The Scrambled Egg
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. (John 17:11)
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:21-23)
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. (1 Corinthians 1:10)
For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. (1 Corinthians 1:11)
Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; (Philippians 1:27)
I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. (Philippians 4:2)
IT IS GOD'S WILL THAT WE BE ONE WITH HIM AND WITH ALL WHO HAVE BEEN BORN by the Spirit. In contrast to being one as God created us to be, our old nature tries to fashion things after our will and we become scrambled, lacking unity and oneness with God and each other. In short, SELF is a scrambled egg that has lost its design and purpose except to be devoured.
HAVE YOU EVER WISHED YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME and visit the Early Church when Jesus was raised from the dead and so many miracles were taking place? The miracles would be exciting, but if we read the Bible accounts of the early church days, we see that they had a real problem of getting along with each other and had to endure great persecution from the religion and government of the day. The letters to the churches (the epistles) were mostly about the friction and problems going on. It was a “scrambled egg,” a lack of unity and purpose.
WHEN I FIRST ENCOUNTERED JOHN 17 (above), I must confess that I went into a genuine faith crisis. “How is God going to do this?” Before I knew what was happening, I was doubting God, big-time! If one-ness was God’s plan, it had not yet happened, and I saw no way for God to pull it off. But I overlooked one major thing: many churches and the people in them are religious but not born of God. “Everybody talkin’ ‘bout Hebin ain’t goin’ there, Hebin.” The negro spiritual got it right 200 years ago. “When I get to Hebin’ gonna put on my shoes, gonna walk all over God’s Hebin’.”
THE VISIBLE, INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH IS NOT NECESSARILY GOD'S CHURCH. The bones and ligaments of oneness of God’s people is brought about by the new birth. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)
GOD ONLY SAVES THE HUMBLED SPIRIT and when He saves a soul, He baptizes that soul into the Body of Christ. We don’t get to vote on it. The Spirit of God does the baptizing. It’s not a water thing. It’s a spiritual baptizing done exclusively by the Spirit of God.
AFTER WE ARE BAPTIZED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD INTO THE BODY OF CHRIST, we should be baptized in water as a testimony to others of what has taken place by the Spirit of God. Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? (Acts 10:47)
I’M NOT A SHOUTER. At times I have thought it might be good to be a shouter. But, I’m not a shouter. However, I may have come close to shouting when my eyes flashed across the above verse and for the first time, I saw the basis of oneness that Jesus was talking about in John 17. That is “positional” oneness. There remains the practical oneness (the practice of oneness) that comes about as we live the Christian life in the presence of other human beings and oftentimes in the presence of human strife. The practical side of oneness is aided by the Holy Spirit who helps us to get SELF out of the way.
WE CAN'T BRING ABOUT ONENESS. Oneness of the Body of Christ is done by the Holy Spirit. We are provoked by Him and endowed by Him, to subdue our own self, our own hot-headedness and to submit to His will in the midst of conflict. One of the best gifts of tongues is to hold our own tongue when we would really like to give someone a piece of our mind. Sometimes, keeping our mouth shut is the best gift of tongues we’ll ever have and requires the Spirit of God to pull it off.
ACHIEVING ONENESS IN A NATION IS INFINITELY MORE DIFFICULT than oneness in a family or church. Our Founding Fathers who debated and hammered out the Founding Documents of our Republic, recognized the great difficulty of achieving unity from a mass of people. On our nation’s Great Seal, on the back side of the round seal, there appears above the eagle, a ribbon on which is printed: E pluribus unum. “Out of many, one.”
THE SEAL IS IMPRINTED ON THE BACK SIDE OF OUR ONE-DOLLAR BILLS. Please look at it. Again, the Seal has a front and back side: printed on the left side and the right side of the dollar bill. On the right side of the One-Dollar Bill is the back side of the Seal. Above the eagle is a ribbon on which is printed: E pluribus unum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_pluribus_unum– Latin for "Out of many, one" – is a traditional motto of the United States, appearing on the Great Seal along with Annuit cœptis and Novus ordo seclorum; its inclusion on the seal was approved by an Act of Congress in 1782. Wikipedia The entities and ideas on the Great Seal amount to a collection of “ideals” and not legal facts. A motto is a good thing. It’s the ideal toward which we work and struggle to bring it to pass.
