It Is A WONDER

So give some thought to the work of God..."let there be light"..."From one man God made all men everywhere"..."To him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine..." "It is God who is at work in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" [you can search around to find those verses in your bible]. God, the creator and the one who sustains everything dwells is "light unapproachable"and is in need of nothing from me. This magnificent benefactor of the human race loved enough to give his only son.................................for me. It is a wonder I am included. After all the work done by the Father to bring Jesus (the administration of his grace) at one point it all fell on me. This slight individual, one among many who have lived and died and I get to be a part. God's love is grand enough to cover the world and focused enough to be pointed in my direction. God actually knows who I am and cares for me individually. To the Father I am not just another but I am his son and heir..... Right now he knows where I am, what I am doing and the condition of my heart. It is a WONDER....he knows who I am...thanks be to God for this indescribable gift. And you are HIS too, so that makes us one.

Brotherhood

My brother's name is Walter. HE is my brother because he was born of my Mom and Dad. We are caring the exact same DNA - we found this out when I gave him a kidney - so are brothers. So our brotherhood was established regardless of what we did.

People who confess the name of Jesus and are dead to themselves via immersion have been made one as brothers in Jesus Christ. It is because of him, himself that things which hold people apart are gone..due to Jesus unity exists. Like brothers by blood believers are brothers because of the blood of Christ. The requirement for this brotherhood is faith in Jesus as God's sin offering. So when one is immersed in Jesus' name he is in the family of God.

If we could embrace this foundation - being Jesus himself- we would be embracing unity IN CHRIST. Inside that oneness there would be differences in maturity of faith, in personal applications of God's will, in points of opinion etc...but unity would exist...how great is that! Foree

Christ

Christ means "anointed one." The Old Testament prophets longed to know what it was that God was doing "in them" 1 Peter 1:10-12. God's work to bring Christ was called a "mystery" by Paul (Ephesians 1:9-10). The Father's "Anointed One" was His choice and His choice alone. Jesus' arrival was the final act of the Father in His pursuit of his beloved (John 3:16). Jesus was/is the fullness of the divine (Colossians 1:19). He was the "word" becoming flesh (John 1:1-4,18). If you want to know what the Father had in mind when he made the world (through Jesus) then take a look at Christ. He is the focus of everything including our faith.
Faithfulness means being full of faith in Christ. Obviously the faithful will hear Jesus and defer to him relative to the activities of their lives-they will seek to obey him in all things (Matthew 28:20). The will of Christ is supreme because He is supreme, the will of the Father in the flesh, the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). It is Jesus who holds everything together (Col. 1:17). HE is the head of the assembly [church] (Col. 1:18). HE is the fulfillment of the law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms (Matthew 5:17-20; Luke 24:44). Christ, the center, the focus, the all in all, the one in whom we place our faith. Without him we are nothing. As Jesus says, I AM...
If the church which belongs to Christ is ever going to be faithful it must, through each member, remember what the Father has done. It must focus on the cross, the empty tomb and the Man who made that journey. Nothing, nothing is more important than faith in Jesus, nothing. If any belief, any practice, any opinion, any perspective ever takes the focus off of Jesus, the Anointed One, then all is lost.
If brothers in blood ever seek to unite on anything other than Christ himself then unity will be never be found. If peace could be found between Jews and Gentiles when they each believed in Jesus (Ephesians 2:11-22) then peace can be found between all persons who place their faith IN HIM (Paul's oft used expression). Foree