When I want to send an important message to my wife, I have several methods to choose from to convey this message.  I can text her, email her, call her …….. Have you ever heard something like, “this is not something you say in an email…..”, and actually get into an argument over the method used to convey the message, so much so that the message itself ends up being lost, dissipated, overlooked or unnoticed? The way we convey the message can dominate and overshadow the message. Regardless of how crucial the method is, the message is of utmost value.

John 3:16 is a verse that Christians, regardless of classification, can recite verbatim. Go ahead, recite it. Please go ahead and say it out loud. What does the verse convey to you? Probably something like this;

God sent His son Jesus as a sacrifice to save me

Is JESUS the message? No, Jesus is the method.

The message is LOVE; “For God so loved…

You will think or say, “Semantics as God showed His love by sacrificing Jesus, so it is one and the same.”

This is where the argument about the method starts, or have started a few years after Jesus was Resurrected and have not stopped since.

God sent His son to die for me, what more do I need to know that God loves me??

This of course is TRUE and CRUCIAL but making it the ONLY thing we focus on, at least in my opinion, does not allow us to experience the LOVE of our LORD and Creator to you and me “His message”. We know about HIS LOVE, but we do not experience HIS LOVE. We all know that LOVE is action and the LOVE action is continual. And our Lord throughout the Bible expresses that His LOVE is supreme and shows us how we can continually experience His LOVE. The danger in teaching our children that God’s LOVE is all about one event that happened 2,000 years ago, keeps God’s LOVE in their mind and not in their heart.

To be passionately and madly in love with our God and our Lord, we have to use the Bible, including the crucifixion and resurrection, to keep God in the hearts of our children, not just their minds. I say children as we, the adults, have painted God into a box in our minds. Of course we adults can work on bringing Him into our hearts. There is so much we can learn to fall passionately and madly in love with our Lord, Creator and God. Think of the picture at the beginning of this blog. Hope you know it and yes we can be THAT passionately and madly in LOVE with our LORD and Creator.

Of course Jesus is real and He is LORD, one with our LORD and Creator. Jesus indeed was crucified and resurrected and the crucifixion is indeed an awesome, overwhelming and tremendous method for our LORD and God to convey His message of LOVE to humanity. This I would imagine is agreed upon by all of Christianity.

It is the details of the method and what each component of the method may entail, that keeps people arguing and it occupies our time so much that we keep God trapped in our minds and not in our hearts.

Let’s not kid ourselves, such details were not made clear to humanity, yet humanity cannot accept that. God did not clarify it, and we are bent out of shape to clarify and explain the mind of God. I believe that God wants us to focus on His heart, for that is all over the Bible starting from Creation and throughout, and leave the mind of the Creator to the Creator.

Of course there will always be theories and debates, and that is fine, but we need to keep these at bay as “opinions” and not as doctrine.

You can participate in helping the various churches transcend their differences and cooperate together for HIS GLORY and to teach His message His LOVE not only through the crucifixion but through the multitude of LOVE ACTIONS, PAST AND PRESENT.

Ask these following questions to your leaders so that they may GLORIFY our LORD AND CREATOR further than we do now.

Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church/ Is God’s LOVE for man means to fight over what Jesus said or meant/ Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and we can undo them and reunite. It is possible not impossible. Why? Because it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week 🙂

Personally, while driving from point A to point B, I can get into a full argument about which route is ‘THE’ route to take. Come on, tell me it is not just me……. This applies to a plethora of subjects. There is this ‘If I give in then the other person is correct which basically says that I am incorrect. This ‘I am right and you are wrong’ has become, I believe, a strong basis of human interactions. The odds are – and may the odds ever be in your favor 😉  – you are thinking, “I am definitely not like that.” You, me and everyone else thinks and says, “not me’, yet the world indeed is…..   Remember, our children are watching me, you and the world and learning that life is about whose side to take!

For anything to CHANGE it takes time and persistence. One has to be persistent asking oneself this question; “why am I so strongly bent on this matter?” Start with the small stuff, and stick with the small stuff. It is this sticknesstoit that will make it become clear that life is not Zeros and Ones on everything. It is NOT. It is more like 80-20 or 30-70 or whatever scale you think it is. The steps are;

Why am I so strongly bent on this matter?
Where on the scale am I and where do I need to be?
Adjust response and reaction
Next day + the adjustment Factor

Time goes by and our children have an X% better world

I know many laugh this off as too simple, but life is simple, God is simple and we are simple only if we allow ourselves to be.

