The recipe for true unity

You can’t say you follow Jesus and disregard the Bible. Jesus Himself is God’s Word. They are one in the same, so you can’t have one without the other.

Nov 28, 2024

Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.” (John 14:23)

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans who are in this community! I pray that you are making time today to celebrate the immense blessings and abundant gifts we have been given as citizens of this great nation, no matter how you voted or what you believe. We are the most blessed nation on Earth.

I’m not sure what your Thanksgiving celebrations look like, but here at my home, we always have lots of yummy food to eat. It ranges from traditional to super non-traditional (taco soup, enchiladas, etc), but one thing that will always be on our Thanksgiving table is pumpkin pie.

I’ve been making the family’s pumpkin pie since I was 11 I think. It was my solemn responsibility. My grandpa really loved my pie, although I think it was probably because I made it rather than any actual merit the pie had. But when I got older, I branched out and started experimenting with recipes that didn’t come on the cans of pumpkin puree. And from what I’ve been told, my pumpkin pie recipe is exceptional. I even had someone tell me it looked like something a professional baker would sell for loads of money.

I don’t know about any of that, but it sure tastes good to me. I think it’s the abundance of sour cream and whole cream that goes into it. But that recipe didn’t come from my mind. I found the recipe online. Sure, I’ve adjusted it over the years and adapted it to my family’s tastes and preferences, but I had to start with the approved directions first. I didn’t know enough about baking when I first found it to make it up on my own.

I would wager that’s the same story for the average American family at Thanksgiving. Those who bake usually work from a recipe, whether they found it online or one passed down through the generations.

What would happen if you were making a pumpkin pie, and you decided not to follow the recipe? What if you twisted off on your own and decided to bake a pie according to what felt right, rather than what the directions said? What if you didn’t have any knowledge at all about how baking worked?

It would be disastrous. There’d be fire. Definitely burned crust at the very least.

I’m not sure why human beings have the idea that we can fake our way through anything and achieve the best results by accident. Is that human nature? Is that our independence vying against common sense for dominance?

I suppose you might be able to get lucky trying to fake your way through a pie, but when it comes to our eternal souls, you can’t fake anything. Because the God who made your soul is the one who has the final decision on where you end up.

As Jesus must be our foundation and cornerstone, like we talked about on Tuesday, the Bible must be our roadmap. The Bible is our recipe. It’s the only way to truly know God and truly hear from Him. The Bible is our litmus test for whether or not what we hear is true. You can’t say you follow Jesus and disregard the Bible. Jesus Himself is God’s Word. They are one in the same, so you can’t have one without the other.

For true unity, we must have one truth. Sure, we can have opinions about life, the universe, and everything. We can have preferences and personal beliefs. The Bible allows for a lot of gray areas, actually. More than you might think. But in the areas where there is no gray, where God’s Word is crystal clear, that is the truth, and if we don’t unite around what is true, we aren’t actually united at all.

God gave us the Bible so that we would know who He is, what He expects from us, and how to have a relationship with Him. He gave us the Bible so that we can know how to live.

So don’t disregard God’s Word. Don’t let it gather dust on your coffee table. Don’t stack it on your shelf to be ignored and forgotten. Read it. Study it. Get into it and ask questions. And then, do it.

Don’t just read it, apply it. Make it part of your life. Integrate it into your everyday habits and hobbies. Your life will change. Your perspective will change. And something miraculous will happen: You will find yourself working alongside others who believe the same thing you do. You will find yourself in unity with other believers because you have come to understand and believe the same thing.

This Thanksgiving, may we all recognize what God has done for us.