Introduction

I am amazed...

...the number of divisions....

Many wear the name of Jesus on their sleeves. If you ask them, they will say "yes, I am a Christian." The majority will only claim to be a Christian if you ask them, if someone else claims it first, or if they feel it will somehow benefit them to do so. Most of the time, the name of Jesus is added as an accessory...something to be worn as an afterthought in order to somehow improve appearance.

Many wear the name of Jesus on their sword. They will seek out someone whom they know to have a differing opinion and they will engage them in a fight to the death. There is no winning in these battles, though both parties may feel that they are the victor. It is pointless debating, meant to beat an opponent into submission through cleverness and ever-increasing hostility. Most often, this happens among those who claim to be Christians. By this, I mean that people having this behavior and claiming to be Christians are more likely to swing their swords wildly and blindly, often at others who claim to follow Jesus.

A lot of damage can be done in this....and not only to the ones involved. Many of these displays of hostility are public, taking place through social media. There are babes in the faith who stumble because of seeing such acts from one Christian to another. There are Atheists who find a way to justify their Atheism through witnessing these.

According to Scripture, such disagreements should not be done publicly at first. In Matthew 18:15-17, we read, "Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.' And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector."

I do not want you to hear from me that I do not want brothers to correct brothers. No, the church must have correction. We must judge one another in the faith by our fruits...exercising righteous judgment meant to edify, reprove, and uplift. However, these must be done in love and only in love.

Love is the greatest gift one person can give to another. Love, when channeled by God, through us, to another person, is beautiful and more precious than gold.

Many people, however, do not wish to love....not in the way that we are told to love. Many of us who bear Christ's name do not even understand what love is. And even worse than this is that we do not understand what Christianity is. If we did, there would be no divisions because Jesus never wanted there to be division among us. He wants His followers to stand, unified, one entity standing firm upon the blood shed on Calvary.

There are many who believe that they are following Jesus, but whenever it comes right down to it, they aren't really.

There are the ones who claim to follow Jesus because they were born into a Christian family, are the relative of a pastor, or have been prayed for.

There are the ones who claim to follow Jesus because, at Vacation Bible School, they repeated after an adult and asked Jesus into their heart, never understanding what they were doing or what it meant to be a Christian.

There are the ones who claim to follow Jesus because, once, whenever they were just a baby, their parents had them baptized.

There are the ones who claim to follow Jesus because they go to church.



It is important that, whenever we say that we follow Jesus, we truly understand what that means. So, in this blog, we will discuss the importance of knowing Jesus, we will talk about understanding who God is, we will talk about who we are, and we will discuss what it means to truly follow Jesus.