Unity

Unity

Bear One Another's Burdens
One hot day, Herman Trueblood, all clean and cooled off by a nice swim in the ocean, saw a sweating man and his two sons trying on a hot day to push his disabled car up an incline. Two voices started yelling at each other inside him. One said, "There is an opportunity for service; you ought to help them push." The other voice protested, "Now that is none of your business. You will get yourself all hot and dirty. Let them handle their own affair." He finally yielded to his better impulse. He put his shoulder to the task. The car moved and kept moving.
A simple thing then happened which Trueblood never forgot. The father stuck out his dirty hand, and Trueblood stuck out his dirty hand. The father said, "I am very glad that you came along. You had just enough strength, added to ours, to make the thing go."
"Years have passed since that hot day, but I can still hear that man saying, 'You had just enough strength, added to ours, to make the thing go,'" Trueblood reflected more recently. "There are many thousands of people struggling to get some heavy load over the hill, and I probably have 'just enough strength, added to theirs, to make the thing go.'"

Strength in Union
One of Aesop's fables tells of four oxen who were such great friends that they always kept together when feeding. A lion watched them for many days with longing eyes, but never being able to find one apart from the rest, was afraid to attack them. Whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another so that whichever way he approached them he was met by horns. At length he succeeded in awakening jealousy among them, which grew into a mutual aversion, and they strayed a considerable distance from each other. The lion then fell upon them singly and killed them all.
The moral is, "United we stand, divided we fall."

Each His Part
"I did," said the sticks. "I did," said the paper. "I did," said the boy. "No, I did," said the wind. But they all flew the kite together. If the sticks had broken, the tail caught in a tree, the paper torn or the wind was lulled, the kite would have come down. Each had a part to play.
The application is inescapable. We each have a work to do. If the work of the Lord is to be a success, then every member of the church must play his part. We have the work of visiting, giving, preaching, and countless other jobs to do to make the church and its work successful. We must all work together and each do what he can to help. It is a matter of teamwork (1 Corinthians 3:6-9).

Togetherness Can Build Up a Church
A clergyman once remarked to Sir John Barbirolli how he wished he could fill his church building the way Sir John and the Halle Orchestra filled every seat of a large concert hall. The conductor replied, "You could, if you had a hundred members who worked together as well as the members of this orchestra."
The white cuffs of the violinists stood out against a black background and made a bold horizontal line across the left side of the stage. As they played, those white cuffs remained an almost perfectly straight line which often moved up and down very quickly. It was a splendid demonstration of how the members of a great orchestra will not only play the right notes, but will play them together.
A great church is somewhat like a great orchestra. The members will not only make the right moves, but will make them together. They must learn to decide upon a task and execute it with perfect harmony. A musician who always wants to play his favorite piece (which may be exceptionally beautiful) and refuses to play-or else plays very halfheartedly or slowly-when another composition is chosen, not only will not help the cause but will be a detriment to the whole orchestra and may destroy its appeal. And a church member who is out of step with others, and who approaches his tasks carelessly or reluctantly, may generate more sour music than the sweet notes all the rest can draw out. The Church As a Team
The story is told of a horse-pull in Canada. One horse pulled 9,000 pounds, another 8,000. Together you would expect them to pull 18,000 pounds. Not so! When teamed together, they pulled 30,000 pounds.
The principle is called synergism. By definition, the simultaneous action of separate agents working together has a greater total effect than the sum of their individual efforts. More can be done in a team effort than can be accomplished solo. In order for the principle of synergism to work like it should, there has to be teamwork.
Everything we do takes teamwork and trust. Every person in the local church is valuable and needed. The church is a team, and together we can build for the Lord.

