Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Unity

National Community Church in Washington DC is one of my favorite webcasts to watch when I'm looking for really deep spiritual nourishment. One of their pastors in particular, Heather Zempel, has a fabulous wealth of knowledge and wisdom about the scriptures and their relevance. I love to feel that at the end of a message I know more about scripture than I did when I started.

But the series the church is in now is called "One Prayer." At first it sounded so basic. National Community Church is joining with churches around the world and spending time praying for unity among Christians. There are many times I hear messages and think, yeah yeah, same scripture, "be unififed, don't quarrel... yada yada yada... same message, different speaker."

But tonight I heard it with renewed eyes. Unity is not a message it's the message! Imagine the possibilities if we sold ourselves out in pursuit of the Acts 2 church. Craig Groeschel spoke the message about unity and he talked about these possibilities. We as a Christian community could single-handedly eradicate hunger, provide medical care to everyone in need, and most importantly, show the power of Jesus around the world. Not just tell the world about Jesus, but show Him and His love through a bowl of rice or a well of clean drinking water. The physical implications of spiritual unity are greater than any of us could envision.

If you'd like to watch the webcast or download the podcast about praying for unity - you can find it here.
And to know more about One Prayer - check out oneprayer.com

So, as I have been humbled tonight about this, I ask you to join me in praying earnestly for God to intervene with His people, and unite us for His mission to change the world.

1 comment:

hokiegal23 said...

great point, annie. thanks for sharing what you're learning.

i'm definitely going to look up the podcast for the unity talk. not coincidently, in our video bible study last night, beth moore spoke about unity in the body of christ.

she challenged us to encourage one another and to love each other deeply, no matter the differences between us in how we worship or where we worship.

it was a great call to action and reminder that we really need to stop the focus on fighting with each other and start focusing on working together for God's glory. part of that is sticking up for each other, no matter what.

keep your blog posts coming... i enjoy reading what's going on. :)