I strongly believe that if me, you and the world ask questions and make adjustments, then we can find better ways to cooperate rather than bicker and strife. Therefore it is time to ask this question;

Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church/ Is God’s LOVE for man means to fight over what Jesus said or meant/ Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and we can undo them and reunite. It is possible not impossible. Why? Because it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week 🙂

As I go thru a situation, sometimes I am banking on it unfolding the way I want it to unfold. Who wouldn’t, right? Each one of us may label it something different, things like; positive energy, vibes, even prayer. Simply giving it all we’ve got with great anticipation for the desired outcome. If it does not come out my way, there’s that……. Disappointment. It could be a little disappointment or a great disappointment, either way, we’re down on ourselves, and we wonder or dwell on why it did not come out my way. Disappointment has a very large scale, from a simple blah moment all the way to depression.

Oh come on Reda, you may say, disappointment is part of life. Indeed it is, but it does not have to be on the scale that has created the ‘ME’ ‘ME’ culture that we presently live in. Like anything, we can minimize it or allow it to grow rampantly. HOW?  The answer is Simple. STOP expecting and teach your children to STOP expecting!? You are probably chuckling right now, as it is just in our nature to expect things………… right? I suggest that we can ‘hope’ instead of ‘expect’.    Semantics, right? Nope, not at all. Please note that simplicity illuminates while complexity occludes.  So here’s a simple illustration that expectation and hope are polar opposites, and therefore a choice needs to be made between them, every time. Note the jest of the following is applicable in relationships, interactions with family, at work, at church………… a life style my friend.

A sentence to describe expectation;       If I work hard I will get a bonus.

• Therefore the ‘work hard’ is the path to getting a bonus
• My ‘work hard ‘ is to serve myself by receiving a reward for my hard work
• Patting myself on the shoulder when I get it (I’d include thanks in my prayers of course), and be angry filled with resentment if I do not get it
• Chances are my ‘work hard’ will be affected by not getting the bonus

A sentence to describe hope;    I will work hard and a bonus would be nice if I get one.

• The ‘work hard’ is not a path to get anything, rather it is an attitude, a way of action
• My ‘work hard’ is to serve those that I am working for and not to serve myself
• I am thankful to God & those that gave me the bonus
• My ‘work hard’ will not be affected by receiving or not receiving the bonus

Please note in a relational aspect, an expected bonus is nothing other than an expected ‘thank you’ for something I’ve done or an expected recognition for something I’ve performed.

Expectation is all about ‘ME’ and thus lacks the humility that we should infuse our lives with. I hope, no pun intended, that the sentences describing expectation and hope above, express the lack of humility in ‘Expectation’ while emphasizing the humility in ‘Hope’.

Expectation        =             Disappointment
Disappointment leads to dissatisfaction
Dissatisfaction instigates us to be bitter
Bitterness breeds division and strife

Words associated with failed Expectation are; want, desire, anger, disappointment, irritation, resentment…..          the “I deserved to get it (ME)” attitude

Hope                     =             Acceptance
Acceptance leads to contentment
Contentment instigates us to be at Peace
and Peace breeds Joy

Words associated with failed Hope are; faith, contentment, harmony, peace, acceptance, love, gratification……     the “it’s OK, maybe next time (hope)” attitude

With such descriptions, ‘Hope’ wins every time, but then why doesn’t it?

Because expectation is all about ‘ME’ and hope is about the community. Because expectation is about what it looks on the outside and hope is about how it feels on the inside. Because expectation is EASY and hope requires WORK, and history has proven that ‘we’ would rather not work at it. But we can change the course of history by choosing to work at it. It takes practice and continual practice at that, but the result is just fantastical.

Look at our political partisanship, our ‘my way or the highway’, our ‘if you are not with me you are against me’, our divisions in the churches, all simple proof of our history and culture of strife and bitterness. It is time to work on changing it. Of course it starts with the man/woman in the mirror, but the next step is to ask the person next to you to turn around to look in the mirror as well. This can be in the form of asking the questions that would make the person go, ‘yeah, yeah, why do we do that?’ It is now time for me to ask the same questions I ask each time;

So have you thought about these questions; Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church/ Is God’s LOVE for man means to fight over what Jesus said or meant/ Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and using FAITH, HOPE & LOVE we can undo them and reunite. It is possible not impossible. Why? Because it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week 🙂

My wife and I just had a tiff about something and we are trying to resolve it. The conversation goes something like this;

• I am upset because when you said ………….. you made me feel ……………
• No, no, this is not what I meant, what I meant is ……………..
• Oh, thanks for clarifying. I get it now. I am no longer upset………
  We hug and kiss and all is hunky dory.

