The 268 Declaration预览

Unity Among Believers that Amplifies His Name

Love one another.

It seems so simple, and yet all around us, the world bares out a different reality. Day after day, we are confronted with sin and a broken world. Our feeds are full of anger and bitterness, and our hearts and minds are under a constant barrage of violence and vitriol. Here among more heartache than we were ever intended to absorb, a light shines in the darkness.

“Righteous Father, though the World does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

John 17:20-26

When all around us seems hopeless, we are not without hope. God the Father sent His Son and His Spirit to see it so. As His chosen people, we are equipped to carry that hope with us to wherever we are called to the Glory of God Himself. Clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, our very way of life harkens light amidst the deepest darkness. We, the ambassadors of reconciliation, have every tool available to us that we could ever need.

And yet.

How often we choose a different path. We wander, we horde, we slander and sully. Our sinful nature causes rifts to appear and division to spread like a weed until, at long last, we no longer stand out for our brightness but for our bickering. We are, at times, a house in slow decay at the hands of negligence.

But God.

In His grace, God has offered us the kind of wisdom that comes from Heaven, wisdom that is pure and peace-loving, wisdom that is concrete, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, wisdom that is impartial and sincere. He has called us peacemakers and set before us a harvest of righteousness. God has not abandoned us, leaving us to our own devices. His heart is still turned towards us.

And so we pray: God, give me a desire to lift up your name above all other names.