The LORD brought my attention to something interesting last night, in Mark 9:38-42 that I’d like to share with you today.
38 And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.
39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.
40 For he that is not against us is on our part.
41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.


We are SO QUICK to condemn any denomination different from our own, maybe a bit PRIDEFUL, thinking “our” denomination is the only one with the “truth”. And it makes me want to barf. Truth be known, NONE of us have all the truth. At best, we have “part” of the truth. And if we were to start working TOGETHER instead of against each other, we’d get a lot more done for the LORD.

Let’s liken the “church world” to a pot luck dinner where someone finally managed to get all the different denominations together in one building. Here’s what it would look like; now I’m just going to use generalities here, so don’t get your pants in a knot, ok? The Baptists would bring the fried chicken. The Catholics would bring the potato salad. The Methodists would bring the corn on the cob. The Pentecostals would bring the baked beans. The Church of Christ would bring the pecan pie. The Lutherans would bring the dinner rolls. The Episcopalians would bring the drinks. And all the other denominations would bring something else.

Now, all the Baptists would sit at their table all by themselves, having only fried chicken, nothing else. All the Catholics would fill up on only potato salad, and the Methodists would only have corn on the cob. Likewise for all the denominations, eating only what they brought and nothing more. What kind of meal is that? Not so good. But if we all sat down together and shared what we have, it would be a feast for all, right? YES!

Realizing NONE of us have all the answers, or know ALL the truth there is to know about the Bible, we should all be able to sit down and learn from one another. I happen to know a lot about healing, but I don’t know it all, amen? Can I learn from someone else? Sure, and so can YOU! Yet to some extent, we are all too prideful to admit we can learn from someone else whose experience is way different from our own.

You see, the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day were like that. Jesus sat at THEIR feet and listened and learned, but they were too proud and stubborn to listen to what Jesus had to say. That same mindset has endured to this day. Some churches go so far as to say if you’re not of their belief, you’re going to hell. The next one down the street says the same, and the next one, and the next one. Well, if that’s true, we’re ALL going to hell, because first off, we aren’t loving our neighbor as ourselves as long as we think we’re right and everyone else is wrong.

Let’s not throw the baby away with the bath water here. Yes, there is error to be found in EVERY denomination, because ANYTHING run by man has error involved. I study hard to present scriptures accurately, and yet I know I don’t have everything right. I get letters and phone calls all the time presenting views other than my own, and it’s tempting to just close my mind like everyone else does, and ignore them. But I don’t. I “eat the meat and spit out the bones”, by taking time to study their views against scripture. And do you know what? Sometimes I find I don’t know as much as I thought I knew, and that other people can actually have some insight that I don’t have.

This passage of scripture in Mark I presented showed me a truth; that Jesus had to tell his own followers that they didn’t know it all after all. We need to look at the fruit of other people’s ministry work. We are all supposed to be “one body”, right? If so, don’t you think it’s time we started ACTING LIKE IT? We all need to sit down and study the scriptures together and learn from one another. The Bible explains itself. There are errors we find ourselves getting into that largely could be avoided if we would all start getting together and sharing with one another with a humble heart, NOT trying to prove “I’m right, and you’re wrong”, but with an honest heart, hungry for more of God’s truth.

Error creeps in from separating ourselves from each other and going our own way. Jesus is coming back for HIS church. I can tell you one thing for sure; HIS church will be ONE, and not fragmented. HIS church will be of one accord, just like the 120 were in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. If we look honestly, we might find ourselves on the outside looking in, and that isn’t what Jesus wants. If we would let the Holy Spirit correct each one of us, we will finally find ourselves in “one accord”. But if we continue to let pride separate us, NONE of us will enter the Kingdom of God. And guess who wins? The devil.

Christ Jesus paid a horrible price to redeem us from our sins, that we cannot even imagine the agony He suffered for us. Are we going to let that go to waste, in order to satisfy our pride? We know who is for us, and that is God. We also know who is against us, and that is the devil. Let’s all get together and let God sort it all out for us and bring us all into one accord. We all have a lot to learn, including myself. But we’ll never get there as long as we let our pride keep us apart. He that is not against us is on our part.