U-N-I

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Yesterday at AHOP in Xenia, Pastor shared a message about UNITY.

He made the correlation that UNITY begins with U-N-I; you and I for those who haven’t had their morning JOE just yet.

And while we all would fundamentally agree that we function better when we are unified, achieving unity is something altogether different. We all have different backgrounds, different cultural ties, different hot buttons and triggers. We all have different preferences and tastes, different goals and different aspirations.

Yet GOD calls us to function in unity. And while GOD crafted each of us differently, He gave us a unified and simple purpose.

Luke 10:27-28

“That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

28 “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

Yet sometimes that whole “loving your neighbor” thing becomes awfully challenging when we don’t see eye to eye, when our agendas don’t mesh or we aren’t on the same page.

But GOD desires that we embrace and celebrate our uniqueness while functioning in unity. He draws the parallel to our bodies. You remember that analogy right?

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (NIV)

Unity and Diversity in the Body

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[a] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are un-presentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

THAT is U-N-I!

So let’s listen to Pastor, Jesus and the WORD today and remember where UNITY begins...with YOU and I!

Romans 15:5

Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:

Have a blessed day.

I love you all.

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney