Christian Living
"Witchcraft bird, crying against me, Die! Die! Die!..."
"Mommy, it's not every bird that lands on our TV antenna that's from the devil now"
Ah my son, you don't know the enemy. They never rest o. They'll try anything. Last night, they came to me in my dream and they..."
Junior mutters to himself, "Here we go again".
Sound familair? You're not alone. If you happen to attend a 'warfare' oriented church like MFM, then you should have had a similar exchange with some folk who seem to think everyone else is either possessed or has ulterior motives.
Where they continue magnifying the ever ensuing conflict between light and darkness, we'd prefer to glance at Calvary and declare "It is finished". They'd prefer to be considered soldiers of Christ, we'd prefer "sons and daughters of the living God". Same boat, same ocean but different seashores.
Let's face it. We're different.
The Body of Christ is an amalgamation of people. Lots and lots of people.And our differences get more pronounced from generation to generation. For example, never has a generation been so comfortable with technology like ours. Every facet of our lives has created a gap between the previous generation and ours: Music, fashion, spending habits etc. And these differences have started to create a sort of conflict in The Body. Now more than ever, Generation X (roughly anybody above age 40) looks and thinks nothing like generation Y (people below 40).
There's a generational gap
The recent explosion of Youth churches all over, has exaggerated this "gap", which got me thinking - Is this "Youth church" thing a good idea? Dont get me wrong, I attend a youth church and I've been blessed by the Lord immensely there. But I cant but wonder, if the gap wont get wider. For one, there's now a blunt seperation, when we tag some worshippers young and others old. Young people now attend their own church, sing their own kind of praise/worship music (which sounds nothing like what the "old" folks sing), and have sermons delivered to them in ways that would appear sacrilegious to the older ones (Internet, TV, Live blogs etc).
On this same note of widening gaps, there's a statement that bugs me, every time I hear it- "This generation has failed God. God is looking to next generation." The only thing more alarming than this declaration is how frequently I hear it. Seriously? Our Fathers failed God? Akanni, Olukoya, Adeboye, Meyer, Kumuyi, Hagin, Oyedepo, Joyner, they all failed? Really?
Divide and Conquer
An effective strategy of the enemy is division for "a house divided... cant stand"(Matt12v25). And the enemy has some serious mileage in this area. As days turn to months, christian brothers and sisters drift further apart. Rather than celebrate one another, we merely tolerate ourselves. Sometimes we compete. Most times we endure each other. I feel this is because, all we see are our differences. And the end of this disparity is ..., I leave that to the imagination.
Jesus prophecied that He was going to build the Church and "the gates of hell will not prevail against it". Before we can point to the house that Wisdom built, that house has to be established (held together) by Understanding(Prov24v3).
We need to build bridges of Understanding and Love
The only things strong enough to bring and hold both generations together is Love and Understanding. If generation X understands generation Y, and vice versa, then we'd celebrate our differences rather than merely tolerate them. The Body of Christ needs to realize that it is still just that- a Body. Not young, not old, but One Body (Eph4v4).
Whether you're 9, 19 or 90, we all have the same calling: to be conformed to the image of God's Son. And believe it or not, we're responsible for one another, young or old.
Real life bridges require lots of effort and this one's no exception. No one is going to build them for us. We need to start getting our hands and clothes dirty. It has to be a collective effort. It's time for us to say
"If you'll bring the tar, I'll bring the bricks"
Our Lord's prayer in John 17... 'that we may be one'(paraphrased) must be answered. The gap has to be bridged.
Ibukunoluwa [[email protected]]
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