Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Keeping first things first”
Our Bible verse for today: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:28-29 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Unity in Christ is what really matters.”
It’s amazing how many things are allowed to come between and divide people. We are divided by national origin. And so there are Africans, and Europeans, and Americans, and Chinese, etc. We are divided by race. There are Whites, Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, and more. We also divide ourselves by language, religion, economic status, political affiliation, and even sports team loyalties.
But Christians should allow themselves to be divided by none of those things. As a follower of Jesus Christ you have a spiritual bond with all other believers which is higher, more important, and longer lasting than any artificial manmade issue that could possibly come between us.
African Christians and American Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ. Christians in Hong Kong and Ho Chi Min City have a spiritual bond with Christians in Katmandu and Kalamazoo. The unity believers have in Christ should even transcend the differences between Republicans and Democrats!
You’ve probably heard it said that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. That means that we’re all equal in the eyes of Jesus. On the one hand, you’re not more important because you have a big income, and I’m not less important because I don’t. It means that in the eyes of Jesus the President of the United States has no higher standing than the cashier at Walmart.
But that saying also reminds us that as Christians there is only one thing about us that really matters and that is our faith in Christ. Everything else about us is of lesser importance – much less importance. And since we have that one, most important thing in common, there is nothing else about any other Christians which should be allowed to come between us.
It is unity in Christ that matters.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 