The Fight We've Been Invited Into

 1 Peter 2:9-12

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. 

Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." 

you are CHOSEN.

you are ROYAL. 

you are HOLY. 

you are HIS. 

This is YOU. God's Word says so. This is you and this is the Jesus follower next to you. This is you and this is the Jesus follower in that other church, or the Jesus follower that you disagree with theologically. This is you and the Jesus follower you know who may be floundering with doubt and questions. This is you and the Jesus follower who voted for Trump. This is you and the Jesus follower who voted for Biden. This is you and the Jesus follower you say you can't walk with because of political differences. This is you and the Jesus follower who has offended you or you've offended them.  

Chosen. Royal. Holy. His.  

We all get it wrong. We all screw it up. We all get led astray and miss the mark. We all lead others astray in all of our wisdom that down the road in a few years we'll find wasn't wisdom at all. We all fight, disagree, hurt each other, and tend to hunker down with the ones who see things our way. This side vs that side. Welcome to the Church. A bunch of faulty, ignorantly arrogant messed up people who God has the audacity to call...

Chosen. Royal. Holy. His. 

This brings me to my knees. Why doesn't He just give up on us? Why doesn't He just leave us all behind? As a parent, there are moments when I want to throw in the towel after a day of the bickering and fighting between my girls. I want to hide my head in a hole and give up. They love each other greatly but sometimes their ability to be so rotten to each other grieves me to core of my being! Oh man! How much more with God the Father? These rotten children who He loves so much He sacrificed His Son for them? 

Chosen. Royal. Holy. His. 

This bickering between believers is the WRONG FIGHT. I love what Peter writes in these verses to Jewish AND Gentile believers...oh the bickering that happened between those two factions! The disagreements, the completely different approaches to Scripture and relationship with God these groups had. Peter must've seen this. This is the WRONG FIGHT. The fight is not about who is right. That is not what we've been called to. The fight we've been called to comes down to the very core of our being that is the core of every Jesus follower, which is this:

            I have been brought out of great darkness and into His wonderful light. And now...I am set apart to declare the praises of the One who did that. I, who once knew no mercy, now know mercy. My fight is now to praise God so that evildoers and unbelievers will see my praise and praise Him, too. 

This is our core. This is the RIGHT FIGHT. OUR praise of God gathering others to praise God. It's collective. We are a unit. A body. A family. We are connected. On the same team. There is no room for, "I can walk with that person but not that person." This isn't how the body works. We don't get to choose its members. We are in this, together. 

Chosen. Royal. Holy. His. 

We cannot praise God while despising His body. It's an entire race. An entire priesthood. An entire nation. And we're either a part of it, or we're not a part of Him. 

I feel so grieved by the division I see in the church. I know it's nothing new in history. I know God has seen this before and I know that the church will continue to grow and heal and live. I also know that I am a part of this division. I have fed it, purposefully and also without intent...and I repent. This fighting and division is cutting ourselves off at the knees. Our culture is on the fastest moral decline I've ever seen in my experience. And we fight each other, while the world arounds us continues to snowball straight into hell.  

Where are the worshipers who will live continuously on the Romans 12:1 altar as living sacrifices declaring the praises of the One who has brought them out of darkness and into light? Where are the worshipers who will remove their heads from culture's hind parts and put them back into heavenly places where they are seated? Where is the unified body of Christ, under One Lord, One Head, One direction who will remain steadfast with one another because there is a greater fight out there than the fight to be right? 

Chosen. Royal. Holy. His. 

Where are the people who believe that this is who they are? The enemy cannot stand against this people. Culture cannot stand against this people. This people live life on their knees declaring the praises of God, in humility and great love for Him. 

Father, make me one of this people. Change me. Begin with me. 

Chosen. Royal. Holy. His.