Laborers Together
An old legend tells of a noisy carpenter's shop in which the tools of the trade were arguing among themselves. Brother Hammer was told by his fellow tools that he would have to leave because he was too noisy. To which he replied, "If I am to leave this carpenter's shop, Brother Gimlet must go too; he is so insignificant that he makes very little impression."
Little Brother Gimlet arose and said, "All right, but Brother Screw must go also; you have to turn him around and around again and again to get him anywhere."
Brother Screw said, "If you wish, I will go. But Brother Plane must leave also; all his work is on the surface, there is no depth to it."
To this Brother Plane replied, "Well, Brother Rule will have to withdraw if I do, for he is always measuring others as though he were the only one who is right."
Brother Rule then complained against Brother Sandpaper and said, "I just do not care, he is rougher than he ought to be and he is always rubbing people the wrong way."
In the midst of the discussion, the Carpenter of Nazareth walked in. He had come to perform His day's work. He put on His apron, and went to the bench to make a pulpit. He employed the screw, the gimlet, the sandpaper, the saw, the hammer and the plane and all the other tools. After the day's work was over and the pulpit was finished, Brother Saw arose and said, "Brethren, I perceive that all of us are laborers together with God."
Is it not wonderful how God uses all of us and our unique gifts in the building of His pulpit! The Uniting Love of Christ
In a museum, an old white-haired man was standing fascinated before a picture of Christ. After gazing at it for a few moments he murmured to himself, with face all aglow, "Bless Him, I love Him!" A stranger standing near overhead him and said, "Brother, I love Him, too," and clasped his hand. A third caught the sentence and said, "I love Him, too"; soon there stood in front of that picture a little circle of people with hands clasped, utter strangers to one another, but made one by their common love of Christ. On further discussion they found they belonged to different Christian denominations. But this did not disturb their fellowship. Perhaps others belonging to their particular denomination, but not to Christ, could not do what they were doing, stand in awe before Christ and have fellowship with those who possessed the same feeling.

What Kind of Christian?
Many people turn denominational adjectives into nouns. Instead of saying, I am a Baptist Christian, a Presbyterian Christian, a Catholic Christian, or an Orthodox Christian, they say, I am a Baptist; I am a Presbyterian; I am a Catholic; I am Orthodox, and so on. This is a distortion of values, for being a Christian is the important thing, and what kind of Christian you call yourself is purely secondary.

Cooperation
There were two Christians occupying the same cottage, each bound to keep his own side of the house well thatched. They were sadly divided denominationally, one being a Baptist and the other a Presbyterian. After repeated battles with words, they were not on speaking terms. One day these men were at work on the roof, each thatching his own side, when they met at the top and were forced to look into each other's faces. One of the men took off his cap, and scratching his head said to the other, "Johnnie, you and me, I think, have been very foolish to dispute as we have done concerning Christ's will about our churches, until we have clean forgot His will about ourselves; we have fought so bitterly for what we call the truth, that it has ended in spite. Whatever is wrong, it's perfectly certain that it never can be right to be impolite, unneighborly, unkind-in fact, to hate one another. No, that's the devil's work, not God's! The same thing may be the matter with the church as with this house. You are working on one side, and I am on the other, but if we only do our work well, we will meet at the top at last. Give me your hand, old neighbor!" So they shook hands and were the best of friends ever after.

Get Your Heads Together
There is an old legend about a herd of mules that was attacked nightly by a pack of wolves from a nearby forest. When the wolves came, the mules began kicking viciously in all directions. Consequently the mules maimed and injured each other while the agile wolves escaped unharmed. Finally, a wise old mule called the rest together for a conference and made known his plans. That night the wolves came yelping from the forest as usual, but instead of the mules kicking, they all ran and put their heads together in a circle and began kicking outward. The wolves were put to flight, and the mules did no harm to each other. Christians need to get their heads together and kick outward against the forces of iniquity. The world must sometimes wonder whether we who call ourselves Christ's fishermen have any heads to put together. A Future Perfection
Probably you've heard of the group who were supposed to have arrived in heaven and been met by St. Peter. In a beautiful meadow they saw some people assembled and asked Peter who they were. Peter replied, "They are Presbyterians." They walked on a distance to a beautiful brook, and one asked, "Who are the people gathered over there?" And Peter answered, "They are Lutherans." Then they came to a tremendously high wall and one asked, "Whose are the voices we hear behind that wall?" "Shh!" said Peter. "Please be quiet!" Then he whispered the name of that denomination and said, "They think they are the only ones up in this place, and we don't want to disillusion them. If they find out that others have made it up here, too, how will they feel?"

Workers Together
As you look outside on a snowy day and admire the beauty of the landscape, you may recall that no two snowflakes have ever been found to be alike. Yet each individual snowflake is only a minute drop of frozen water as it falls to earth. However, many snowflakes together cover the ground and can change the course of things and persons. When you do your best, and join that best with the efforts of other Christians, you will be amazed at what God can do with your combined "bests."

Nearer the Center
On a blank leaf of his Bible a man had drawn a circle with several radii converging on the center, which he called "Christ." On the radii were written the names of different denominations of Christians. Underneath were written the words, "The nearer to the center the nearer to one another."