“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 NLT
http://bible.com/116/2co.5.16-21.nlt
I want to continue in the same vein of unity, but with a bit of twist. I slight turn if you will, but still keeping the focus on the commonality that brings us together. One of the things we have to do to be in unity is to have a common agreement. That does not mean we think or believe exactly the same thing. Actually, diversity is. a blessing because it allows us to bring something different to the table to help make things that much better.
Think about it in the sense of a team. If it’s football, you don’t have 11 quarterbacks on offense and 11 linebackers on defense. If it’s basketball, you don’t have 5 point guards. You have a multiplicity of positions and people who have a talent for those positions. Each spot serving a different roll to bring the team as a whole to victory. Now there may be some disagreements about how to best execute to plays to get to victory, but at the end of the day everyone on the team has the same goal – to win.
Now while we all are different and may have different ways of accomplishing the same goal there are some things we have in common that must be the same. I shared in my last post out of Ephesians where Paul states that there is one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all. (Ephesians 4:6) Our commonality is what God our Father directly says about us. One of those things deals with sin.
Since Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil man has had a sin problem. We are born in sin and shaped in iniquity. There’s no way around it. That is what was set into motion at the fall of man. As cute as a newborn baby is they come into this world wicked. I know that’s harsh, but it doesn’t say we’re born cute as a button and then develop sin at 4 years old. Nope. We’re born with it. Now God has mercy on us and thank God for that, but our enemy, the devil, is looking to take us out at our first breath.
God tells us that the heart of man is deceitfully wicked. In other words, it’s so vicious that it will deceive us into thinking there is no wickedness in us at all. That we’re perfectly good people and all we have to do is just be nice and we’re ok. While God is like, “Dude, you’re on your way to Hell in a hand basket and I want to save you.” We have to come to the realization that we are by nature sinful people and are in need of a savior.
God’s desire for each and every human being is that none of us should perish, but have everlasting life. We are His most prized creation. The acknowledgment of our sinful nature is not to condemn us or just to point out how bad we are. It’s to open the door so that God as a loving father can come in and redeem our lost souls and to be in unity with Him in Christ Jesus.
Now that we are one with God through our faith in Christ He doesn’t stop there, but He has brought us into a new family – the body of Christ. A local church is just a small part of a larger family. A group of people who have all said, “God, I’m a sinner and I need you to save me.” A group of people who are by no means perfect, but have opened their broken hearts up to Christ and allowed Him to come in and give them a new nature. Not that we don’t still make mistakes, but we are on a journey together to be more like Jesus Christ one day at a time.
That leads to our Throwback Song of the Week. It’s from a CHH vet Da’ T.R.U.T.H. It’s from his debut album “The Moment of Truth” which debuted in 2004 on Cross Movement Records. The track is called “South Street.” Da‘ T.R.U.T.H. has been known in the past the Christian Jay-Z. I think you’ll definitely get that feel from this track. A bangin beat and very aggressive lyrics. A hip hop classic in my book.
Make sure you tune into the Trackstarz show this Saturday to hear DJ Jeremaya spin this track or click the link below. Check it out and let us know what you think. Until next time…
Peace and blessings
