Every Pastor's Prayer

Dear Lord: Protect her from scoffers without,
Who seek to divide the church and her Groom;
Warm the cold hearts of her members who doubt
The road her leaders choose to heav'n's room!
Let carpers know how Satan does employ
Members to worm rotten with inner strife;
Show them the carnage their whispers convoy,
Slashing unknowing with the devil's knife!
More grace is wasted fighting fires in church
Than in harvesting fields white with the lost;
Many are left when the Christians besmirch
By dissension 'neath the sign of the cross!
May the world see love between Christ's own sheep,
Not the infighting they so often keeo!

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. ... My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." (John 15:9-12)

And so at last I am telling you how to remain in the love of Jesus. To do so, we must keep His commands. What are His commands? My poems and comments, 384 of them so far, in every word give His commands to us who are Christian; this was His last command to the apostles, and maybe the most important. It is, to love each other. Newcomers into memberships of many churches walk into the middle of intrachurch squabbles between older members who have not yet learned what it means to 'love each other'. In my own denomination, Southern Baptists, we have just emerged from a 30-year battle between so-called 'fundamentalists' and 'moderates'. The fundamentalists won, but at what cost? How many non-believers are still lost because we were too engaged in warfare among ourselves to show love for each other? How many Baptists are now not going to any church? And how many have changed to other Christian groups? To make the problem worst for Christ, the battle was led by Baptist preachers, and it was a power-grab. Most of those in the pews never understood what their pastors were fighting about. The methods used by the winners were carbon copies of the methods used in politics hatched in 'smoke-filled rooms'; they set a terrible example for Christians everywhere.

Christianity has received persecution from world society since Jesus came. However, the church as a whole has not only survived, but it has grown to number 2.5 billion members today. The persecution in the first 3 centuries came mostly from the governments of the Roman Empire and the Judaists from which Jesus emerged. Despite the persecution, Christianity not only survived; by 325 A. D., it had become the official religion of the Empire. As for the Judaists, they still exist, but to be saved, each one must accept Jesus as Lord. Evidence from those earliest centuries highlights the fact that everywhere Christianity spread because non-believers saw how much they loved one another. Our problem today is that intrachurch power wars are so visible to the outside world, and it repels people rather than attracting them. We need to love each other and keep His other commands as well.