It’s sad that Christianity is divided into so many different groups. We all have a little different interpretation of the bible and a little different understanding of doctrine. Obviously we are not going to agree on everything, but we certainly should be able to love one another and accept each other even when we differ on these things.
It’s hard to understand why this is when God tells us we are to be one, as Jesus and the Father are one. Yet, we understand that we are human and it is easy to lose sight of our first love. If we could only stay focused on Christ, listening for his voice and the guidance of the Spirit, loving God and loving others as God intended, then we could look past our differences.
The problem seems to be that we are unwilling to see any other viewpoint other than our own. There are those such as my wife and I that do not attend an organized “church”. There are those who attend a “church” every time the doors are open. Some attend a house church, some meet with fellow believers at cafe’s, parks, restaurants and others meet in their homes over dinner. We should accept these differences and love one another rather than argue over who is right and who is wrong.
There really is not a right or wrong way to assemble together and we need to stop expecting everyone to do things exactly the same way. We should respect others viewpoints and focus on loving them rather than expecting them to see things ‘our way’.
Things will not change until we start focusing on what is common in our lives rather than the differences. The common focus should be on Christ, the head of the body. After that, we should focus on loving others rather than arguing about the differences in interpretation.
We also need to keep in mind that we are all constantly changing as God brings new truth to us. We are all learning and changing as we are ready to accept new truths. The interpretations I had five years ago are completely different from some of the interpretations I have now. I’m sure in another five years they will change again as God leads me into more truth.
Sometimes we are afraid to accept others interpretations because we feel if we do not hold to our way of thinking, we are compromising and not standing up for what we believe. We do not have to give up how we interpret the bible, but neither should we think everyone else is wrong. Besides, we really are not responsible for convicting people of sin, or leading them into truth, or even saving them. That is the job of the Holy Spirit. We are told to love God and love others.
When we realize we are each equally important functioning parts of the body, and Christ is the head, we can start to change how we feel about those who don’t see things exactly the way we do. We can begin to accept our brothers and sisters in Christ as they are, as we realize we are walking as one with God together.
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This post was a Guest Post at Gods Leader
You can view it at http://godsleader.com/healing-division-in-the-church/
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Here’s a list of bloggers contributing posts related to ‘Healing the Divides’ for April on Synchroblog:
- The Virtual Abbess – Abi and April’s Synchroblog – Bridging the Divides
- Caris Adel – Emotional Pacifism: Laying Down My Weapons
- Ty Grigg – Speak Truth
- Jon Huckins – Gay Marriage, World Vision, and a Unified Church?
- Mark Votava – Faith Presence in the Parish
- Mary at Lifeinthedport – let us meet in the borderland
- Jeremy Myers – Unity vs. Uniformity in the Church
- Juliet at Still Learning – A Catholics Love Letter to Evangelical Women
- Dago at Scripture Insights – Jesus the Divider
- Glenn Hager – The Lowest Common Denominator
- Sarah Quezada – Standing on Church Bridges
- Doug Webster – Truth Is Not a Process, Belief Is
- Michelle Van Loon – Bridging the Divide
- Happy at Simple Felicity – are we there yet?
- Travis Klassen – The Church: Coming, Going, or Being
- Bec Cranford – Biblical Interpretation and Inerrancy: Moving beyond myopia to a grander vision of unity
- Teresa Pasquale – Bridging the Divide: Translating Between Dialects, Culture Contexts, and Heart Stirring
- Miguel Labrador – I might be willing to reconsider church hierarchies, if…
- Paul Meier – Healing the Divides Begins Within
- Liz Dyer – You Can’t Get There From Here
- K.W. Leslie – Humility
- Kathy Escobar – 10 ways we can build bridges instead of bomb them
- Loveday Anyim – The “non-Gospelized Rituals” of Pentacostalism
- Caedmon Michael – Bridging the Divides
- Carly Gelsinger – “Church Shopping” at the Wrong “Mall”: A Story of Easter Sundays
- Mallory Pickering – A Splintered People
- Pastor Edwin Fedex – Tearing Down Fences and Building Sidewalks
- Jen Baros – Bridging the Divides: How to Heal
- Burning Religion – The Impossible Space Between Us
- Bronwyn Lea – When My Children Squabble
Done with Religion 
Thanks Steve. So true, we are not to worship men or anything other than God. Thanks for posting.
