Community

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 - Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him....  

I have a myriad of thoughts racing through my head this morning. They're all connected in some way. I hope I can make sense of it all in this blog! 

Yesterday in church Paul Hanson, our interim pastor, talked about the Power of Community. He talked about togetherness and how that is what releases potential. He surprisingly used the example of the Tower of Babel.  Genesis 11:6 - The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. They all spoke one language and when they all said the same thing, it was done. They worked together to build it, although for the wrong reason. But they worked together. They were all in one accord. Until God intervened because what they chose to do was not His will.

We say two heads are better than one. In the scripture above we see it is always good to have a "buddy." Togetherness. As Pastor spoke about the Power of Community and how it has to do with working together, I kept hearing "unity" in my head. And then I glanced at the word community in the header in our bulletin. I circled it. Togetherness...unity... Like I do, I had to look up the definition in Websters: a unified body of individuals. Comm comes from a root meaning together; unity is unity! The word come means to move toward something. The whole word oozes togetherness.

Pastor Paul told a great true story that could even apply to our nation/government...and most definitely our church. He pastored a congregation years ago in a smaller Wisconsin city. There was one wealthy man in their church and people listened to him when he spoke. They were in need of air conditioning and a committee was put together to discuss and vote on it. All but one agreed to do this; the one against it was this man. He went to Pastor Paul and told him he was the one who objected, much to Pastor's surprise. "But," he told him, "because the majority is in agreement, I will go along with the decision." That's community; that's togetherness; that's unity. 

Any way you put it, working together for one goal in God's terms or in man's, brings about peace. It brings strength. It brings a seemingly impossible task into the realm of possibility. He talked also about breaking pieces of wood...how it's easy to break one, but a whole bundle, impossible. He mentioned a contest between two horses dragging loads in a contest. One could pull 9,000 pounds, the other 11,000. So it was assumed that together they could pull 20,000 pounds. And when it was tested the two horses together pulled well over that amount. So there is strength in numbers. 

God asks us to rise up and become one in Christ. To be united by Christ. When we choose to follow Him nothing is impossible. When we unite together as one Body in the Church dedicated to doing God's will, nothing is impossible. We have seen division rise up in our church because of man's desire to control. Control brings division and division weakens, can even destroy. Sometimes God has to intervene. When we are under the wise counsel of one God, even like our founding fathers were, we see unity. We are called the United States; can we say that now? But closer to me is our church. Perhaps God has sifted us to see who will really stay and will be dedicated to becoming united, under God's will, to become the church He desires us to become. One church or Church, under God.

We can have this unity within our country if we look up together at the One who created this earth and it's inhabitants, if we look up to where our salvation lies. Josh Groban sings a beautiful song that to me tells us where we are to look for our strength first. He may not be singing about God but our fellow man, but it all starts with God. When we look to God and  stand in unity with others who also look to God, we are strong and nothing is impossible. He will lift us up. 

Togetherness, in any place in our lives, comes if we seek God and are in agreement with Him for our own lives, our church, our country. When God is first, there is unity, victory and peace. Can we say we, our church or our country are at peace? I can say I have the peace in the Lord and with that I'm believing I will have peace no matter what happens in the church, the nation or the world. Think on what Jesus tells us and apply it to your life, your church or our nation:

Matthew 12:25 - ... "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand."