His Kingdom United, The Power of Love

By Rick Clendenen

For many centuries the Christian Church has been divided, split and segregated. This is in deep contrast with Christ's vision of His Church as described in the Gospel of John, Chapter 17: "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me."

Readers of this book will be challenged to read the Holy Scripture, to see for themselves Christ's teachings about His Church, its purpose and its focus.

Take this opportunity to become an agent of change: to focus on His Kingdom, beyond labels. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, invigorated by His Word, we must cut-across the walls created by Church-labels to the true doctrine of His triumphant Church; the Church Christ envisioned before He went to the cross.

In his recent book "The Heaven Answer Book", Billy Graham answers questions on the subjects of heaven and eternity. About the question: Will there be denominations in heaven? His answer is clear and simple: "There will be no denominations in heaven", and then he adds: "People organize denominations, but Jesus instituted The Church. He calls it 'My Church.' "

It is written in Colossians 1:21, "And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach."

Therefore, it is not about wearing the right label. It is about a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rick Clendenen
• Release date: Jul 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310536502

Rick Clendenen

The youngest of fourteen children, Rick Clendenen was born and raised in a coal mining town in Eastern Kentucky. His parents were Christians and his grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher. Rick became a Christian himself at the age of 17 and accepted the call into the ministry in 1974. He along with his wife Debbie have served side by side in ministry since that time. You can read many of his experiences in his books. Rick and Debbie have two grown children and two grandchildren. Their son Richie and wife Jenny are parents to their grandsons, Trey and Liam. Their daughter Renee and husband Landon are parents to their granddaughter Kyndal.

Book preview

Introduction

The Church United in Christ

… that the world may believe that You sent Me ~ Jn 17:21

For many decades I have been fascinated with the question of what makes entities successful. I find that one of the critical factors in success is efficiency and effectiveness, achieving your target with a minimum waste of effort or expense. Most successful corporations and human entities strive continuously to achieve maximum efficiency. That sets them apart from the competition and often makes the difference between failure and success.

My first job in Corporate America (General Electric) taught me a valuable lesson about what makes a corporation successful. The principle was actually taught by Jesus Christ over two thousands years ago, A kingdom divided will not stand. GE spent an enormous amount of time and effort and millions of dollars to eliminate internal barriers and to empower people to work together for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. This made GE a successful corporation, the most valuable and largest company in the world.

What does this have to do with the Church?

The Church was left with a special assignment, the great commission: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. From the point of view of spiritual practicality the question we should ask as Christians is rather simple: how do we rate on the performance of this task in view of the instructions left by the Master, namely A kingdom divided shall not stand" and "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

One of the most sad situations, and perhaps we should say tragic situations in human history is to see the Christian Church divided, split, segregated and in extreme instances even with hatred towards fellow believers.

My guess is that when coming face to face with this reality most Christians would agree that this should not be. This does not concur with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This book is an open invitation to fellow believers to consider unity as one of the basic principles of the Gospel, the foundation to the Christian Church, just as stated in the Bible’s New Testament.

Christ stated: a kingdom divided will not stand. That statement is especially applicable to the Church. In three of the Gospels Jesus statement is clear: Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.

As a loving father, God wants us to succeed. He delights in our success and is grieved by our failures. In His word He has given us His strategy, His Master Plan, His guidance and His command for our success. It is our responsibility to seek His ways as stated in the New Testament, and then His Church will be prosperous and successful, just as He promised.

The apostle Paul’s message in first Corinthians is more plain and direct calling these divisions, carnal and immature: 1 Corinthians 1:12-13 "Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? 1 Corinthians 3:3-5 "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as