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I’ve recently come to realized that I’ve lived my life predominantly as a Wesleyan, more so than as a Christian.  I was raised the daughter of a Wesleyan minister, and the grand-daughter of a Wesleyan minister and two Wesleyan missionaries.  I spent every Sunday in a Wesleyan church.  I spent my summers at a Wesleyan camp.  I attended a Wesleyan University.  And I’m now attending a Methodist seminary.  While I believe it’s important to align yourself with a denomination for the doctrinal structure and discipleship, as well as for the close-knit community, I’ve found that I’ve both alienated and prejudiced myself in regards to other Christian denominations.  Rather than seeing myself as a believer among various and equally Christian denominations, I’ve elevated my denomination (which I do hold in high regards for its emphasis on social justice and personal holiness) above all others.  I’ve allowed myself to see only the weaknesses in others denominations of choice and ignored the weaknesses in my own.  Over the last few years, and I guess more specifically the last few weeks, God has been revealing to me His heart.  His heart is in unity.  After all, the world should know we are Christ’s followers by how we love.  But instead, I think the world sees us as a house divided, which as Jesus and Abraham Lincoln have stated, cannot stand. 

One of my favorite passages in Scripture is Jesus’ prayer in the Garden, right before He is arrested and crucified.  I’ve heard many times people say that there is nothing in Scripture specifically for them, because it’s all contextual and for a specific people or person at a specific time.  Though I would disagree because Scripture was written for a larger audience and simply expressed through specific individuals and circumstances, I can understand the struggle to see a personal message in the midst of this.  However, this prayer is prayed specifically for every believer who ever has and ever will come into fellowship with Christ and His Church.

John 17: 20-22 records Jesus’ prayer:
“My prayer is not for them [the disciples] alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in Me, and I am in You.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent Me.  I have given them the glory that you gave Me, that they may be one as We are one—I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.  Then the world will know that you sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. “

Christ’s prayer as He was facing a terrifying and painful death was for everyone who would come to know Him as Savior and Lord; that they would be united in their love of Christ and those who are lost.  Correct theology and doctrine has its place, but right living and pursuit of the heart of Christ is what Jesus prayed for for His believers.  If unity is God’s prayer for us, unity should also be OUR prayer for the Church universal.

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