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Divide or Multiply :: Thursday E-Devotion

You make the call.  It is not about math.  This has everything to do with how we live life and what makes our motors run or work over time.

"Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment."    1 Corinthians 1:10 (NASB)

Jesus was a person who would Multiply.  Yes, some people were turned off by Him and some ran from Him.  Yet countless of thousands, millions, have chosen to follow Him through the years since His death.  Along the way people have done and continue to do all they can help others see Jesus.  Jesus left us the strategy to see the world turned up side down.

How is that?  Jesus took 12 men, unsuspecting and not the cream of the crop, and taught them what it is to live upside down.  He taught them how to live outside of yourself and for the gain of others.  He called them to team work, to unity and to be built on and around His purpose.  He said to major on what matters most and move the rest out of the way.

"Let heaven fill your thoughts.  Do not think only about things down here on earth.  For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God."   Colossians 3:2-3 (NLT)

Jesus said, "And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me."   John 12:32 (MSG)

Do it alone.  Attract people only to yourself.  Be a lone ranger.  Divide people.  Cause confusion.  But realize that dividing people from God is not what God called His church, you and I, to be about.  He called us to center our lives on Him.

What does that take?  It takes believing the process of multiplying ourselves.  No, not making more little Michaels or more people like you.  It is about bringing more people into His kingdom.  To make what is most important our real marching orders.

My prayer is that you and I will see what we are choosing as a life style and method of leadership, to divide or multiply.  We do well to follow in the footsteps of the people who continue to follow Jesus and best part is that we continue to follow Jesus.

"God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it."   John 3:17 (NLT)

"I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it."    1 Corinthians 9:23 (NASB)

"For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."  1 Corinthians 1:18 (NASB)

"And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through him to God the Father."   Colossians 3:17 (NLT)

Finally, the Bible teaches us that we have to be upfront with people.  We are told to go to the person we have a problem with (Matthew 18), to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), to warn people about wrong teaching (2 Timothy 4) and more.  And why is that?  God calls us to win people to Him. 

We are to do all we can to take as many people with us to heaven.  That is what this life is all about.  Live with purpose.  Choose to multiply rather than divide.

NOTE: this is the last e-devotion until Monday, July 17.  Thank you for allowing me to share with you!

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