Ready to Join Now?

Joining is quick and easy, and gives you:

• access to 24 hour a day, 365 day a year Christian guidance and support,
• a weekly message, a Bible study and a women’s article,
• the opportunity to communicate with other members through the Talk messageboard,
• support through the prayer support forum and personal e-mailed pastoral advice

And this is all available in the comfort of your own home and at a time to suit you, and completely free of charge.

Transcript

Hello, this is Niall Walshe. Welcome to another "Thought for the Day" from the Christian Bible Church.

We live in a time when there are many, many religions from which people can chose if they are looking for a faith and, in these days of easy communications, people have much greater access to all the different faiths. How are they supposed to know which one is right? It can be even more difficult in these days of "Multi-faith" where all faiths are simply regarded as different expressions of the same basic truths.

Jesus prayed at the Last Supper with His disciples in John chapter 17, and in verse 23, He prayed for all who would believe in Him, "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me..." and Jesus went on to pray that this unity would also show the world that God has loved Christians with the same love with which He loved His Son. So it is the unity amongst Christians, joined by agape love, that will show the world that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

As Christians still struggle with their sinful flesh, and all its sinful desires, how can we achieve such unity - when the primary outworking of those sinful desires is fractured relationships? As always, the Bible holds the answer to this question. In this case the answer is in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 to 13, which say, "It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."

And that is God's recipe for the depth of unity that will act as the witness to the truth of all that Jesus claimed about Himself. So the unity will come as each person responds to God's call on their life, and as all Christians commit themselves to works of service through which we will all be built up. It is through that building up that unity, maturity and knowledge of Christ are achieved.

Jesus saw the problems and confusions that would arise through a multitude of false religions, and prayed about it. God the Father answered that prayer in a very clear and practical way. Now all Christians should play our part - so that the unsaved will have no doubts that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and, as such, the Saviour of the world and the only way to God. Every day we have a new opportunity to make that day count for the Kingdom. Let today be a day when we answer the call and increase our unity.

And that unity will also be the witness of a God who loves His children today in the same way that He loved Christ. Christianity is real, true and is rooted in a two-way relationship with God.

Thank you for listening.