I hope you are either rolling on the floor laughing or shaking your head saying ‘liar’. Wouldn’t life be just grand if indeed this is how any two people resolved conflict? Of course it would be, but it just is not. Although the incident just occurred, and the facts are very fresh, each person recalls to the other what the facts looked like from ‘MY’ perspective.  Creating further upsetting and escalation of the tiff at hand rather than resolving it. Neither will give into the other’s opinion, because each truly believes in ‘THEIR’ set of facts. Then how does it get resolved?? Typically it goes something like this;

• Step away from each other for hopefully a shorter than longer period of time
• One will come to the other, best if this is alternating and not always the same person
• 1> If it is the perceived offender; “I did not mean it that way, but I apologize that it came across that way and let’s not fight over this as I love you too much to have you upset like that”
  2> If it is the perceived offended; “What you said hit me that way and that’s why I got upset, but let’s not fight over this as I love you too much to stay upset like that”
  3> Many a time, with no conversation at all, after a bit of time, resume life as normal not discussing this incident that caused the tiff.
• Whichever way it occurs, the love we have for each other allows us to rise above and transcend the incident. For if there is no love, the incidents take over and capture the relationship hostage, and if that happens then the final outcome is ugly.

So what’s the point? The point is actually two points;

• Facts are a matter of the ‘mind’ and actually very flawed because they are invariably affected or skewed by our mind’s perception, for they are indeed opinion that we believe in as fact.
• Love is a matter of the ‘heart’ and not of the mind. Love is passion, affection, pain, excitement, care, ache, pleasure, enjoyment, agony, delight, satisfaction, etc. Every one of these depicts an ACTIVE description. Each one of them is an EXPERIENCE in and of itself. Read them again and FEEL them. Go on, read them again, but this time EXPERIENCE each one.

And FAITH my friend, like love, is a matter of the heart and not of the mind. Faith as well is ACTIVE. It is not to be proven it is to be experienced. Nurture your Faith as faith is not a target or a destination, rather it is a flower that needs to be attended and fed so that it may grow, and no one can pass by without noticing it. To keep it real, think of how our culture uses the word ‘faith’. We say ‘have faith’ primarily in situations of crisis; cancer, death, loss of a job and so on. We are essentially using faith as a mind tool to help with a broken heart. Let’s bring back faith into our hearts for this is where it belongs.

Someone a lot smarter than I, many years ago, grouped ‘faith’, ‘hope’ and ‘love’ together. A beautiful trilogy that is interdependent and each is a matter of the heart. Thank you Paul. Please think about if you are asked to describe faith, your faith, how will you describe it? Evaluate your answer and ask yourself, “am I describing a mind matter or a heart matter?”  I want you to know that this is a continuing exploration to simply move our Creator our Lord from our minds and the knowledge we have about Him, to our hearts. God is indeed LOVE and we just need not to argue about what His love to us means or translates to, rather we need to hone in on what it means to LOVE HIM.

So have you thought about these questions; Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church/ Is God’s LOVE for man means to fight over what Jesus said or meant/ Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and using FAITH, HOPE & LOVE we can undo them and reunite. It is possible not impossible. Why? Because it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week 🙂

Let’s look at how you and I got here. I hope this is an eye opener. Note that this short list is not to emphasis differences or to find which one is correct. I need you to ask yourself, “REALLY?” and the hope is that “REALLY?” gets louder and louder as you move down the list and at the end you are fed up. Yes, fed up at what you and I, my father and your father have allowed to happen over time. Without feeling fed up, you and I will just move on and not want to do anything to change the status quo. If you feel fed up, then you know how essential it is to change the status quo. We can work together to figure out how to change it.
This is a link to a pdf with the same information, in presentation style, if you’d like to have https://www.dropbox.com/s/863diabnugk8tkg/HowDidWeGetHere.pdf?dl=0

