Spurring

I have been blessed throughout my life to know Christians from a variety of backgrounds, and, even now, I am working for a church in a denomination different than my own. I am grateful that God is big enough to reach people through His own means that I don’t always understand. I am also thankful that I don’t have to understand these things–God does.

Where I work, I run into people with big hearts who love Christ and His gospel. Do they agree with all my theological beliefs? No. Does that matter? No. We can agree on the things that are important, the things stated in the Apostles Creed:

I believe in God the Father, Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.

Amen.

I can work alongside these brothers and sisters in Christ because of our shared beliefs in Christ and Him crucified, of Christ and His resurrection.

Living among so many Christians from different backgrounds for these many years has made me a bit sad.  I am sad that we have to have so much conflict.  Even within our denominations there is infighting. The very fact that the Christian church is split into many denominations and the sinful attitudes and mentalities that lead to such splits and perpetuate them is distressing. It is hard to see Christians so divided.

We can learn so much from each other about how to love more like Christ. May we be willing to put our love for Christ over of love of being right so we can spur each other on to love and good deeds.