Mar 16

Unity is something that this world desperately needs. As more and more wars take place and as the world falls further and further into disunity, this need will become more and more apparent. All of this provides the background which the antichrist will use to supposedly bring peace to a war-torn world. Scripture tells us ahead of time that he will enforce a unity on the world that will seemingly solve its problems of antagonism and conflict.

But the enforced unity of the antichrist will not last. Nothing that is done by force ever lasts, for God made human beings to have free will and that natural urge for freedom always proves stronger than any force that tries to overpower it.

True unity can only come when those being united voluntarily lay down their arms, whether those arms be literal weapons of war or a rebellious will that arms the soul to take flight from God. True unity comes only from a free choice to lay down one's arms.

That is why heaven would not be heaven for those who do not want God to rule over them. If they were forced to submit to his rule, they would chafe at what they perceive to be a restriction on their freedom and heaven would not be heaven for them.

How awful to so love one's own self that it is impossible to lay down that self in submission to God. The only alternative then, is to exist apart from God forever. That is hell -- the ultimate disunity: to be separated from God eternally, while those who voluntarily submit to Him are united with him forever.

Scripture for today: Matthew 13:47-51
Thought for today: I find my unity of existence only in Christ.
Prayer for today: Jesus, I thank you for making me whole, for uniting my body and soul and spirit together into a whole, healthy unit that I can offer to God in you for his purposes.

MAR 16