I was having a discussion the other day on the unity of the Churches of Christ and it is really ironically funny. We are a movement that grows out of the ‘essentials of salvation’, and we are all pretty much in agreement with those, ‘essentials’.  Yet we remain divided.  We are in unity in thought on the important aspects of the Bible and our salvation, yet we still are not unified.  How absurd.

When do we get over ourselves?  I am not favoring any positions, or on the sides of liberals or conservatives, but is it possible that Christians really could be just Christians.  These are the thoughts that moved the Restoration Movement and have escaped us today.  Maybe I find it hard to answer, ‘Where should I go to church?’, because I shouldn’t have to even answer that question.  I have heard the sides argue their positions, I have even been in the arguments, I once even chose a side (traditionalist).

I think relying on the ‘essentials’, embracing respect, and having an ability to have the Church not be about you really would go a long way in solving things.  Let’s be just Christians, rooted in the ‘essentials’, and learn to really love our brothers and sisters before ourselves.  Just because we have an opinion and we think we are right does not mean we NEED to always have our own way and voice it.  Unify in Christ, he demands it.

I constantly battle with this question because there are so many elements that go into the answer.  There is the spiritual element that moves me one way and then there is the human element that pushes me another.  Now I have discovered a parental element, but I am unsure to some degree what all that entails.

Should I go where I feel comfortable or should I attend where I can be of the greater use?  Should I go to the church in my community or if I feel more comfortable should I drive the extra ten minutes to go elsewhere?  Should I drive the extra if I am more needed nearby or should I stick with the church closest to me?

Let me know what you think….leave a comment below

In getting back with the point of the blog, here is the latest post.  In my daily reading, I came across this piece of writing by Robert H. Boll, from his essays titled, Truth and Grace.  In my studying, and many others I have talked to, there is always a quest to find the truth from God’s Word.  As we look around at how sectioned off Christianity has become, one must ask…How are there so many separate truths?  I also know it to be unfashionable these days to say there is a right and a wrong, but there are some that are just plain wrong.  As with most of the things I have looked at we need to learn to filter ourselves out of what we are reading.  As humans we have the ability to justify and twist things to see them how we wish, but that is certainly not the purpose of the Word being revealed to us.  We must not be afraid to hear the Word of God, but we must be careful not to make it into the Words of man….

PROGRESS IN THE TRUTH.

We must not digress, but we must progress. We must not overstep the bounds of God’s word, but we must go on in it. We must not abandon the first principles but leave them as the mason leaves the foundation and goes on to perfect the building of the house. To the man who comes to seek, it will continually reveal new truths and new light on old truths. But if one goes on the preconception that he has about the sum of the truth already, and studies the he Bible in that light, it will yield him nothing. He will be hardened and blinded and become a sectarian though he may never have a written creed. The unwritten can become just as contracted, unscriptural, tyrannical. As one of our beloved and venerable brethren sometimes says in the pulpit: “We are not right, but the Bible is right.” So it is ours to go to God’s word daily, with open eyes and ears and hearts and in poverty of spirit, not to confirm our ideas, but to get God’s. One of the first results will be the sense of unbounded riches and privileges of which we have never availed ourselves. Another effect will be to humble us and to take some of the censoriousness and self-conceit, with which we are always apt to be afflicted, out of us.

Robert H. Boll
Truth and Grace (1917)

We finally made it back home yesterday after 11 days of traveling.  We added a second destination last minute and ended up traveling to Western Illinois (Moline, Rock Island) to attend my Grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration.  There was time for just the wife and I, and then equal time spent seeing my extended family, which we had not seen in more than a year.  In the short time we were away from our son, it seems that he got smarter by the day and learned to make all kinds of new noises.  Anyway, that is a short summary of the past 11 days.

I give you that information to get to the main point, why we went to Illinois.  We decided with a couple days left up north to cut our trip short and pick up our son and drive the 7 hours to Illinois on a quick last minute decision.  We had already told most of the family we would not make it, because I was out of time off at work.  However, thanks to the kindness of our employers we were able to take a couple extra days and make the trip.  With failing health reports on my Grandfather and the seriousness of his condition we felt it was important to see him and for him to meet our son.  So we went.

It is hard to see someone struggling with an incurable disease, even harder when it is a member or your family, and harder yet when it is towards the end.  Emotions were mostly disguised or hidden most of the day, except some few moments towards the end, but they were still felt in the air.  The awkward silence, distance, and feeling of that person not quite being who they once were was enough to shift the mood of celebration to a mood of somberness.  Yet we all would not have missed it for the world.  Strange how things work out that way.

The hardest part, though I found in all of this, was watching the progress of a disease take down someone I care about, while knowing that it too is in the process of taking me down.  It was a glimpse into my future.  A wake up call, hopefully, for me to do the things I can do to avoid the speed at which it controls my life and tears down my body.

It is just another reminder, another person, that has been torn down by Diabetes for me to witness.  Still as humans we are resistant to change even when confronted with such vivid examples of why we should not do certain things.  I don’t know if it is a need to try it out our-self, even when we know the outcome, or if we simply subconsciously don’t think it will happen the same way to us.  I hope that this, the most painful and personal example, will be something that I can use to focus my energy and create a better outcome for myself and my family.