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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Church is a family

 

I guess that if we have to have a named theme for today's editorial I'll call it "Travel Thoughts." As previously mentioned in a recent editorial, last month Carolyn and I took a long drive through seven states visiting friends and family. As many of you probably know, you have plenty of time and space across Interstate 40 to reflect on many things. I made note of a few signs seen along the way that whetted my editorial appetite and I thought that I'd just forward those thoughts, based on what was seen and heard, to you today in this forum.

I'll lead off with the sign seen on the trailer of a semi truck as it passed us. The overall color of the trailer was white and in big red letters on the sides and back was this statement: "JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, NOT A SWEAR WORD."

Without having to dig too deeply into my Biblical memory bank, I immediately recalled that man was told to "not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" (Exo. 20:7) And, lest anyone wants to get nit picky about it, note that Phil. 2:11 says that "Christ is Lord" and besides that, run a reference on how many times you see the title "our Lord Jesus Christ" in the New Testament. Rest assured that it will be a sufficient number to convince you that using the name Jesus Christ as a swear word is a violation of speaking vainly of the Lord.

My next sign (and please don't get my thoughts here confused with the Country & Western song "Here's Your Sign") was spotted over in Eastern Oklahoma. Beside I-40, and also I-44, is a large bill board that advertises the town of Prague, Oklahoma as being the location of the "Shrine of the Infant Baby Jesus." I'm told that Prague is somewhere near Tulsa.

My immediate thought at the time - I know that we're approaching the Christmas holiday season, but I don't think Oklahoma was on the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem. I checked the next highway sign to make sure I was still on I-40 and hadn't missed a turn somewhere.

I decided to do a little research at my first opportunity and having done so, I discovered that I wasn't the first nor the only person to wonder about this "shrine." It seems that it's something that has its roots in the Prague of the Czech Republic and the mysticism of the Catholic Church. IE: the infant baby Jesus performing miracles which caused a local Catholic Church to dedicate a statue and a shrine to these miracles. It's sort of confusing, but I got the impression it's like the image of the "virgin" on a piece of burnt toast or the mold on the side of a house.

The next sign I'm going to mention is seen about 25 miles East of Gallup, New Mexico and it announces that you've just crossed the "Continental Divide." For those of you who don't know exactly what the Continental Divide is, it's that point in the United States that determines which way the water flows - to the Atlantic (East) or the Pacific (West). I just knew that you were aching to know that.

Upon crossing that "divide" and seeing the sign denoting it, my thoughts turned to thoughts on the unity of the Church. You know, in Ephesians 4 where it talks about all the "ONES." Think about it this way, you can't have "unity of the Spirit" (Eph. 4:3) if there is a multitude of "faiths," of "hopes," of "Lords," etc. You can't "divide" up those things.

Christ gave the best illustration of what I'm saying here in Matt. 12:25 when he told the Pharisees that neither a kingdom, nor a town, nor even a family that's "divided against itself can stand." Just like the Continental Divide where the water goes one way or the other, if there is a division some are going one way and some the other and there is no "unity."

The Church is a family - God's family. What binds "God's family" together is the same thing that binds earthly families together (at least it should). LOVE! There are many passages of scripture that teach this very thing and time or space doesn't permit me to cite them all. Just note a couple with me: 1Pet. 1:22, "Seeing ye have purified your souls to obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."

And, 1John 3:11 "For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." Actually, just read the whole book of 1st John and you'll get the picture of how love binds the family of God together and then binds the family to God. Love prevents a division among family members. We're all going ONE way together.

One last traveling thought. While listening to the car radio somewhere along the way, I heard a guy make a statement that fit me to a "T." In describing himself and his native abilities he said, "I've got a face for radio and a voice for print." I guess that's why I'm not a movie star nor a great orator and why I just try and write editorials.

Ron Covey

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