Glasgow Daily Times, Glasgow, KY

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Discussion

July 3, 2008

Christians can make a difference when working in unity

By ROBERT COOPER, pastor of East Main and Faith United Methodist churches

GLASGOW — I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought (1 Corinthians 1:10).

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: (John 17:20-22)

In the month of May, there was a church conference called “Fresh Fire” that took place in Cave City at Caveland Baptist church. This was a time to call area churches to come together for praise, prayer and worship. On July 1, Unity of Community called for area churches in Glasgow and Barren County to come together at the public Square for praise, prayer and worship. The first Saturday in August is the event known as R.Y.O.T. (Reaching Youth on Time) again sponsored by area churches through praise, prayer, drama, music and worship to reach the youth of Barren County for Christ.

For one moment, entertain this thought: What if we could move beyond a day to one week, four weeks, a quarter of a year … if every Christ-Centered church came together to canvass the Barren County area for Christ?

Think about it! Imagine a Methodist and a Catholic, a Baptist and a Presbyterian, a Nazarene and a Wesleyan, Church of Christ and a Pentecostal, etc., working side by side knocking on doors, calling people on the phone, praying for each other for their respective churches to overflow with people seeking Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

Could you dream along with me, could we push the perimeter of possibilities for a moment? If every person that believed Jesus the Christ was the son of God, resurrected from the dead, and lives within every believer who confesses the same would work together, arm in arm, walking and knocking on every single home in Glasgow and Barren County, would it not make a difference?

Why is it that this statement seems so far-fetched? Do I hear comments like: “You’ve got to be kidding,” “It will never take place,” “this is foolishness,” “Don’t waste your time on such thinking!” Think, think, look, look, Jesus conveyed these words to his disciples as an earnest prayer to the Father in the Book of John “That they may be one as we are one.”

Did Jesus mean what He prayed? It seems to me that Jesus believed it was possible that believers/disciples could be united as one. So what keeps disciples of Jesus the Christ separated? No doubt, the list is long and mandated by religious rules and the doctrine of men. I’m not sure if this was a child’s song or not, but long ago, I heard a verse in a song state: “Jesus said it, I believe it, and that’s good enough for me.” Simplistic isn’t it? Just like a child-like faith – amazing!

Such a moment would no doubt be seen as the hand of God moving upon the hearts of men and women, boys and girls who love Jesus plus or minus nothing. The impact would no doubt radically “rock our world,” first locally and then spread as we went out to tell the story. Is it just a dream, is it impossible? Impossibilities to us are the realities that God works in each and every day.

Lord Jesus, let us be one even as you are one with the Father. Amen.

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