Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Unity in Christ

In my reading of "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer, I found an illustration that hit me like a ton of bricks. It has to deal with unity, which has always, in my mind, been a desire of the church. From youth to elders, unity is a desire of the heart. Here is the excerpt from the text of which I am speaking:
Someone may fear that we are magnifying private religion out of all proportion, that the "us" of the New Testament is being displaced by a selfish "I". Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which one must individually bow. so one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and higher life.

I know that the church, including Christ Community in particular, in recent years has grown more and more "disunified". I see that it is a result not of something corporately, but of an individual lack of turning one's eyes heavenly. The high school youth group saw this unity happen 18 months ago when the majority of the group was disciplined in each one' s private religion: quiet times and reflections. Then some outside circumstances shook up the comfort, and we turned to our own strength. This lead to the demise of the unity that could be found there. I have also seen that in the whole of Christ Community, as an individual would look to see that the person sitting beside him in service doesn't think the exact same way as himself. Instead, his eyes, and mine as well, should be looking up to God, desiring to tune my heart to His.
This may all be well known to you, but I felt this passage of Tozer's stir in my heart. So now I feel lead to share it with you. I pray that it will bring encouragement to you and those around you, that unity may be found, not in ourselves, but in Him alone.

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