Us and Them!

Acts 15

 ⁷ After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸ God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹ He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? ¹¹ No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

This country, our planet for that matter, has way too much US vs Them. Are we really that different that we can not get along with each other. What is the real difference between a Democrat and  Republican? What is the Real Difference between and American and an Iranian? God did not put barriers between us, we did that on or own. Christians are not very much different than Non-Christians. We are both sinners! We both need the Lord! We might have different religious priorities. We might believe in a certain type of communion. We might believe in one baptism over another. But, we are all the same. We need God's perfect grace and we need to be saved by Lord Jesus. 

Grace! We can spend our lives concentrating on our differences or we can realize we all need Jesus. That is the tie that binds us together. If we let Jesus purify our hearts and know that he accepts us as we are, we will be able to tackle all of life from a different, more united perspective. God never looks at us as being different. He looks at us with Love and he made a choice to work to leave none of us behind. He did it even though he knew we did not deserve it. True Grace! He doesn't look at our differences, he doesn't look at our weaknesses, he doesn't even look at our sin. He just looks at us as lost and needing him. 

Thank You Lord for not seeing me as different. Thank You for not seeing me as the enemy. Thank you for not dividing between US and Them. Thank You for your Grace!