“Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” ~Colossians 3:11
Religious barriers, cultural barriers, generational barriers, ethnic barriers — God’s Spirit eradicates all barriers between people in the body of Christ. The Kingdom of God does not clarify people by race or tribe or nationality or class. There’s no “us” and “them” in God’s Church.
By God’s grace, we do a pretty good job with this at Central. Pretty good. We know that all baptized confessors of Jesus as Lord are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are actively tearing down the walls that divide the Christian denominations in Amarillo. We believe that, in Christ, there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, or Baptist or Presbyterian or Church of Christ or Methodist, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Tonight at First Baptist, all four of our downtown churches are coming together to preach and practice Holy Spirit reconciliation in our third annual Thanksgiving Service. Our theme this year is “Celebrating our Partnership in the Gospel.” All four worship ministers are combining our respective praise teams and choirs to lead us in thanksgiving to our God. We’ll sing together, pray together, and read the Scriptures together. And all of Amarillo will be reminded again that Jesus is Lord, he’s fixing everything that’s broken, and we’ve got to get in on it!
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, around which this event is planned, I am so grateful for the godly leaders of our four churches who recognize the powerful testimony to Christ our partnership offers. I’m thankful for the enthusiastic response of the men and women of our churches who so quickly have entered into the partnership with Gospel vision and energy. I’m thankful for the deep friendships that have been developed between Howard, Howie, Burt, and me. And I praise God for the limitless potential our partnership holds for further reconciliation among the fractured members of our Lord’s Body.
May the walls continue to come down. May the name of our Savior continue to be lifted tonight and forever more by our commitments to him and to one another. And may he continue to work in us and through us, together, to his eternal glory and praise.
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” ~Colossians 3:15
Peace,
Allan
This makes me smile and remember all the talks that we used to have in your office about how we could (should) do church better… how we could be the church better, more loving people to those around us.