A Divided House

Jesus said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand" (Matthew 12:23). He spoke of this at the kingdom of darkness, yet for the last 2000 years it has accurately described his church. Today, we have plenty of resources, great knowledge, fantastic preaching, every conceivable advantage yet we, His church is as divided as ever. Is it not crystal clear to us that our Master desires that we be united (John 17)? Does not the Apostle Paul beg us to "make every effort to keep ourselves united in the Spirit" (Ephesians 4:3)? But we cannot do it. We lack the maturity to do it; the humility, the forbearance, the love. We are imprisoned within our tribes and cannot, or have no desire to break out. We are quick to see the speck in our neighbor's eye but blind to the log in our own. Paul would address us in saying: Brothers and Sisters, "I cannot address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh. I will have to feed you milk, not solid food, for you are not ready for it. While there are still arguments . . ." (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).

The great tragedy is we are blind to this. We point the finger in judgement at those who are different than we are, when we should sit down with them. Our calling is to be peace makers and reconcilers, but we are dividers and separators. Augustine's brilliant adage "Unity in the essentials, diversity in the non-essentials,
love in all things" is worthless to us, for we each have an expanded list of essentials to cover every one of our distinctions. I believe God grieves over this. Why He has not yet crushed us and started over is a tribute to His boundless forbearance?

It is my hope that this book will awaken the soul of the reader to what lies at the center of God's heart. That our need to be right will be replaced with a desire to be the answer to Jesus' prayer: "That they may all be one."