Originally posted on Facebook on Sunday, November 6, 2022.

God yearns jealously for you.

Marriage teaches me so much about God and how He intends for us to live in community.

My wife and I had a tiff yesterday. It wasn't anything major, an annoyance, if anything. It could have been easily dismissed but my spirit was not at ease knowing that there was anything between us. Something in me could not tolerate any risk of there being distance. The very notion tortured me.

I yearn for my wife. Therefore, I seek and jealously guard our oneness, watchful and ready to destroy anything that attempts to divide us -even my own desire.

It's yet another proof that God is real, that I have been born again and that I am His because that's not my heart, it's His (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) –the same heart He has for you and, as a result, the same heart I have for you.

A neighbor reached out to me recently about how comments I made caused some offense and I was glad for the opportunity.

Jesus taught that reconciling such offenses are an opportunity to "win a brother" (Matthew 18:15) and should be our priority even to the extent that it supersedes our going to church and giving our offering (Matthew 5:24) because our expressions of faith are pointless if the heart of the God of our faith is not expressed in our practice (1 John 4:20).

The heart of God is One (Deuteronomy 6:4, John 17:21). I am in pursuit of that oneness and my most earnest desire is to draw near to God and to draw every soul I encounter near to me in God. This is the ministry of reconciliation.

Therefore I also yearn jealously for my neighbor and cannot tolerate any separation to stand.

I hear Christians dismiss the current culture as "snowflakes" and as a culture of victimhood. But, where is our love? Where is our gentleness? Where is our patience? That dismissive spirit is not the spirit of Christ. Jesus in His forbearance demonstrated that people are worth the cross.

Reconciling offenses are an opportunity to lay down our lives, lift Christ up and draw men unto Him, so that the whole world may be reconciled to Him and that those reconciled would be one with us in Christ Jesus.

Practically, as I stand in Christ, every separation that I can remove between me and a neighbor brings them one step closer to Christ.

We, the church of Christ, have been given by our King the purchase price of redemption and the resources to overcome every division that plagues humanity.

Christ makes us rich.

Therefore I can afford to come to these difficult situations and to every interaction full of grace, ready to give and forgive because I am drawing on Christ's account.

"For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son…" (John 3:16)

God yearns for His beloved and gave everything for them. Likewise, we, who were so loved, should also yearn for His beloved, using every occasion and everything He's given us to achieve His good and perfect will.

We, the church, should be the world's foremost authority on reconciliation -starting at home, then in the places we work and live.

But, we are not. Repent.

Do not allow separation to stand between our neighbor and us and most importantly, Christ.