ALL OF THEM MAY 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 loved them even as you have loved me.
With all the bickering, and stone-casting, and cries of heresy, lies, and deception I read on here, I wonder what these verses mean to you all. Jesus wants us to be a united in Him. He wants us to stand together and love one another like God is in Jesus and Jesus is in us so that we can show the world. How are we showing the world that we are united in Christ when all we do is bicker and fight and try to prove each other wrong instead of uplift, guide, and teach? How often have you corrected someone, not out of concern for their eternal soul, or out of love for them, or out of glory to God, but simply because you think they are wrong and you want them to believe what you believe?
How are we, as Christians, going to do this? We've got Catholics standing here, Baptists over there, Pentecostals on that side, Presbyterians over there. What does the world see? They see a bunch of people who all have the same instructions, the same message, the same job in this world and yet are divided over some of the silliest things imaginable. All the bickering over whether God is one being or three, or if infants should be baptized, or if sabbath is a sunday or a saturday, we sound like a bunch of pharisee's and are completely forgetting what God wanted us to do. He wants us to love one another as Christ loved us, and to stand united as God is united with Jesus.
That's what that means to me, I'm very interested to see what others have to say.
(and yes, my verses were taken out of the horribly wicked NIV given to my husband by a priest on our wedding day)