Where there’s division within this church, there Satan would plan an invasion. Where there’s bitterness, he hopes to build a beachhead. Wherever factions are fracturing this family, there Satan fortifies a foothold.

For every congregation failing to speak biblical truth in Christian love to one another, God reminds those fracturing Church families where their unity – true unity – is found. And that unchanging source of that unity changes the way we speak to one another. We speak truth in love for the sake of building one another up and bringing peace.

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We widely understand patience as something we practice purely for our own benefit. “Good things come to those who wait”, and patience is how you win the waiting game.

But then we arrive at the pages of God’s Word, we find that true patience isn’t superlatively exercised for self-seeking interests or for the sake of bettering one’s bottom line. In fact, true patience isn’t ultimately practiced for your benefit at all. Patience is a gift that is graciously given to others for their sake - not our own.

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There are outstanding bills that need to be paid. There’s a leaky faucet that needs to be fixed. You need to call your doctor to schedule an appointment, and you need to have a talk with your kid who got in trouble at school.

There never seems to be enough time. You rarely feel like you have enough money. And you simply don’t have enough energy. The needs never seem to stop – and there’s not enough of you to meet them.

Thankfully, what’s “not enough” in our hands is more than enough in the hands of Jesus.

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While each of the six blind men try to describe what they feel, given their limited perspectives, they all conclude that the elephant must be something other than what it actually is. The story’s point is, no worldview has the authority to dismiss or discredit another, as no worldview has a comprehensive understanding of who God is.

But this story completely backfires - one BIG way in particular.

The elephant isn’t silent.

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You can’t have a banana split without bananas.

You can’t have strawberry short cake without strawberries.

You can’t have peach cobbler without peaches.

And you can’t have apple pie without ice cream.

Those are all essential, necessary ingredients.

What about baptism? Is that an essential, necessary ingredient within the ‘recipe’ of our salvation?

At first blush, it sounds non-negotiable in passages like Mark 16:16. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved…” Or, how about what Jesus said in John 3:5? “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.”

So, is baptism like a banana in a banana split? Is baptism necessary for our salvation?

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That God invites us to mercy others as we have been ‘mercied’ is an invitation to die.

I can’t give forgiveness without the death of my pride. I can’t extend mercy without the death of my injured ego. I can’t exhibit compassion without the death of my impatience. I can’t extend love without the death of my hatred. I can’t pursue reconciliation without the death of my grudges.

Thing is, we’d much rather see the one who wronged us die – even if it’s death by a thousand cuts. We justify all sorts of ways of exacting payment from people, but withholding forgiveness from someone else is just as soul-suffocating to the withholder; it’s a cancer that will eat you alive.

So, what sets us free to set others free?

The limitless mercy our God has already shown us.

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Some adoption stories of this world may resemble the story of Natalia Grace. But your adoption into God’s family is a completely different story.

No cliffhangers. No lack of closure.

Your baptism is God’s pledge of undying devotion and fidelity to you.

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Whatever four-word phrases threaten to ruin your Thanksgiving, remember that, from the vantage point of eternity, whatever sorrow we suffer is just “a little while.”

But your Savior doesn’t make you wait until eternity for comfort. While there will be trouble in our future for Christ’s sake, Christ’s accomplished victory already speaks to our present. Jesus’ victory doesn’t just get the last word; it get’s the first word, too.

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For thirty days, King Darius would function as the sole mediator and the unparalleled high priest between the gods and the Persian empire. And if anyone wanted the favor of the gods, they had no other avenue but to go through Darius. And anyone who prays to any god or human being – other than Darius – [would] be thrown into the lions’ den.

That situation sounds uncannily similar to the situation at the time of Martin Luther. And on April 18, 1521, he found himself in a bit of a lions’ den, too.

But neither he nor Daniel were alone.

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That Jesus calls us to seek first his kingdom is his invitation to see the world through a greater hierarchy of needs. But notice, the kingdom that we are called to “seek” is the same kingdom our God has already been pleased to give us! Jesus is drawing our attention to a need that everyone in this world desperately has – a need that this material world can never meet.

It’s a need that is beyond our perceived highest needs, and yet it’s a need far more foundational than even our need for food and clothes.

But do not worry; that need has been eternally met in Jesus.

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