Pursue reconciliation and consecration part 1

The horizontal and the vertical.

You can’t have one without the other.

And it does take effort.

I understand all too well there are some people that the bridge has been burnt and they simply will not respond to reconciliation.

“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12 v 14)

Was it because the church was seeing people leave and return to Judaism that brought the divisions? For all kinds of reasons and for very weak ones church people find themselves falling out

I see a lot of wooden sticks being carried around these days to hit out at people but not many are formed into wooden crosses to be carried.

• The longer you stay in anger the longer time has to ruin that relationship beyond repair.
• The longer you stay in anger you say to God I don’t trust you to get the justice I deserve (so we hold out for another day after a restless night’s sleep) compared perhaps to the culprit who may not even know you are angry with them who simply trusts God who looks after the whole universe as well as their life whilst they get a restful night’s sleep.
• The longer you stay in anger the longer you look less like God who poured out his righteous anger onto Himself on the cross.
• The longer you stay in anger the less happy you are.
• The longer you stay in anger your life remains paused for longer and the less effective and productive you become for God.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-53375607 on the BBC website:

“Five people have been killed after attackers stormed a South African church, reportedly amid an argument over its leadership. South African police said they had rescued men, women and children from a “hostage situation” on the outskirts of Johannesburg on Saturday morning. They have also arrested at least 40 people, and seized dozens of weapons. The church’s leadership has reportedly been the subject of infighting since its former leader died in 2016. Police had previously been called to the church following a shoot-out between members in 2018.”

Now if that was not shocking enough, here comes the name of the church! The International Pentecostal Holiness Church!!

Anger that leads to sin opens the door for the devil to exploit and make things so much worse. It gives the devil the legal right to be there.

You see there can be no consecration before reconciliation or the pursuing of it.

While visiting in Haiti, Dale A. Hayes heard a Haitian minister illustrate to his congregation the need for total commitment to Christ.

The minister told of a man who wanted to sell his house for $2,000. Another man badly wanted the house but couldn’t afford the full price.

After much haggling, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the asking price with just one stipulation: he would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door.

After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So, the first owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog, and hung it from the single nail he still owned.

Soon the house became uninhabitable, and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.

The Haitian minister’s conclusion: “If we leave the devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ’s habitation.”

Do we need to call someone today? Do we need to have that coffee and talk it through, to pursue peace, strive to reconcile so that then you can enter into consecration. Perhaps reconciliation is actually consecration.