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Weekly Reminder...
The Weekly Reminder is an informative tool to help people who read it consider what the man of God has said. This weekend’s articles are based on what was heard on November 28 & 29, 2009 in the Westbury assembly.written by Br. Samuel Damus
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1). In this world that we live in it appears to be a rare occurrence when people can get together for the common good. It is even harder to see people stay together. To stay together takes a lot of work. This holds true for the church as well. That is why Paul was encouraging the saints in Ephesus to “endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). The church must make every effort to keep the unity for it is the will of God that we be one.
Jesus prayed His Father that upon His departure from this world that He would “keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are” (John 17:12). His prayer did not stop there but He continued to say, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” (John 17:20-21). There were other sheep that were yet to come into the fold so that they would be united in God’s name (John 10:16). Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was to gather all the scattered sheep (we who were lost in the practice of sin) that we may live for God (1 Peter 2:24-25). That is why when we live for the Lord we must do all that we can to keep the unity.
In the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah and the people of Israel came together to rebuild Jerusalem which was in ruins for several decades. From the beginning there were those that were opposed to the people of Israel getting together to rebuild Jerusalem but that did not deter Israel. While they were publicly being discouraged, Nehemiah encouraged the people to keep working. When the opposition saw that words would not stop the renovation, they set out to physically stop the work. Nehemiah and the people of Israel not only prayed but continued to work and be on guard for those that may attempt to stop them (Nehemiah 4). Nehemiah’s encouragements and tactful preparation kept the people together long enough to complete the job. The church itself must do the same if it wants to stay in existence.
There was a great sacrifice made (at Calvary) for us to come together and there must be great sacrifices made (by us) for us to stay together. How do we preserve this oneness that Christ prayed for us to have? By walking “worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” (Ephesians 4:1-2). Having the love of God in us will help us for it was this same love that brought us together. It is this love that always works for peace (Colossians 3:12-14). I believe it was this same love that was being manifested among the 120 in the Upper Room in the days leading up to their receiving of the Holy Ghost.
The Lord hates those that sow discord among brethren (Proverbs 6:16-19) but “blesses those who work for peace” (Matthew 5:9 [NLT]). The blessing does not come from coming together, it comes from us working to stay together in God’s name (the way He wants it done); for He said, “where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). So let us manifest the love of God for it is this love that binds us all together in perfect harmony.
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written by Br. Jean Leonidas
God has always called for His people to be united as they are working to accomplish the goal of making it to the kingdom. This unity is not just in the physical aspect but also in spirit. Jesus once said in Matthew 18:19-20, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them”. Assembling ourselves together is one of the greatest tools the Lord can give us in the battle of good and evil. Each time God’s people has unite themselves in the scriptures, the Lord has worked wonders in their midst. What I appreciate more is that the blessing of the Lord always follows the unity of His people.
We read in Nehemiah where the people had a mind to work. The work of God was at a disgraced, the wall of the city was broken down by fire. There was no barrier or protection for the people of God. The task at hand was not an easy task but nothing is too hard for the people of God that have put their minds together. In Chapter 4: 6 it says, “So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work”. Whether it is the three Hebrew children or Gideon’s three hundred, God has always stood by the people that unite themselves. Throughout the whole bible God has been setting examples for us to understand how powerful it is when His people come together in unity. We read in Acts 12:5 where the church (assembly of believers) were united in prayer for Peter who was put in jail. God sent an angel to deliver Him although it was late at night but the people had a purpose that brought them together. This shows that unity comes by the effort that we put in.
Br. Antoine gave us a scripture in Ephesians 4:3, showing us that this unity of the spirit comes by us making an effort. It states “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. The word endeavouring means that we have to put an effort in order for us to maintain the unity of the spirit. We have to get to the place of understanding the will God for our lives and for the church as a whole. By having that understanding we are able to work with the man that God has placed to lead us. Each time the man of God is preaching or calls a meeting, we are being directed on how we all can focus on working together to accomplish what God wants for His people. This brings our mindset together. Nehemiah had to transfer the purpose of God to everyone in order for them to come together to that one goal. Since this is not easy, it took an effort of everyone, neglecting their personal feelings and goals, to take up the goal that God has place in the man of God that He is using. Certain disciples were fishermen until Christ called them to follow Him. The disciples goals were to fish and to feed their families but when Christ called them they had to put an effort by forsaken their own personal goals to follow Jesus.
