What are we coming to?
It is in preparation for the cross that in John 17 we read the passionate prayer of our Lord Jesus. This prayer is very revealing concerning the expectations and desires which our Lord possesses for His redeemed people. Without quoting the entire chapter (you can and should read this chapter with regularity), these words of Christ inextricably display the truth that, of all the things, Jesus' desire for His believer was and is UNITY. Several times He asked the Father to "make them one as we are one." Yet today it appears that unity in the church or the body is almost a joke. Don't believe me? Just stand in most pulpits in the USA and talk about being unified and the guarded response (for the honest congregation) is muted snickers. How sad. The one thing Jesus desired for those who receive His offer of forgiveness and eternal life is seemingly the one thing which many see as a joke or at a minimum "optional." This morning, once again in a State Baptist paper ...