Tag Archives: denominations

We are brothers and sisters (Mark 3:33-35) July 17, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Colossians 3-4

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 3:33-35
Jesus looked around.
Jesus (answering them): Who are My mother and brothers?
He called into the silence. No one spoke.
At last His gaze swept across those gathered close, and Jesus smiled.
Jesus: You, here, are My mother and My brothers! Whoever does the will of God is My true family.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Have you ever thought about why we call each other brothers and sisters in the Christian community? Perhaps Jesus started it with His announcement this day when His siblings tried to drag Him back home from His ministry. From all appearances, it seems His earthly father died sometime during Jesus’ teen years and Jesus became the bread-winner for the family. Now at age 30, He sets out to begin His ministry sharing the good news that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

In this day and time, 30 was the magic age to be counted as an adult, wise enough to share your opinion and be heard. I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t wait until now to share His thoughts with His family and friends. I’m sure He shaped His ministry and what He was going to do well before His 30th birthday. But to be heard by the masses, He needed to follow the rules of the temple and He did. He needed to follow most of the civil laws and He did. He needed to obey most of the temple laws and He broke only a few and only when a greater good was at stake.

I think He leaned on His mother and brothers and sisters to listen to His sermons and hone His speaking skills, shape His messages, help Him navigate some of the questions people would have for Him. I think He took all of that time in His formative years and studied, learned all He could of the scriptures and how His real Father wanted Him to share them with the world. And I’m sure He shared those thoughts with his brothers and sisters. The probably thought of Him like Joseph’s brothers did. Ready to throw Him in the loony bin or in the cistern to die at times.

But Jesus was their brother and they came to rescue Him from the stories they heard from their friends about the ridicule He received from the Pharisees. They wanted to make sure the priests didn’t carry out the rumors they heard about arresting Him, stopping His message any way possible, even imprisoning or killing Him if necessary. His brothers and sisters tried to protect Him from the mob forming on the opposite side of the crowds that followed Him.

But when Jesus heard they came to take Him home to protect Him, He looked into the eyes of those gathered around Him and said, “You are My mother and brothers and sisters.”

I think when He began to teach about the kingdom of heaven and helped those around Him understand God adopts us into His family, we become brothers and sisters, God’s children, in a very real sense. God wants us to understand how close a relationship we should have with each other as we join this communion of saints, those whose sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice for us.

When I hear about another denomination growing out of a church because of some doctrinal issue or something that caused the congregation to split, I grieve. I don’t think God intended for us to grow apart with all our petty differences that make up all our denominations. Today a quick search on Google will tell you there are almost 40,000 different denominations, each thinking their individual practices are “The Way” to salvation.

I think the Apostles would be appalled if they saw the state of the church today. Instead of brothers and sisters, we have become at best distant cousins that don’t recognize each other and don’t acknowledge the other exists because we have so little contact and so little in common. We certainly don’t feel like those other folks are brothers and sisters if they are so far afield in their doctrinal thinking, right?

Jesus wants us to think differently. He wants us to recognize that if we carry His name, we are brothers and sisters. We should love each other, not like cousins, but like brothers and sisters. We should care for all those people who have come to Him in repentance and been adopted into His family the same way we would our flesh and blood brothers and sisters.

Jesus wants all of us to remember the few words Christendom agrees on found in the Apostles’ Creed that has come down to us from the very early days of “The Way” as it was called then. I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.

Amen.
When we share those words together, we are brothers and sisters. Members of God’s great family.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

It’s time to unite (Mark 3:23-29) July 16, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Luke 15-16

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 3:23-29
Jesus: Listen. How can Satan drive out Satan? A kingdom that makes war against itself will collapse. A household divided against itself cannot stand. If Satan opposes himself, he cannot stand and is finished.
If you want to break into the house of a strong man and plunder it, you have to bind him first. Then you can do whatever you want with his possessions. Listen, the truth is that people can be forgiven of almost anything. God has been known to forgive many things, even blasphemy. But speaking evil of the Spirit of God is an unforgivable sin that will follow you into eternity.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus wants us united as His church. He wants us to come together to carry out the mission He gave us before He ascended into heaven on a cloud. He wants us to have that single aim, to go and make disciple, teaching them the things He taught His first disciples. So how have we gotten to where we are today with the divide between all those denominations and branches and Catholic and Protestant and everything in between.

Somewhere along the line, we let that thing called selfishness slip in again. I want my way. Even in building the kingdom. I want to believe the way I want. I want to interpret what Jesus said the way I want. I want to live the commandments the way I think they should be lived. I want to hear sermons that touch me the way I want them to. We get into this selfish mode even in our religions. We pick and choose and establish our faith around our desires and our will and our wants even while trying to seek God’s will.

One of the things that slapped me in the face several years ago as I was trying to find God’s will for my life was the selfishness of that very thought. God’s will for my life. I started thinking about that and discovered I kept looking the wrong direction for what I should do next. I was looking for God to point at my life instead of me running toward His.

It sounds like a simple change in thought, but it is a tremendous revolution in your pattern of thinking, really. It’s the renewing of your mind, Paul talks about in Romans 12, because the tables turn. Instead of asking where I’m going next to find favor with Him, I instead ask God where He is going and I will follow. When we begin to change the thought from what is Your will for me, to just what is Your will, things begin to change. It’s just a little thing, but taking me out of the equation changes your focus and brings others into your thoughts clearer and brighter than ever before.

