Thought for Wednesday, January 9th

January 9, 2013

Amen

Or

So Let It Be

Is there room for agreement among all Christians?

         

  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Romans 11:33-36

“Let the Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible, be the rule of our faith and practice.”

-       J. C. Ryle

Have you ever noticed that when you get a group of people together; it is generally easier to find things they disagree about; than it is to find things they do agree on?  Whether it is politics, music, social and ethical attitudes, religion or just the context and nature of life in general; there are more points of view than you can shake a stick at.

Sadly, this seems to be the ever prevalent norm in circles of faith as well.  I have heard it said if you get ten preachers in a room discussing any theological subject, it won’t take but about five minutes to come up with at least ten different points of view.  This may be a slight exaggeration: yet when you look at the body of Christ as a whole: we do seem to have a very difficult time coming to a common bond of agreement.  It is difficult even within a local body of like faith to have unified agreement: so when you extend this to the body of Christ at large the effect would naturally be magnified.

Yet this should not be so.  If we could just learn to listen to God’s voice, by the Holy Spirit, as He revels His Word to us: I am sure there would be some commonality and similarity in what He is saying to us all. 

We all serve the same God; are saved by the same blood that was shed by the same Jesus on the same cross at Calvary.  There is the beginning of a ground for common agreement: we need to learn to reach out from that truth and let God’s truth be our yes and amen and we need to learn to live together in the love that His Word teaches.

Amen, means so be it or let it be. 

Can we at least agree to say amen to fostering better relationships within His Body for His Cause to do His work and accomplish His will?

Today’s Prayer

Father, may I learn to find more common ground with my brothers and sisters in the faith by focusing on You, Your Word and Your Spirit as you work in each of our lives.