“Lord Free Us Of Religious Bigotry Through Actionable Love!”

“Lord Free Us Of Religious Bigotry Through Actionable Love!”
In the “Great Commission” of Matthew Jesus asked his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations…” It has never been an easy feat discipling a whole nation. Where this happens it can only be a state imposition, but that would mean people will profess to be Christians when they are not.
It is in this light that we can reason out what Jesus the Prince of Peace means when he says, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!…Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division….From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two…”(Lk.12:49-53).
As the years go by it is being established that faith decision is an individual choice. The landscape that was once called christendom is no longer Christian per se.
In Ghana missionaries constructed “Christian villages” where converts were taken out of the secular communities and resettled. Today those villages are no longer one hundred percent inhabited by Christians. All across the continent some families are at loggerheads as spouses, children and sibblings make strong choices on which religion they want to follow. This is probably the kind of divisions and unrest Jesus farsaw and that is why he said he had not come to bring peace on earth but division.
Nevertheless, he had a baptism to undergo and he was distressed until he had accomplished his mission – referring to his death and resurrection.
Yesterday we read how Jesus rebuked James and John who wanted to call fire from heaven to destroy an inhospitable Samaritan village (Lk. 9:51-56). How could the same Jesus suddenly stress that he has come to bring fire upon the earth, except we understand that it was a figurative expression.
Bottomline is that as Christians we believe that at the mention of the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, but there is still bound to be divisions and disagreements in homes, families and communities because there is freedom of religion.
God does not compel us to be, but he has a way of making us to be. We must learn to be tolerant of other people’s choices until we can win them through actionable love.
Weekend prayer: Lord free us of religious bigotry so that we can win others for the kingdom through actionable love. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!