I think it’s this process Jesus taught us in the garden when He prayed “not My will, but Your will be done.” I think it helps us live in the spirit seeking God’s will always. I think it means listening for His voice wherever we are and looking for those opportunities to share His love whenever we have the chance. I think it changes our whole outlook if we just change that single way we ask about God’s will for life. Not my will, not even His will for me, just His will and I’ll go there.

If we would all begin to change our thought process to follow God explicitly in this way, I think the division in churches would disappear. If we would sincerely ask what God’s will was and stop there and then follow, I think the violence in the streets would be curbed significantly. I think we would find revivals sparked around the world. I think we would see healing taking place. I think the church and the world would be very different if we just asked God about His will and followed.

But instead, we forget to ask and go our own way. We want what we want and so we fight each other. We can’t agree on the simplest things and so disrupt the work of the kingdom with our selfishness. We forget the real task at hand, sharing the good news that Jesus came to give His life that we might have abundant, everlasting life. We forget He came to fulfill our lives and bring joy through forgiveness of our sins and we bicker and fight with each other instead of standing together against the real enemy – sin.

Jesus told those that thought He cast out demons by the power of Satan that Satan would lose his strength and power if his minions fought against each other. Isn’t the same true of the church? If we war against each other, don’t we lose the strength and power we could experience if we worked together in unity. Jesus continually called us to unity. It’s about time, the church rose up together against the evil of this world instead of bickering with each other. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Under whose authority? (Matthew 21:24-25) May 16, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Exodus 25-28

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 21:24-25
Jesus: I will answer your question if first you answer one of Mine: You saw John ritually cleansing people through baptism for the redemption of their sins. Did John’s cleansing come from heaven, or was he simply washing people of his own whim?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

The chief priests and elders came to Jesus questioning His authority. Here He was doing miraculous things in the courts of the temple and they couldn’t believe He was doing them by the power of God. Jesus taught those who would listen the meaning of God’s word and showed them the fulfillment of prophecy through His actions and the chief priests and elders thought He must be working with Satan instead of the Almighty. The crowds were flocking to Jesus, so the chief priests and elders knew Jesus must be doing something wrong to attract so many people. They couldn’t get people to come to the temple in such droves, so Jesus must be in league with the devil to gathering such a throng around Him.

We would never do that, would we? We would never look at someone drawing such crowds in the name of God and say they were doing so by the power of Satan, would we? We would never accuse the miracle workers of slight of hand, trickery, and deceit to draw the crowds they do, would we? Hmmm!

When the disciples came to Jesus and wanted Him to stop those performing miracles in His name, He said to leave them alone. If they were doing so under false pretenses, at least His name was being lifted up. They would be judged by their actions, but His name would still be glorified by their actions if His name was used for the healing ministry they were doing. Hmmm! Do we condemn those who perform miracles in Jesus’ name, calling them charlatans, doing it only for the money?

I wonder what Jesus would say about our conversations today if He dropped into our churches and social groups and homes as we talked about our brothers and sisters. When we begin to belittle our fellow denominations or we start talking about the televangelists or we demean all faith healers when one or two are found to plant fake victims of disease or illness in the audience, are we doing what these chief priest and elders did?

I think we might be. I think Jesus might just ask us to answer a few questions that would cause us to stop us in our tracks, back away slowly with an embarrassed look on our face, and run back into our holes. You see, if people are doing good in Jesus’ name, it’s not our place to figure out their internal motive. If they are doing so for their personal gain, that’s for God to sort out. If they accept funds and use that money to satisfy their own greed and avarice, they will answer for it before God. We don’t need to worry about it.

But they might also be using all that money for the good of others. They might be pouring that money into other ministries and we really don’t know unless we are able to see the books and few of us have that access, do we. What we do know is that Jesus’ name is being lifted up and He is given credit for the healing, the ministry, the miracles that are taking place. And that’s what He wants. Those that are instruments of those actions will answer to God for the motive of their actions.

The same is true when we talk about each others denominations. Are the baptists right? Are the Methodists on the wrong track? Will the Presbyterians be at the head of the line in heaven? Will the Catholics be at the back of the line or the front? Are the Lutherans leading people the wrong direction? We talk about each other a lot. The truth is there is something right in all our doctrines and methods of governance. And the truth is there is something wrong in all our doctrines and methods of governance.

The right is that we all worship God and put our faith, trust, and hope in Jesus, His Son, who gave His life for our redemption. The wrong is we are all sinners and flawed because of it. Every one of our denominations grew out of discord with a parent denomination. God never intended denominations to happen within His church, but we began to have discord from the very beginnings of the church with the arguments about whether Gentiles should undergo the rite of circumcision when they became members of Christ’s body, the church.

Since that time, groups split from one denomination after another. The Catholic, universal church began, but the Orthodox church split from the universal church, then the Greek Orthodox saw they had it right so they split again. Luther came along to address the problem of indulgences levied by corrupt, greedy priests more interested in property than piety and the Protestant religion was born with the Lutheran church, then it split because of governance. Then it split because of doctrine questions, then it split over the treatment of segments of the population, then it split over the question of missions, then it split over… Now churches split over the color of carpet or where the keyboard sits on the platform.

Are we any different than those chief priests and elders asking about the authority of the other ministers around us? Think about it the next time you decide to have one of those ministers of denominations for lunch!

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.