DR. R.J. RUSHDOONY WAS AN OUTSTANDING CHRISTIAN APOLOGIST, researcher and historian. He wrote many books. [Rousas Rushdoony John] (Amazon Books) When the Christian schools in North Carolina were entangled in a court battle with the State over its overreach into the Christian schools, we engaged Dr. Rushdoony to give professional testimony in the courtroom in Raleigh on behalf of the Christian schools. One of his outstanding books was: One and the Many. I read this book several times. I had never thought about the conflict between “the one and the many.” It’s the age-old conflict that causes sibling quarrels and fights in the home, divorces, fights on the school yard, church splits, heated political debates, and wars that kill millions of people.
AMONG CHRISTIANS, WE HAVE A NEW NATURE IMPARTED TO US BY THE HOLY SPIRIT in being “born again.” But we also retain the old nature we were born with. We have two natures! We can’t even get along with ourselves because or of our two natures. We are a “scrambled egg.” We lack unity in our own, single, personality.
GETTING A NATION OF PEOPLE TO AGREE IS NOT EASILY DONE. The natural outcome is division and persecution of the weaker half. When I was four or five, I noticed that Mama’s hens would go after a weaker hen and sometimes peck it to death. A pack of dogs may go after a smaller or wounded dog. Jewish Rabbi Lapin makes a strong appeal for Christians to stand firmly in America in the face of increasing persecution of Christians in politics and day-to-day life in our schools, offices, and communities. The safety and well-being of Jews in America depends largely on the nation’s attitude toward Christians. Please read his article in this link.
https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/persecution/a-rabbi-s-warning-to-u-s-christians.html?fbclid=IwAR1ETNd2lixKRR3c6sY5n8YC_WLiacNnr6UBiNDCiTuVc-8oapyELahJY9I
THE NATIONS THAT FORMED AROUND THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA are generally referred to as “The European Nations.” Their history has been to make war with each other. When our nation was formed, it began with the idea of a simple one-party system of government. (I’m not a historian, but it appears this was the dominant idea.) Thomas Jefferson was sent to France as our ambassador: and loved it!
NOT LONG AFTER OUR NATION HAD SETTLED MOST OF ITS OWN INTERNAL differences and had won a bloody war with our mother country of England, France and England went to war with each other and it involved their ships on the high seas. We also had ships on the high seas.
THE PRESSURE WAS ON US TO TAKE SIDES. We were mostly of British heritage but also had people of French heritage. Our nation almost came apart over which side we would take in the French-English war. Our one-party system of government split into a two-party government over that issue. It has remained a two-party system ever since. Then, we have many independents who remain aloof from party politics and will be on one side and then on the other side, depending on what the issues are or who is running for president.
BUT "POWER CORRUPTS, AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY (We were told, early-on). So, the party out of power criticizes the in-power party and after a few years the majority votes out the careless, corrupt, in-power party.
SO FAR, THIS SEEMS TO HAVE WORKED WELL FOR US. However, our nation is running away from God and is disavowing God’s role in the history and blessing of our country; just like the nation of Israel ran away from God and had to be chastened into repentance. It remains to be seen whether America will turn back to God. It remains to be seen if churches will turn to God. Churches and nations have a history of going away from God when a new generation is born.
FAMILIES STAY TOGETHER BECAUSE THE MOTHER AND FATHER LOVE ONE ANOTHER.The love of self is the main culprit that destroys marriages and families. A lot of families are “dysfunctional.” We might say, they are a scrambled egg. It takes a miracle to unscramble an egg. I’ve never seen it done. But I have seen some families unscramble when God is allowed to be God in the home and everyone finds their God-given place in the home. Ω
Read Through the Bible in a Year
November 15, 2019 – FRIDAY
A.M. Ezekiel 10-12 P.M. Hebrews 11:1-19
Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
A Good Verse to Memorize:
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13) (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
Song for Today:
How Great Thou Art (7:43) (Piano – Kim Collingsworth & Orchestra)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO67xEESp1M
Best recording out of three. You may need to adjust your volume.
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