God is calling a people out to come in unity to bless them and the apostle Paul understood that as he encouraged the church in Philippi to be likeminded in Philippians 2:2; he said that it would fulfill the joy of his heart. In Psalm 133:1-3, we read “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”. In Verse 3, it says that “for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”. May God help us in laboring for the unity of the spirit.
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written by Br. Samuel Philogene
“Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD” (Psalm 122:3-4).
Most of the time the bible compares the church as a house or a building; we know that different materials are put together to build a house. You can have all the materials but unless they are put together in a certain order you don’t have house but when they start putting everything together and the shape of the building start coming out, now we can say this is a house. David said that Jerusalem, a symbol of the church, is as a city that is compact together (joined or packed together; closely and firmly united), we can understand that all the walls are joined together by pillars so that the house might be strong and able to face storms or any natural disaster. Last weekend we learned that the church can’t face the storms raised by the Devil unless all the members are blended together in unity.
Br. Antoine told us that unity is in the will of God. We can’t talk of church when everybody is doing their own thing regardless of what the church does because the church of God is one, even with many members. The church is like our natural body where each member even though they have different functions work together for the good of the body. Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, is one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit”. For the body is not one member, but many. We are called to be one body even though we come from different backgrounds and cultures but the word of God is there to bring all these different spirits together and make them one (in purpose). Unity is known as a whole or totality as combining all its parts into one, the state or fact of being united or combined into one, as of the parts of a whole; unification, absence of diversity; unvaried or uniform character, oneness of mind, feeling, concord, harmony, or agreement. How all this can be possible in the flesh is impossible but in the spirit (of God) it is possible to become one in Christ; like Br. Antoine loves to say the word of God is there to make the way and the Holy Spirit will follow to help us accomplish it.
God put everything in place so the church, His church, might be unified in love and faith. That is why He provides a ministry with the gifts of the Holy Ghost to bring us to this oneness of mind. We read in Ephesians 4:3-13 how God provides to the church fivefold ministry for this very work which is to bring the saints to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. Paul emphasized in verse 13: ”Till we all”, to show that the work or the church is not one person but we all must come to the point where we can have the same faith and the same knowledge because we are all feeding from the same spiritual food and drink (1 Corinthians 10:3-4). There is no way we can have different spirits if we all take heed to the words that are being preached, we are at the same class and have the same professor, we all should be able to pass the test. The problem is that we have not all the same hunger for the word which is the tool to make us one so the Devil always find his way among those that are not giving attention to the preaching of the word of God and gives them a contrary spirit from the group.
As a church the bible commands us to be one, to have the same spirit (1 Corinthians 1:10). Jesus also prayed for us to be one (John 17:20-21). Unity is a necessity for the church; we must be one in order to build the wall (Nehemiah 4:6). In 1 Peter 2:4-5, we are called “lively stones”, we have to built a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, we have to come together in order to build the church of God, but as we know, coming together is the first step but we must work together with the love of God in unity. If you noticed, Peter shows us the way to build this unity, he says, “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking”. Unity does not come overnight but is a wall to be built by men and women that allow the word of God to touch their hearts and to cause them to love each other with a sincere love, to suffer, cry and rejoice with one another. Unity will not come by itself but it is something we must build together, our hearts has to desire it and look for it. In Ephesians 4:3 Paul used the term “endeavouring” meaning: to exert oneself to do or effect something; make an effort; strive. That means something must come from me, I have to make the effort to preserve what God has given us. We have the unity; Jesus on the cross made the way, Jesus had broken the middle wall of partition between us, having abolish in His flesh the enmity and reconciled us unto God in one body (Ephesians 2:14-16). Jesus did His part of the job but now we must do our part to keep this unity among us and to grow in it.
May God in His mercy help us to crucify our flesh and our pride so that we can be humble enough to accept our brothers and sisters and work with them in love to build the Body of Christ. The church is certain to be the Body of Christ only if we can reach this point where we can work together in unity, to love one another.
“By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another”. - (John 13:35)
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