“Divided we fall / United we Stand”

As I read the New Testament and how the early church was formed, one word keeps jumping out at me; “Unity!!!” Jesus spent so much time trying to unite, bring together, and connect His Disciples one to another forming one Body or One Unit – The Church! Jesus warned His Disciples about division, in the Book of Matthew chapter-12 verse-25 Jesus said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” (NKJV) That word desolation means; unhappiness, misery, despair, sadness, and depression. Think about it, division births all of these negative afflictions. We’ve heard of the Fruits of the Spirit, but it’s like these are the rotten fruits of the evil spirit of division.

As we look at the postmodern world that we live in, we can see the Church divided against herself! I used to pray that the Pentecostals would learn to fellowship with their Baptist brothers and sisters, but now I would just love to see the Pentecostals learn to get along with other Pentecostals, let alone other Denominations! In our culture we have so many churches forming for the simple fact that Christian folks just can’t get along. What will we do if we get the Heaven? To spite popular opinions Heaven will not be sectioned off! No, there will not be a Pentecostal Heaven, a Baptist heaven, a Catholic Heaven, a Methodist Heaven etc… There will only be ONE Heaven, and we will all be together in one place, worshiping God for eternity with One Voice! The denomination name tags we wear so proudly here on earth will do us no good on the other side, regardless where you go! Think about it, if you go down the denomination name tags will burn off and if you go up the denomination name tags will fall off!

I believe we are living in desperate times! These are times of Great Opportunity for the Local church, Every Denomination, to come together on common ground. That God is God and He is the Only Living God, Jesus Is His Son who died for our sins, through Jesus we can be saved, and through Jesus we can receive God’s power through His Holy Spirit! Can we put our worship styles and church doctrines aside for a while, and seek God’s Glory and salvation for our nation? Jesus Prayed in John chapter-17 verse-11, “that they may be one as We are.” (NKJV)

Last week a Pastor from a Church in Junior (New Convent Church) closed his doors for their Wednesday night church service and brought his congregation over to Haven of Hope to join our Revival service! What a testimony of God’s Heart for His Church! I end this column today with a challenge to the rest of Barbour County Pastors: take this Brother’s lead and let’s join together in Christ and watch God’s Revival Fire ignite Barbour County! Remember the old proverb, “Divided we fall / United we Stand!”