The Mission Foundation
Our
dear friends, we’re off to a
great start in my 21st year at the Louisiana State Capitol! I give thanks to our Lord that I was asked to
lead in a prayer for unity at the Louisiana Black Caucus Prayer Breakfast. There was a great crowd and a wonderful spirit
at that prayer breakfast. This Monday,
March 31st, I will be opening the House of Representatives in prayer.
Also, the weekly LA Legislators’
Bible Study Prayer Breakfast (which I have led since 2000) has been very
well attended by both the House and Senate.
Here are some notes from our last two meetings:
“How Can We Who Are So Diverse Be Truly
Unified?”
“In our diversity, let there be unity!” That was last week’s theme. We focused on the reasons for which our unity
is of paramount importance to all of us.
Often it is said that we must be unified in order to accomplish greater
things. However, as we have seen, there
are much more important reasons:
- We were made in the image of
the Holy Three-In-One. God, the Eternal Community,
who lives in the perfect unity of love within Himself, said, “Let Us make
man in our own image, after our own likeness” (Genesis
- But we foolishly broke our
bond of love with God and with one another and chose to go our own
self-focused way (Genesis
3; Isaiah 53:6). In His unconditional love, our Lord
Jesus died to restore our unity with God and with one another forever. (Romans
5:8, 18; Eph. 4:15)
- On the night before He was
crucified, Jesus prayed for our unity, saying that our oneness would be
our testimony to the world that God actually sent Him and that God truly
does love us in the same way that He loves His own Son. Jesus prayed, “I do not ask for these (disciples) only, but
also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may
all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they
also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that you have sent Me. The glory that You have given to Me I
have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in
them and You in Me, that they may be perfectly one, so that the
world may know that You sent me and loved them even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:20-22)
- Our Christ, Whom we all follow, has blessed us with the privilege of sharing in a beautiful seven-fold oneness: “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6)
But now we must ask, “How do we do this? How can we who are so diverse be truly
unified?
I. We must be HUMBLE
LISTENERS: We must listen to one another
with the ears of humility that Christ will give us.
o
James 1:19 “Know
this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak,
slow to anger.”
o
Proverbs 12:15 “The way of a fool is right in his own
eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”
o
Proverbs 18:13 “If one gives an answer before he
hears, it is his folly and shame.”
By listening we not only learn; we not only become aware of our
blind-spots; we also are communicating loving respect for one another.
II. We
must be MERCIFUL: We must extend the same mercy to one another that we have received from
our Lord.
o
Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they
shall receive mercy.”
o
Luke 6:36
“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
o
James 2:13 “For judgment is without mercy to one
who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
o
Ephesians 4:32 “Be
kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in
Christ also has forgiven you.”
Please pray for an ever-growing unity
among our legislators and in our churches and in The Church (even as our Lord
Jesus prayed). Please pray against any influences that would cause
division. Thank you again for making
it possible for Bec and me to do the work to which He has called us.
In the Savior,
Rod and Bec
In the Savior,
Rod and Bec
