UNITY

[th1bill]

Php 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

Php 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Php 1:3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,

Php 1:4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,

Php 1:5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Today, there is a campaign being waged against the Christian Church in the US that should cause all of us to awaken begin to rattle our Christian Sabers, but it won't! I saw an ad on the TV that promoted open homosexuality and at the same time touted the idea that Christians have always been wrong because God does not care if a man marries a man. And before I even post this message I can already, at 4:41 in the morning hear the tinkling of symbols.

Paul, in the text above, was grateful for the aid he received from the Christians at Philippi. They had joined together with Paul and supported his ministry and had even taken a collection for him while he was in prison and had sent one of their own to deliver the funds and he stayed with Paul until Paul sent him home.

There is a worthy and notable example there that is generally ignored today. We, the Church of today, seem to be good at keeping the promises of our predecessors but we tend not to begin anew. Paul could never have made the change in the world that is attributed to him without the partnering of others into his ministry. The ad I speak of is part of a campaign to neutralize the Christian Church today on the matter of Homosexual Sin. These same people camp out at Focus On The Family's campus and work to intimidate Pastors and Church Families across the nation and totally depend upon our disunity for their success!

Every man or woman that has ever bothered to take the time to, actually, sit down and read their copy of the Bible knows that God has recorded in His revelation of Himself, His condemnation of all sexual sin. But today we allow unmarried couples to join the church without being married, though they live as though they are. Further we know that adulterers are in the membership and we turn our heads to ignore it. Because of these ?small? steps of disobedience and the failure, no, complete lapse, of Church Discipline it is very likely this ungodly movement will see a larger and growing success.

In Hebrews 10:25 we are taught to come together to worship God and there is such a good reason for this to be the norm. When I was in the Army we never had a Wet Stone to sharpen our knives with so we took a line from the scriptures and literally sharpened our blades by rubbing one against the other. This works with people, also. When men and women sit down and talk to one another, they learn from one another. And when a man or a woman is over-whelmed by a multitude, the likely hood of their yielding is great but bring others of a like mind alongside to give support and they will be much more likely to stand their ground. God has called us to live for Him and to do that, there are certain things that the world considers to be normal that we must reject and all forms of sexual sin up there at the top of the list.

If you missed it, this is a call for unity!