Start of List

People in Judaism split over interpretation of Scripture, laws and customs to;
Sadducees ;  Pharisees ; Essenes
Note; Scriptures were only available to priests and scholars yet the small % of the Jewish population with access to Scriptures came up with different interpretations of the same Scriptures

Jesus, born a Jew. crucified & resurrected a Jew, as well as all his disciples born of Jewish faith and died of Jewish faith

The Year is;
“48 A.D.”  Paul argues about the necessity of circumcision for gentile believers. James using Scripture ordains no circumcision for gentiles but they must observe Moses’ laws in regards food and sexual morality, although circumcision was a direct communication from God to Abraham while the abstain from food was a tenet of Judaism.
Note: No split, yet a clear distinction in “we preach to the circumcised and you preach to the uncircumcised”

“~120 A.D.” Jewish faith people that are Jesus followers been labeled by non-believers as Christ followers. Clearly Judaism will not accept Jesus as the Messiah, and the name Christian is adopted by the Jewish faith Jesus followers, and establish a NEW religion

“170 A.D.”  1st New testament compiled, then a few changes and councils in the years 363, 393 & 397 affirmed that the 27 books of the NT are authoritative

“170-312 A.D.”  Christianity remains underground and persecuted yet flourishing with authority from Rome where Patriarchs are established

“313 A.D.”  Constantine ceases the persecution of Christianity. Patriarch in Rome is the authoritative figure in Christianity and Scriptures are still ONLY available to the elect, a small % of the believers

“325 A.D.”  What do we believe in? Nicene Creed… Arian controversy. The fight is over; “how exactly is Jesus & God interrelated”. Which no one to this day can claim Absolute Truth about, JUST many interpretation of the same Scriptures

“~360 A.D.”  Jesus’ birth date is searched to be celebrated. 2 Groups, 2 dates & to this day Christmas is celebrated Jan 7th & Dec 25th

“333 A.D.”  Constantine moves the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople

Christianity is splitting within itself…… & only a small % has access to Scriptures

“381 A.D.”  Nicene Creed redefined to fight teachings about the Jesus-God interrelation

“~390 A.D.”   Rome still has a Patriarch speaking Latin. 4 additional Patriarchs are in; Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem & Byzantium and all speak Greek

“431 A.D.”  Still fighting about the nature of Jesus, Council curses those against Nicene Creed. Assyrian church splits. God did NOT pitch in this fight

“451 A.D.”  Still fighting about the nature of Jesus … like; is Jesus “in” or “from”….. Oriental Orthodox Church splits;  Alexandria Patriarch. God NEVER pitched into this fight either. Council recognizes equal honor to the Patriarch of Constantinople as to that of Rome’s

“1054 A.D.”  Rome (West) & Constantinople (East) Patriarchs bickering since 451, excommunicate each other over “…the Father and the Son” vs. “… the Father” The Greek Orthodox Church splits

“Till 1516 A.D.”  Although the Roman empire has become very weak, the Church under the Roman Patriarch has become very strong and we all know about the Middle Ages

“1517 A.D.” Martin Luther witnessing the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church under the auspices of “the Patriarch just like the Bible has absolute authority”, decided to PROTEST the Church’s actions and propose that ONLY the Bible has absolute authority and not the Patriarchs. Martin Luther did not seek to abolish rather to reform of the Catholic church Yet the Lutheran church starts

The Pro-test-ants Flourish now that the masses can read & INTERPRET the Bible
– Please watch with me through this process and ask at each split; Is this to further God’s Kingdom?
Or, to prove if I or You are interpreting the Bible right!?  Is it OPINION or ABSOLUTE TRUTH?

“1525 A.D.” Anabaptist/Mennonites ; Bible clearly prohibits infant baptism &…. Let’s start our own church

“1536 A.D.” Anglican Church splits from the Roman Church and follow the Calvin model

“1555 A. D.” Presbyterian church splits based on the Calvin model; Only the ‘elect’ are SAVED. God did not pitch into this fight

“1595 A.D.” Armenian Church splits; Free Will not predestination.  God did not pitch in

“1612 A.D.” General  Baptist; Full immersion is the ONLY Biblical baptism. God’s not in this fight

“1638 A.D.” First Baptist Church as there were differences in predestination vs. free will

“1736 A.D.” Methodist church splits from Anglican church and follow Armenian model

“1794 A.D.” Restoration movement to simplify, rather we have the Christian church and Church of Christ. God did not pipe in

“1901 A.D.” Pentecostal church requiring the speaking of tongues as evidence of salvation

“1914 A.D.” Assemblies of God varying on trinity and oneness with Pentecostal belief. God again is staying out of this fight

“1980 A.D.” Nondenominational churches with no hierarchy or established beliefs, free standing churches. Note,  Nondenominational churches although with no organized structure have become a denomination.

