Losing any part of the human body causes pain and the subsequent adjustments needed to compensate. The more body parts lost, the greater the pain and time needed to cope. And yet, over the centuries, this very loss has happened to the Body of Christ.
Some Christians get distrustful of attempts to reconcile or reassemble, and I once fell into that wary category too, but the Lord had something else in mind. As God-incidence would have it, various job transfers gave my family the opportunity to get to know almost every denomination: Evangelical, Fundamental, Pentecostal, Orthodox, and Liturgical.
With each move, we looked for a church home where we felt the presence of the Lord, and, with each change, we learned to love yet another part of Christ’s Body on earth.
Initially, for instance, hymn lyrics and tunes were a priority, which encouraged singing praises and words of faith – still remembered decades later. Another church home emphasized Scripture, taking us through the whole Bible in three years or less and helping us to recognize God’s purpose and perspective from Genesis through Revelation.
Other churches focused on the Holy Spirit, making us aware of God’s desire to live with us and within us, today and forever, whereas Liturgical denominations filled us with appreciation for God’s creation through prayer, poetry, and art.
Do you see how each part of the Body has a place, a purpose, and something to add to the whole?
God loves all of His children! As we make an effort to understand where our siblings in Christ are coming from, we begin to realize we have the same Heavenly Father, the same Savior and Lord, and that our differences are primarily personal preferences and gift we’re given – gifts mean to be shared to edify the whole Church.
Even if we don’t feel comfortable visiting a church without an invitation or a member to accompany us, we can get to know denominations with which we’re not familiar by investigating their denominational websites and focusing on what we have in common.
With God’s help, we can pull ourselves together and do whatever we can to bridge our differences, make peace, and repair the breach. What a positive and powerful impact the whole Body of Christ on earth will make on our troubled world.
A few of many relevant Scriptures:
Romans 12:5, “Though many, we are one body in Christ, and individual members of one another.”
Colossi an 3:15, “Let the peace of Christ govern your hearts for to you were called to be members of one body.”
Ephesians 4:16, “Christ makes the whole body fit and united through the support of every joint. Every part does a job, so the body grows and is built up in love.”
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