Children of the Light

Deuteronomy 29:18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.

Here again we see the call for unity among all. While we know that there are problems in most communities with division among the churches, if we look deeper in our lives and our communities we see even more division. The division within our Church. The Division among the congregation and this is where the bitter root often springs up first. The Lord’s plan for us is to live as one, yet often we tend to exclude, people within our own Church community. They might not look the same as us, or they might have a different background.

I was talking with a friend about the Church they were attending, and the bible study groups that were held after service. My friend was telling me that while the service was great, and the preacher always had a great message, they did not really enjoy the bible study because the people in the class “were not their kind of people” they were missing teeth, or they dressed shoddy, or were uneducated (yet they sure seemed to know a lot about the Lord!). As a result this person quit going to bible study. Another friend of mine had a different issue. The church that they went to had a very well off group within the congregation. This group headed up the small groups. As a result, the well off often planned very extravagant meetings, and trips. While some are lucky to have a place for bible study, this group would arrange to have bible studies at nice resorts in different towns! While this was a wonderful thing for that one group, they effectively cut my friend, and many others out of the opportunity to learn more about the Lord, because the trips were well beyond their means.

I see it today in my children, and honestly am amazed at how young of an age it starts. We section ourselves off and only make ourselves available to those who think like us, or act like us, or dress like we do. We start this trend at a very young age, and then carry it, and develop it well into our adult lives. We take that mindset into our churches, and allow that bitter root to grow and flourish. We foster the thought that even in church we have to fit everyone into a group, a box, or a clique.

We think by doing this we are helping the community. People who are alike do better when they stay in their group. While that might sound like a logical mindset, it is far from the truth. Jesus Christ came into this world as “one of the other guys”. He was an outcast from the beginning. What would happen to him today in our world? He did not speak as others of his time spoke, he did not strive for what others of his time coveted. He had a different idea about what it meant to live in this world. If he came to our group today I can almost promise you, we would effectively cut the son of God out of our group because he is not like everyone else in our group!

Let that sink in for just a second. Search your heart and tell me it is not the truth! We would not want to accept the Lord, because he would be so different from what we thought the “norm” was! This is why we must fight division. This is why Paul talked so much in many letters about us living as one group. The populars, the geeks, the athletes, and the academics; the blue color, and the white collar, the haves and the have nots. We all reside under the same banner of Christianity.


So as we start the new week, we need to do some soul searching. How do you view others? Are you working to build up the kingdom of Christ, or are you working to build walls? When you see others that do not fit into your idea of normal, are you extending a hand of fellowship, and love, or do you turn your back, because they just will not fit in? Can you see beyond the lines of denomination, and open your heart to all of those that love Christ?

There is no room in Christ’s world for division, and I know that knocking down those walls goes against everything that the world has taught us. But we are no longer living for the world, we are no longer held down by the chains of society. We are children of the light; let us feed that light with love, faith, and acceptance. Christ came to this world as an outsider. Remember that when you meet someone that does not fit in your group. Accept them as you would accept Christ. Accept them as a brother, a fellow believer, a part of the family. For we are all one in Christ.

Peace,
Rev. Thetford