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CATHOLIC WORSHIP? BY STEVE FINNELL
The Roman Catholic Church teaches the church itself is God’s authority here on earth. They believe the Bible is second in authority to the Catholic Church.
Catholics worship the Pope, the Virgin Mary, and other dead saints by offering up prayers to them.
Worship Defined: Reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage.
Do Catholics pray to the Pope? Yes. A Costa Rican woman told how she recovered from a brain aneurysm after praying to the Blessed Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005. The woman stated that the Pope answered her prayer in 2011.( a google search can confirm this) Praying to people, dead or alive is worship.
Acts 10:25-26 As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up; I myself am also a man.(NKJV)
The apostles Peter did not accept worship from men.(Peter was not a Pope. The office of Pope is not mentioned in the Bible)
Matthew 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.'”(NKJV)
The Lord your God does not include the Pope, the Virgin Mary, or any other saints dead or alive. Man cannot answer prayers, only God can answer prayers.
Do you really want to trust the Catholic Church as the authority for your faith and practice.
God wrote the Bible He did not write Catholic Church doctrine.
PRAYING TO GOD IS WORSHIPING GOD!
Praying to men is worshiping men!
YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY BLOG. http://steve-finnell.blogspot.com
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[…] Michael Donahoe – Healing Divisions in the Body of Christ […]
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Thank you for your comment. Yes, it seems we are on the same path in regard to organized religion. It has been amazing to my wife and myself to find so many others who feel the same way. Thanks for reading my article and for commenting.
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I can see by the books in your sidebar, as well as this post, that we have been formed in many of the same ways. It is such a relief to see how large a group there really is that have moved away from church as institution and back to church as Body of Believers in Jesus. It is good to fellowship virtually… I am grateful your participated in this synchroblog. Be blessed….
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Thank you for your comment. I appreciate you taking the time to read over my article and to make a reply.
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[…] in the Parish Mary at Lifeinthedport – let us meet in the borderlands Michael Donahoe – Healing Divisions in the Body of Christ Jeremy Myers – Unity vs. Uniformity in the Church Juliet at Still Learning – A Catholic’s […]
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This has been a completely God-breathed entry, Michael Donahoe. Congratulations!
Love,
Susanne
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Disregard of biblical truth is essential to brining Christianity into unity with all religions. Particularly, if Satan can get the Church to believe that there are other gods besides the on true God (even “lesser gods such as man himself), he’ll have weakened its resolve to challenge the religious unification of the human race.
It isn’t important to Satan that everyone believes the same thing or belong to the same religious institution. All that’s necessary is that the Gospel be diluted sufficiently so as to render it ineffective.
Unity in diversity is the goal toward which the world’s religions are working. In some churches, unity in diversity is still more narrowly defined, but the purpose is to join in fellowship everyone who names Jesus as Lord regardless of doctrine.
This disregard for doctrine, and subsequent acceptance of every aberration that goes by the name of Christian, is necessary for the eventual unification of all religious thought. Therefore, opposition to deception in the Church is being stifled under the pretense that those who expose deceivers are sowing discord among the brethren and hindering unity.
A result of this tactic is that many Christians have been discouraged from judging error in the Church for fear of hindering the unity sought by religious leaders. When the Churches are sufficiently corrupted or neutralized, Satan will have a clear path toward uniting the world against Jesus Christ.
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Disregard of biblical truth is essential to brining Christianity into unity with all religions. Particularly, if Satan can get the Church to believe that there are other gods besides the on true God (even “lesser gods such as man himself), he’ll have weakened its resolve to challenge the religious unification of the human race.
It isn’t important to Satan that everyone believes the same thing or belong to the same religious institution. All that’s necessary is that the Gospel be diluted sufficiently so as to render it ineffective.
Unity in diversity is the goal toward which the world’s religions are working. In some churches, unity in diversity is still more narrowly defined, but the purpose is to join in fellowship everyone who names Jesus as Lord regardless of doctrine.