End of list.

To remind you, the goal of this exercise is not to highlight the differences or who is correct, rather to demonstrate that the differences are NEVER PROVABLE. They are simply OPINIONS of what the Bible says, for each uses verses from the same and one Bible to support their own case.

Remember;
None of the originators of the ideas behind the divisions claimed divinity or God saying thru
them, “this is how God & Jesus relate…….” or “I will not accept a
baptism unless it is done ..…..”     NONE

My father and your father simply wanted to demonstrate how much they love our FATHER
and demonstrate how much they KNOW HIM so they continued to say,
Daddy wants this and not that. Then the brother or sister say,
no no Daddy wants us to……. but not to…….

Meanwhile Daddy is watching the kids, still smiling, shaking His head and
probably saying to Himself,
One day they’ll stop their squabbling over Me
They’ll mature
One day they’ll know what I AM about
They’ll look back, laugh and say “remember when” and giggle
For now, at least they know that I continue to Love them with ALL My Heart

Many believe after we die then we can ask our Father!

Don’t you think you would have a richer relationship with our
Father as a mature person while on this Earth?

You and I, my father and your father created the squabbling, and
we can rise above it.

You may wonder, “Why go thru the trouble?”

So that our Father is elated……………      to Please Him

and may the glory be to God always and forever

So have you thought about these questions; Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church/ Is it God’s plan for man to fight over what Jesus said or meant/ Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and we need to undo it and reunite. It is possible not impossible. Why? Because it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week 🙂

I typed this sentence, “The absolute truth in my opinion is” then I stopped and laughed as the sentence is an oxymoron. Right? Absolute and opinion in the same sentence just cannot be. What has caused division over and over again is that people have done and continue to do 2 things;

• Believe that one’s individual opinion is the Absolute Truth
• They drop the “in my opinion” & then stand on the absoluteness of what is someone’s opinion

The following is a fictional example in order to draw or illustrate this concept. The picture at the beginning of this post was drawn by an artist and displayed in a gallery. The artist does not explain the painting, instead encourages the audience to take from it what they believe it means for it contains much wisdom, knowledge and insight. The audience, impressed by the work and history of the artist, gather after the exhibition to discuss what this painting means.

John: I have known Matt (the artist) and his work for yeas and ABC is what this painting means

Steve: No John, you are wrong because 2 paintings ago Matt kind of indicated that his passion is about XYZ and this painting has to follow that same passion and therefore this painting means XYZ not ABC

Although Matt is the only one that ABSOLUTELY knows the TRUTH about the meaning of this picture, yet many opinions are being planted as “either” “or” and Johnites and Stevenites come to existence. What about the Mattites where are they??? Well, Matt is not taking sides and not giving any hints as to which, if there is any, is correct and which is incorrect. Matt wants them to work through this and choose for themselves. Choose what? Choose to see that neither XYZ nor ABC is the Absolute Truth, rather opinions. Opinions, that enhance the coming closer to understand Matt, rather than an “either” “or” meanings to the same painting. Then and only then there won’t be Stevenites and Johnites rather people striving to get closer and closer to the wisdom, knowledge and insight within this painting.

And that my friend is the wisdom, knowledge and insight of the Bible, how to humble oneself to admit that my opinion is just that and not the mind of God. And oh how we use the same Bible, the same word and the same verse to plant an opinion as absolute truth and create an empire based on THIS ABSOLUTE TRUTH. And another and another and another. How many Absolute Truths can there be based on ONE.

Did you know that 3 major Church splits that occurred around the 500 A.D. and 1,000 A.D. did come back and reunite around the 14-15 hundreds? That’s 500-1,000 years later they came back and reunited….. Surprised? Do not be. Reconciliation and reuniting are the highest forms of humility as it takes people breaking down WALLS that they themselves erected and fortified.

So have you thought about these questions; Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church/ Is it God’s plan for man to fight over what Jesus said or meant/ Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and we need to undo it and reunite. It is possible not impossible. Why? Because it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week.

