WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON AND HOW DO YOU KNOW?

Joshua 5:13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord[e] have for his servant?”

15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

The past couple of years have been rough, both inside and outside the church, for too many reasons to list here. But to sum things up for the church in America, there are great divides happening. Keeping in mind Pastor Lawrence’s exhortation to forget whether or not God is on your side and to question whether or not YOU are on God’s side, we can look at any current debate and  find Christians CONVINCED that they are on the Lord’s side.

BUT HOW DO WE KNOW WE ARE ON HIS SIDE?? 

I posit that the answer is found in the verses above. God is for ALL humans, and that includes the humans on the opposite side of any particular view, regardless of the moral importance we attach to it. When we desire the flourishing of our opponents and enemies, we are a step closer to the reality of our calling.

This takes incredible humility, which can only come about in prayer. And it takes the recognition that sometimes, as Pastor Harry Li often says when we take communion, the cup of blood is the ONLY thing that connects us to the person at our side. But it connects, and SHOULD connect us together above all divisions. That is the power of Jesus’ blood and His love.

So what do we do when pondering these divisions? We follow the command above and take off our sandals because we are in the presence of THE ONE who is able to dissolve and heal all that divides. Praise be to Him!