A Divided House? Can it stand?

I have been asking the Lord how he sees his Body, his people, his purposed ones when there is such obvious radical distance between them.

Somehow there has developed parochial doctrines and formative leaders who are revered by one part of the body and unknown by others. Or worse, even demeaned.

I read a couple Catholic Blogs, I read a few Evangelical Blogs, I read some from my Lutheran Friends and of course I am well familiar with many in the Pentecostal and Charismatic realm.

What is astonishing to me is there are many books written by Evangelicals that are completely unfamiliar to me. One such is John Stott. John Armstrong writes of him today. I never heard of him. Apparently he is held in some revere. OK.

Among Catholics, I am MORE familiar. Several of the desert fathers and religious of the middle ages are among reading that I have engaged in. Theresa of Avilla.

Luther of course is well read theology for me. Calvin? Not so much.

Then, at the same time there are many many revered pentecostal writers that have carried me to new places in God.

Wigglesworth, Lake, McPherson, Joyner, Yonggi Cho, Murray and many others who are important faith fathers I hold in esteem.

I suspect Father must be bemused by this mess. We are all his children but we have been raised by such different mothers and fathers in the faith that we don't recognize each other nor the parents of our siblings.

Now, the real question is do THEY (my siblings in the faith) have to become more willing to read what I hold dear, or do I? Frankly some of what I have read in the past causes me sleep problems (I fall into it).

I admire those brainiacs who read these great tomes of theology and at the same time wonder WHY. How about a good shot of Holy Ghost? Wouldn't that be better?

I don't think this will be easily resolved. I have little interest in trying at this point in my life to read a book by some guy I don't know write about a God he may not.

Devotion to Father is something else. When I read Luther I see that. When I read some Pentecostals I see that. When I read the tomes of LOVE for Jesus by the devoted of centuries ago in Catholic literature I see that.

Some of this other evangelical stuff reeks of lukewarmness and has the same effect on me it does on Jesus. Read Revelation for his reaction to the lukewarm.

So, how do we come into unity? How do we become one body? JESUS. Thats all. Everything else is phony plastic banana religious pap.

Can we get past that?

Maybe that's why I like the raw unfettered word of God read and studied for what it is.....Nothing more nor less. On every page Jesus shows up somehow. That's more than enough and if some author is able to hold Him high, I'll read it.