In continuation of promoting and presenting the union of all denominations, I get the distinct feeling, when talking (vs. blogging) to others about it, that the impression I may be relaying to others looks like, “Oh the present church is just not doing it ‘right’ hence the dwindling statistics we all know about Christianity today. Therefore, if we only start something new and do it ‘right’, then this new thing will just grow like wild fire, instead of what the present church is doing.”

Nope, nope. To unite anything is to bring the different aspects of that ‘thing’ together in order to unite and become one. Starting ANYTHING new is nothing but a further addition to the division at hand. It is really simple without the need for complications. Unity is about getting the different denominations across the board to indeed unite. I know I know, you either shook your head, smirked or right out laughed out loud 🙂  My response is this, “have faith my friend, for union is indeed God’s desire and as impossible as man thinks it, God, I believe, will have a huge smile on His face when we shed off our pride, stubbornness, arrogance, conceit, bullheadedness, self-interest, superiority and self-importance, and put Him FIRST.” It may take 20+ years, but without something starting now that + gets longer and longer and longer.

I have asked 10 people so far, all in church leadership positions from various denominations, the same questions that I listed in the last 2 blogs and will list at the end of many blogs to come, I hope. The unanimous and passionate answer is; “of course God does not desire to have so many church denominations or splits, of course not.” If your response to the questions is the same, then why would you yes you, not participate in asking the same questions!?

One answer I can come up with is; “the natural response of people will probably be to split the church I am at and create division and not unite.” There is a possibility this can happen, after all we have taken our marbles and moved to another church or started a new one for reasons WAY LESS than strong theological debates…… sorry if that sentence hurt a bit but bear with me. To avoid that, first we need to emphasize the “let’s have a family meeting” concept. Let’s discuss amongst each other and hopefully other denominations within the same community ask the following;

• Why do we have 7 belief systems in 7 churches in our town? The 7 is a random number 🙂
• We stand so firm on typically ONE thing to set ourselves apart from the rest….
• Would God rather that we minimize (SHED) the differences and maximize the common?
• Yes, of course…… Then how do we make that happen?
• Well, let’s lean on our church leadership to actually work together with ONE other church leadership on something in our community OTHER THAN let’s have a shared service at Christmas at this church or that one
• Work on something that will not trace back to WHICH church gets the credit

What’s that going to do? It will build, over time, a culture that focuses on what Jesus is doing in the community and not what THIS church is doing in the community. We, at least in my opinion, have sadly built a culture over hundreds if not thousands of years that emphasizes THIS church – MY church versus YOUR church. So now we have a culture of MY church with really no mention of God’s church in our day to day transactions, except of course on Sundays. I am not being facetious or making fun here, not at all. You know that the biggest tell tale of a culture is the language we use. Not English silly 🙂 rather how we use our language. So, I actually propose that each one of us watches what they are saying, and let each one of us count how many times we use things like;  at my church……,  my church has a small group….., my church’s music band….,  the tutoring program at my church……., I went with my church on this mission trip and ………., and so on and so forth. Then think about what we’re saying? Are we promoting God in the community or promoting “our work” (MY church’s work) in the community??? Then ask yourself; “if all the preaching I hear emphasizes that it is not what I do that matters……. then why is the culture I propagate and promote is all about ME and not about God???  The inner voice says, “everyone knows when I say MY CHURCH I really mean God.” Well, why not just say it to give the credit in plain speech to God and not to MY church!!! This way it is simple without the need for complications 😉 So again, union means going to the same church you’ve been going to and continue to ask the questions and encourage collaboration of the church you go to with another one in your community. Imagine, just imagine this is happening at 2-3 of the churches in your community……….. just imagine 🙂

I went on for too long this time, my apologies. So have you thought about these questions; Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church/ Is it God’s plan for man to fight over what Jesus said or meant/ Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and we need to undo it and reunite. It is possible not impossible. Why? because it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. As in ALL united in Him and not within MY church united in Him. Till next week 🙂

We’re going to tackle circumcision to bring things into perspective, in lieu of our previous discussion about asking questions and daring. Yes, you heard me right, circumcision 🙂 We all know Paul’s ‘confrontation’ with Peter about circumcision and it’s necessity. We all know the end result. Circumcision was done away with. But let’s examine this closer;

Every male was circumcised at that time. Why?
Because the Jewish faith requires circumcision? Why?
Because God directly told Abraham to circumcise all as a sign of His covenant with Abraham.