This disregard for doctrine, and subsequent acceptance of every aberration that goes by the name of Christian, is necessary for the eventual unification of all religious thought. Therefore, opposition to deception in the Church is being stifled under the pretense that those who expose deceivers are sowing discord among the brethren and hindering unity.
A result of this tactic is that many Christians have been discouraged from judging error in the Church for fear of hindering the unity sought by religious leaders. When the Churches are sufficiently corrupted or neutralized, Satan will have a clear path toward uniting the world against Jesus Christ.
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Hey John, thanks for the comment. That was interesting. It can be a struggle sometimes to meet with others that we know won’t agree with us and see things differently. As you mentioned, God does amazing things, and even when we are expecting things to go a different way, He works them out as He did with the group you are in. Thanks for commenting.
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Hi Michael, thanks so much for the comment. It means a lot to know how I’m thinking and what God is showing me is meaningful to others. I agree with what you said. It is hard to get ourselves out of the way and allow God to love through us and accept others, even when they don’t agree with us. Thanks again for your comment.
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What a witness and confirmation you both have shared. Your article is spot on, and Micheal’s response is great as well. These are the “major” things that the Lord has been showing me for well over a year now. It is wonderful to hear about others who have received the same things.
I have been part of non traditional churches for around 35 years now, and wanted nothing to do with more traditional IC types of groups. For the past 10 years it has been quite a dry season as far as regular fellowship goes. About 5 years ago, a family moved in directly across the street, and the husband had just taken over the pastorate of a local Baptist church.
For years we had good “neighborly” relations. Then the Lord began to speak to my heart. They are your brothers and sisters, and you needed to learn how to love them, but they are so different from me, I thought, how could I ever do this.
I heard that he left his church body, and was beginning to start up a less traditional church. I decided to check them out, As far as being less traditional goes, I would just say it was more casual. It was pretty much still a Baptist church, without the big building and no “dress up” required, all else was very similar. They also had 5 home groups that met during the week, and the pastor ask me to visit his group. I told him I was not sure he really new what he was asking for, that I really was not at all “like” them, and that he would more than likely one day ask me to stop attending them. Never the less, I went. And it has been a little less than a year that I have been involved with them, and I have to say, I am truly learning to love them. We often disagree, and I often hold back from sharing my strong differing opinion, especially when I think they are of little significance.
I could do without the Sunday service, but I have really looked forward to the Tuesday night home group meetings. They have even ask me to lead them a couple of times (to my surprise) and the others seem to genuinely like having me as a part of their group. Not sure how long this season will last, but I look forward to whatever the Lord opens up next. Thanks again for the encouragement. I wish more people would see and understand this as well. Your brother in Christ. John Morris.
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This writing on your blog was really good. I can remember when I also would jump on any differences that others had from the way I saw Christ and the church and would confront people over them without much love. It got worse once I got burned a few time in authoritarian churches. Then on day God showed me that I was getting back from pastors and church leadership the same thing I had been handing out! You reap what you sow. He showed it to me in this passage…
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:7-10 KJ2000)
What I got out of it with the help of a brother who confronted me in love was that if I sowed division and received others “unto doubtful disputations” I could expect the same treatment. I had to get tired of being rejected by others and getting back from them what I had been doing. God teaches us that way. He lets us get a boat load of flack back of the same kind that we have been handing out to others.
The next thing I share here is important… Notice in this passage the words, “let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap…” There is a delay. We go out an sow to others the way we want to be received by them and it takes a while for that new crop we are sowing to come to fruit, so we need to hang in there and keep sowing to the Spirit of Christ’s love and eventually we will get the same back from others.
In short, I had to get tired of having ME shoved back in my face! I had to come to the place where I hungered for Christ so much that I didn’t want MY point of view to be heard at the expense of causing finding HIM in others. Yes, I do draw a line, but it is only when people attack Jesus for what the church has done to them. I don’t jump on differences in doctrine, but rather try to stir the conversation back on focusing on our Lord. Christ has to be our center if we are ever to have any meaningful fellowship IN HIM.
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