As I left my house there was a most beautiful picture in our living room. My wife was hosting a meeting of the different racial and ethnic groups represented in our church. It was an international breakfeast that looked like a sub-committee of the United Nations.
I was so glad because I saw a scene from the Bible in living color. In Revelations 5:9 (NIV) the enthroned Jesus is praised in this way, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
Soon after in Chapter 7:9, there is a scene of worship described in this way: “after this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.”
Those are the goals of unity and oneness that God is moving us to in the Christ family. You may have to learn a whole new language or liturgy in Heaven. Your present one may have too much pride and exclusivism in it. You may have to learn about and join a whole new denomination in Heaven, such as, the “Christians for Jesus” denomination. Your present denomination may have divided people and fostered spiritual pride too much to be recycled for Heavenly use.
You just don’t see spiritual and racial pride in Heaven. If you are carrying some of that baggage now, you might as well pitch it in the trash; it will never make it past the Spiritual Security Forces at Heaven’s Gate.
1 John 4:20 (NIV) is still in my Bible, “for anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” The message is clear for His Church!
“Lord, make us one, bind us together and keep us together. Show us the
ugliness of Christians being divided over silly things. Amen”
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