Remember, Peter and Paul and everyone else are still Jewish at the time of this Biblical confrontation

Start Dialogue;
Peter: If a gentile believes in Jesus as the Messiah, he will need to be circumcised. Abraham had to do it as an adult, so the adult gentiles need to be circumcised when they profess Christ as Lord and Savior.

Paul: Come on Peter, why require them to be circumcised? It is not necessary.

[Interjection: What if I said let’s do away with baptism and communion and that there is no room for them in the Christian faith!? You would laugh me off, correct? But this is exactly what’s happening here.]

Peter: Are you out of your mind Paul!? God demanded it in the Bible…… besides, what’s the big fuss, we’ve done this for thousands of years and it’s a clip clip and it’s over with. It is easier to do it rather than fight about it. Come on Paul.

Paul: It is not about carrying on for the sake of carrying on Peter. I was never there man but you were. Don’t you remember Jesus’ teaching and preaching………..  so I say, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
End dialogue

So how do churches today set themselves apart? Entire denominations stand on tenets as Baptism at what age and by which method? Tenets of Communion and what it means and how it is handled? Tenets of Spiritual gifts and which one trumps others?

Is this what Jesus preached or man devised? Let’s follow the example of the apostles and unite. No matter how long it’s been like this, it is time to make it right.

So have you thought about these questions; Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church/ Is it God’s plan for man to fight over what Jesus said or meant/ Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and we need to undo it and reunite. It is possible not impossible. Why? Because it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. Till next week 🙂

Inspired by our family trip to Disney World, I will begin blogging again. I’ve said this before and failed to follow through, but I hope that this time around I will continue.  Walt Disney is quoted saying, “1^st Think, 2^nd Believe, 3^rd Dream and finally…… Dare.”  I believe I have gone through the first 3 stages, and now it is time for me to DARE 🙂

I dare to say that our culture has taught us to believe and dream but not so much “think”. And if you think 😉 about the following example, hope you’ll catch the drift and hope that you start intentionally choosing to think 1^st. Thinking is nothing but asking questions and examining the answers to these questions. Just a heads up, believing and dreaming are essential but are not actionable items. Thinking and daring are indeed actionable.

So here’s a hypothetical; Imagine Jesus has been gone for 2,000 years and He comes, not as a 2^nd coming, but rather is searching for His bride to wed. Jesus is anxious being gone for so long. Is His bride, His church, still waiting for Him? So He is going around searching the streets for His bride. He turns a corner and all of a sudden about half a football field away He sees soooooooo many brides dressed in wedding gowns……………….

Jesus gasps so loud that all the brides hear it and turn around and recognize Him…………..

All brides start running towards Jesus, and Jesus can hear each one of them saying “pick me, pick me, I am your bride not the others.” For indeed this is how they have been acting for thousands of years.

Jesus’ hands are on top of His head and His mouth is wide open, stunned He says, “Why so many?”

Few questions if we dare ask them;
– Did God intend for humanity to have so many divisions within His church?
– Was it God’s plan for man to divide like we are divided today over what Jesus said or meant?
– Is God looking at us delighted we have such division? Or is he shaking His head and sad about it?

If you and I have the same answers, then why do we just keep on keeping on? Simply following is an act of propagation of the same. Never think that you or I are just bystanders, there are no bystanders in life. We either act to contribute to the same or act to ‘think’ and ‘ask’ why, and act to change the status quo.

Of course the obstacle is HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE to unite?? Do not be trapped in the impossibility of it. Man has created the division and is very capable to unite. It just takes masses of people asking the same question, and not fight, just be patient and continue to ask these questions above. Over time, if we are persistent and united in asking the same questions, churches will unite. You know why? Because it is indeed God’s plan for man to be united 🙂

Please continue to think, and please ask questions about how can we unite? I do not have the answers, but I believe that together we can figure them out. So please DARE to think and Dare to ask. Please do not think you are a bystander, because you never are 🙂  Stay tuned

Hello 🙂 thank you for stopping by. The booklet is now available on Amazon as an eBook and in one to two weeks will be available on iTunes as an eBook and hopefully also in print. The Amazon link to purchase the eBook for 99 cents is;  31,102 Roughly click and add to your reading list. Thank you.

I hope you enjoy the booklet but most importantly that you would research and then join the revolution 🙂