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Topic: Putting Life Back Together - Ron McGatlin
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Posted: 10/16/2009 at 1:44pm
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Putting Life Back Together - Ron McGatlin
A house divided against itself will not stand (Mat 12:25). A life pulled apart by pressures of one segment and its demands against another segment will not prosper. Fragmented and scattered lives of disunity and disconnection are not the design of God for His people.
How can we align our lives with God’s design of oneness?
"that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us
"And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17:20 23)
Many people are not one within themselves. Did you ever get to know someone only at church and later work with them or spend time with them in other arenas of their life? You may have found them to be “a different person”. People establish compartments of life and develop different mind sets for each compartment.
The individual’s approach to navigating life’s needs in one arena of life may differ from the approach in another arena. Different methods issue from different basic values and beliefs within the individual’s compartmentalized mind sets. Different rudimental principles are learned and used in the different compartments.
As an example, a man or woman may act and react to situations on their job or in their “business life” differently from how they would in their “family life” or “church life”, and differently in their “church life” from their “family life”, not to mention their “dating life” and so on.
People may “wear many hats” so to speak. They also may actually dress distinctly different when entering the “work compartment” or the “church compartment” or the “recreation compartment” of their lives. Like changing cloths they may put on different mind sets for each of the different compartments of life.
In a sometimes unsuccessful attempt to balance these separated systems of life, frustration and guilt can lead to inner disorders and outer conflicts which will affect the individual, the family, community, and eventually the nation.
The answer to oneness within and with others is oneness with God. First, we, the “called out ones” of God - the “ekklesia” - the church - must recognize and admit that what has been to this point has not always brought life together as one in Him.
Much of the institutional church has in the past divorced itself from practical life outside the safety of its walls. In failing to participate in parts of life it has become as just another compartment of life and not the source of help for all life’s issues.. Beyond that the church has even divided and disjoined itself into different compartments with different doctrines, beliefs and values.
The Paradigm Shift
The emerging church without walls will function and connect in homes, businesses and wherever bringing forth the kingdom concept of oneness into all the facets of life.
The great worldwide millennium shift from “church focus” to “kingdom focus,” often referred to as a paradigm shift, is moving the world toward eventual unity of focus on Christ Jesus as “King of the world” and away from focus on a myriad of vital but secondary values and systems.
Jesus is our savior but He’s more Jesus is savior of the world but more Jesus is head of the church but more not just every knee in the church shall bow but every knee shall bow in homes, communities, businesses, governments, and every facet of life - Jesus Is King of the world King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim 6:15).
Life will be put back together as one focus becomes one set of values and principles to rule all areas of life. The kingdom of God principles of Christ the King must rule in all facets of the individual’s life.
The passionate intense love of the Father is coming forth by the Holy Spirit forming Christ in His people through intimate relationship in His manifest presence. The glory of God has come upon us to transform and change us to the image of His Son.
Will there be diversity?
In the passing church emphasis age many thought that uniformity was a key to unity. In the emerging kingdom age it is being seen that diversity in love is true oneness. God, Himself is our model for diversity and oneness. God presents Himself to us in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each having distinctions of function but being in complete oneness. We are to be one just as God is one, not in uniformity or function but in oneness, doing only what we see and hear the Father doing and saying.
"And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one”
Everything rests in the Father. The glory of the Father through Christ is the avenue of oneness. The love of the Father is the source of life and is that which orders and unifies all life. The kingdom of God from heaven on earth is neither in rules nor in “doing” but in “being” righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17).
Individually the goal of worldwide kingdom may seem far too big and idealistic for many individuals to even consider and may not readily appear as a solution for their fragmented lives. However, the world view of kingdom does indicate the goal of Christ and the significance of individually coming into the reality and greater fullness of the kingdom of God.
As we each are transformed by the manifest presence of God and begin to be the church wherever we are, each individual’s mind becomes one mind and the beliefs and values governing one’s actions and reactions in all areas of one’s diverse life become unified. We truly each become one within ourselves and then can become one with the true Body of Christ.
What about separation?
Christ Jesus was not and is not one with everyone and everything. He was one with the Father and we are to be one with Him. We are to be separate from evil and from proud, arrogant, men of the evil way that God hates (Prov 8:18).
2 Cor 6:17-18: Therefore "Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty."
Coming into oneness with God and oneness within ourselves joins us to the true Body of Christ - the people of God’s love, and separates us from the arrogant, proud and evil way that God hates.
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Edited by Moderator on 10/16/2009 at 1:44pm
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