First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as
a church, and to some extent I believe it. But, of course, there must be divisions among
you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized! 1
Corinthians 11:18 - 19 (NLT)
Have you ever wondered about all that divides
us on this planet?
The government in our country is divided –
executive, legislative and judicial branches. (They’re more or less divided depending
on what agenda is on the table!)
There
are divisions of foods, organic and non-organic. You can go east, west, north or south.
We have more divisions ethnically than I have
room to list.
School begins at kindergarten (then division
happens…and I hated math).
And, of course, even the phrase “church-split”
can make the hairs on a preacher’s neck stand up straight.
Divisions, divisions, divisions!
Paul believed what he heard about the Corinthian
church being divided. And he then nailed
the elephant in the room to the wall.
The divisions, although not God’s “plan A”, are useful! And God is behind it all.
God causes divisions?
You bet He does!
Every time darkness shows up God is in the light
business.
Think about it!
When the earth was “formless and void” and
darkness was over all the face of creation, God said, Let there be LIGHT! God was busy dividing the darkness from light.
When Pharaoh wanted to keep God’s children in
bondage, the Father sent Moses. Let
my people GO! God divided
Pharaoh from God’s people.
And when the darkness was greatest on the
face of humanity God became one of us, to be different (divide) from us, so the
darkness of sin and death could not have us!
And yet…we still divide ourselves from Him
and each other.
God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more
than the light, for their actions were evil. John 3:19b (NLT)
And when darkness begins to get a foothold in
the church, there are Godly people who will stand up and hold up a light – the light
of God’s Word – to remind us about being faithful to He who IS the Light of the
world!
I have blue eyes; I am told that’s the reason
why it hurts when it’s bright out. The lighter
the color of your eyes, the more sensitive they are to light. Now, that make sense physically – but the spiritual
reality is that it’s easier to get along with darkness than to fight it. It hurts to fight against the darkness.
Divisions are there so we can make clear choices.
Today
Eleanor Roosevelt may not have been the first
one to say it, but here is your quote[1] to walk with
today: It is
better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
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