(John 11:45-57)
Girls look for the "bad guys" and guys never see to go for the "good girl". Any good movie or stage performance demands an antagonistic situation. It is easier for us to look for the wrong in something rather than to find anything good. People (Christians included) crave conflict.
While conflict doesn't necessarily have to be bad, most of the time, we see conflict playing out in not so great ways. It has caused church splits and divides, many heated "debates" (a.k.a., arguments), and disunity within the Church all around the world. But we read in John 11:45-57 that Jesus died so that we could all be brought together. Jesus did it for all of us so we all could be one with Him.
So this begs the question, how do we come together and build unity within the global Church and within our local assembly?
Action Steps for this week:
1. Spend 30 minutes this week reflecting and praying about the question above. (How do we come together and build unity within the global Church and within our local assembly?)
2. Write a comment below on what ideas or solutions your reflection and prayer brought about.
3. Read through a newspaper taking note of any articles focusing on people being united or working together. Then re-read through that newspaper taking note of all of the articles focusing on conflict. Then answer the following questions:
- How many news articles were about people being united?
- How many news articles were about people being in conflict?
- Which stories held your attention the most? Why?
- Which stories encouraged you the most? Why?
- Choose one story of conflict and re-write it to be a story of unity. How would our world change if we saw more unity?
4. It is through encouragement that the Church is built up in unity so this week go out of your way to be an encouragement to one of your church family this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment