The City on a Hill

The City on a Hill



The Lord our God is one God. However, right now I want to talk about unity and diversity.

When the first church began all those years ago, there was only THE church. Not the churches. And as the song depicts, one by one, the drifted away and sought to gather only with others that were like them.

God is a lover of diversity. In that first church, there were many kinds of people. Did you imagine that the first church was populated just by people like you? No, there certainly were people like you there. But also there were those who are very different from you. There were those who worshiped in a quiet manner, and those who cried out loudly in their worship. There were people who were passionate when they spoke and those who were steady. There were those who were lovers of music and worshiped with their voices and instruments. There were those who prayed alone in a corner and those who walked and jumped and prayed out loud. Every kind of way to worship and praise the Lord was represented. Yet they were all united. They gathered together and they shared meals together.

Then somewhere along the way, they began to just seek out those that were like them and slowly they began to separate. The church broke into churches, where only one common type of worship, prayer and preaching were common and accepted. The light began to fade in the city on a hill when the church began to grow apart.

Because just like the song says, we were always meant to be together, we were never meant to be separate; we were made to complement one another in our worship. God loves diversity. He loves that we each have our own way to show our love to Him, but He loves it even more when we put aside the barriers of denominations and walls and come together and even though we are different…join together to worship His name. We were meant to stand together. We are stronger when we stand together. God made us to be together in THE church. Not separate in many different churches.

It is not Biblical that we should be separated. God wants His church to be united. Across all the differences we may have, we have the love of God in common. That one fact is common ground enough to come together, each in their own different way, and love and worship God.

It is time for the city on a hill to shine once again. It is time for the walls and barriers to be taken down and for brothers and sisters in Christ to reach out to one another in love and worship together. Just because someone is not like you, does not mean they are wrong or out of God’s will. It just means they show their love in a different way…God sees their heart and He knows them and all they are. It is time for us to break down the walls, because God did not put those walls there. They are man-made and were never intended by God. The Lord our God is one God and He has but one church….THE church.

It’s time to find out light again and show the world the love of God.