Good Morning All,
Ephesians 2:14; “For he
himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh
the dividing wall of hostility.”
In the mid 1960’s, Simon and Garfunkel
released a song entitled “I am a Rock.”
It was about a person who was in love and then hurt as a result of it. There is one verse that goes like this:
I've built walls, a fortress deep and mighty that none may
penetrate
I have
no need of friendship, friendship causes pain.
It's
laughter and it's loving, I disdain I am a
rock, I am an island.
Many of us feel and live this way. At some point in time, we were hurt so we
refuse to ever feel again. We believe
that we can avoid pain by locking ourselves away from everyone and everything. Initially, this may seem like a good idea but
soon we find we are lost and without hope.
We have an emptiness which cannot be filled, a thirst which cannot
be quenched. We only hold a dull ache in our cold heart.
One of the real dangers is that we view
all others as rivals and enemies. We
never trust anyone, and we never let anyone be close to
us. When we do this, we look at all the
ways we are different from other people.
We focus on these differences and use them to support our “wall.” By looking at how others are different makes
it easier to build and fortify the walls.
This makes us very easy prey for the
devil. He loves people who “wall”
themselves off from others, especially if they try to wall themselves off from
God. People do this when they think
they have all the answers to life and that they know what is best. They have no need for anyone, including
God. So, in our own
selfish, sinful way; we build walls and reinforce them to keep others out,
especially God. In all these efforts, we
make our selves enemies with our neighbor, our self, and our
God.
God knew that there was no way we could
survive behind our walls and that there was no way that we would ever try to
dismantle these walls; that is if we even knew they existed. Jesus came to this
world to bust it up. He came to break
down the walls that you and I built. The
walls behind which we hid and held tightly to our heart all the anger, hatred, and
hostility. Jesus came to destroy the
pain and the evil. Through his atoning
death on a cross, he smashed the walls that locked us from God. We are now reconciled to God, and we can
be reconciled to each other.
God designed us to be social beings. We are to be companions to each other. Sin and the devil convinced us to build
walls. Thanks be to God that Jesus has
destroyed these walls, and we have hope. We
have new life in Christ; so, with those walls broken, try to reach out to
someone this week that seems to have a wall still up.
Dearest Father, thank you for sending Jesus to destroy the walls
of separation and hostility. Give us the
courage to leave the walls down and live in the love and fellowship that you
want us to have. In Jesus’ precious name
we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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