Tonight the youth played a game that was cheesy while at the same time very enlightening. It was called "Sheep, Wolves, and Shepherds." Two "wolves" armed to the teeth with foam balls try to attack the blindfolded "sheep" while the two "shepherds" fend them off with their shepherd's hook brooms. The wolves had a very easy time of this usually. I say usually because as long as the shepherd could successfully keep his flock herded together (they are blindfolded, remember) then they could pretty easily keep the wolves away.
In case you don't see where I'm going with this, let me explain. Sheep=us, body of Christ. Wolf=the devil. Shepherd=God. Satan will have a Fourth of July picnic with us if we are divided. He infiltrates the church with little resistance most of the time. But if the church sticks together, unified, then Satan has a harder time finding a weakness.
Individually, we are not as strong as we are with our church family. We are more prone to be led astray by Satan's temptations. "Spiritual drift", as I like to call it, is a reality. It happens more than we like to admit. We drift too much from God, and very quickly. I think our own desires cloud our judgment far too often. All the enemy wants is one little schism to squeeze into.
Stay close to your church family. No group will ever love you more. And they are always there to love you back. Like the Bible says, "if two or more agree."
And, yes. I read "schism" this morning and I've been wanting to use it all day.
