Passage of the Day - February 3, 2013

Colossians 3:8-16

⁸ But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, ¹⁰ and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— ¹¹ a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
¹² So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; ¹³ bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. ¹⁴ Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. ¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

You know, this decision, and life in general, would be much easier if the Church was united.  I long for a united Church.  Can you imagine the glory God would receive from the world when it saw His Church performing His work as one unit?  Can you imagine what a coordinated effort could do in reaching the unreached, feeding the hungry, parenting the orphan, healing the sick, lifting up the poor, and loving the unloved?  Instead we focus our attention on whether family baptism including infants is correct, how many fingers should be used when making the sign of the cross, traditional hymns vs. contemporary music, music played at 80 decibels vs. 120 decibels, speaking in tongues or not, allowing women to be pastors/elders/priests/bishops, allowing homosexuals to be pastors/elders/priests/bishops, the type of bread/wafer or juice/wine used in the breaking of bread/Eucharist/communion, the timing of the Church calendar, etc.  It is really a shame that we can’t keep things simple.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)