I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
--1 Corinthians 1:10

Even in Paul's day, there were divisions among the Christians.  Since the beginning of the church, there have been disagreements, heresies and challenges to authority.  Today there are hundreds of Christian denominations and independent churches all claiming to be "the way, the truth and the light."

Yet despite these disagreements on how we worship, when we worship and  the ways we worship, Paul's call for no divisions still rings true.  Which means in order for us to be perfectly united in mind and thought we all need to agree on one thing...the inerrancy  of scripture.  Just as there is one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there is only one scripture.  We may read different translations, but the Word of God is pure and true.  

There is no "wiggle room" in scripture.  It is what it says.  And we are called to live the life that scriptures calls us to,; to love,  be holy and pure and in communion with our brothers and sisters and Christ.  If we can all agree on the purity of Holy Scripture we will take the first steps towards Paul's appeal that "there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought."

Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
--Colossians 4:5-6

Many of us have heard the phrase "you might be the only Jesus that someone ever sees."  And we understand that this means that the way in which we live reflects on the way in which people judge us as Christians. 

These verses in Colossians challenge us to do even more.  They tell us to take every opportunity to spread the good news and be prepared to share the Gospel.  But one phrase in the verses takes a little more in depth discussion.  Paul tells the church at Colossae to have conversation that is "seasoned with salt".  So how do you do that?

I admit that, despite my doctor's advice, I salt everything.  It's the spice that I seem to see in order to be able to have my food taste the way I want it to.  And Paul is telling the young Christians that  they need to be able to season their conversations with something that makes their conversations and arguments "full of grace".  What he's talking about is scripture.

We need to be able to share the good news whenever we are able.  And in order to do this, we need to be able to salt the conversation with the solid truths of God the creator, Jesus his Son and the Holy Spirit.  Take time each day to prepare the spices you need to salt your conversations with others.  Study scripture and be prepared to use it to "salt" your conversations.  Be the salt of the earth to those who need some "spicing up in their life".

++Richard

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.
—1 John 5:14-15

These wonderful verses were the "verse of the day" today.  And there was some wonderful promises included in them.  First, because of the saving grace through Jesus Christ, we have confidence in approaching God.  We do not need be afraid but boldly go to Our Father in prayer.  We can lift up our voices to Him.

And He hears us.  This is one of the wonderful mysteries of our faith.  Our God, the creator of the universe, takes time and is able to hear our still small voice among the cacophany of voices and listen to us. And when he hears, He delivers  But there is one small caveat.  If we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL

That's the part many of us forget.  We can ask for anything.  We can pray for anything.  But it only is delivered if it is "Gods will".  So we can have confidence our God hears out voice.  We can have faith that He will deliver.  But we must always continue to seek Him and find His will for us.

Continue in prayer and contemplation with our Lord.  He does and will answer prayer.

Peace and continued blessings.

++Richard