This past weekend has been one I will never forget. It would be impossible to explain all of the memories that were made in those short 35 hours, but I’ll try my best to give you a brief run down.
Our youth group took a short, one night trip up to Branson Missouri to see the production of Moses at the Sight and Sound theatre. By the way, if you have never seen it, go… Go now! Anyway, the trip to Branson was an experience in itself. We decided to take the scenic route. I’m sure it was beautiful. But, it’s hard to enjoy such beauty when your bladder is fuller than your Uncle Kelly on Thanksgiving Day. Mom “didn’t notice” the rest stops we passed before we got way out in the middle of nowhere, and my bladder was getting fuller by the minute as my sister sang every song she could think of that included the words water, river, and rain. I won’t go into details for your sake, but needless to say, we didn’t make it to a nice clean restroom, and I wouldn’t suggest you ever stopping at Sonic to get a route 44 drink before driving through the mountains in Jasper Arkansas. It is better to thirst.
Our car consisted of myself, my mom, my sister, and Mrs. Melody, a sweet sweet lady from my church. Bless her heart, I’m sure she must have slept well when she got home from the trip because I KNOW my sister and I wore her out. We sang “Lip Gloss” and “I Luh God” to the top of our lungs at least 200 times, insisted she watch each Julian Smith video on YouTube with us, and told her endless stories. But that’s just normal for my family. We have fun everywhere we go! Not being used to this amount of loudness and energy, Mrs. Melody just sat in the front seat smiling and giggling all of the way to Missouri.
When we arrived to Missouri, we checked in and then left to watch the first showing of Moses which started around 3:30. All of the kids were restless from a long day of driving, but we were beyond ready to be blessed by the cast at the Sight and Sound theatre. The first half of the show was great! It showed Moses growing up as Pharaoh’s adopted son and later turning down the wealth and power he was in line for. We watched as Moses killed an Egyptian, and then fled to the Land of Midian where he married a priest’s daughter, Zipporah, and became a shepherd. Towards the end of the first half, Moses came upon a burning bush. God spoke to him through the bush, telling him to go to Pharaoh and to bring His people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt where they had been slaves to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for many years.
After the burning bush scene, they cued us for a 15 minute intermission. Everyone quickly scrambled to the restrooms and concession stands, returned to their seats, and shortly the second half began. They had gotten about three minutes into the second half when I noticed a bunch of flashes coming from behind me. I thought, “Hey, I know Moses is cute, but could you please cut the flash photography?” Turns out, those flashes weren’t coming from a camera, but they were emergency lights. A few seconds later, all of the lights in the theatre were coming on and a voice on an intercom was telling us to evacuate the building due to a potential fire. My mom grabbed mine and my sister’s arms as if we were three and five year olds, shoving us into people trying to scram out the doors. Our church group fought the crowd as all 2,000 visitors in the theatre raced toward the exit in a not-so-orderly manner. Thank the Good Lord above that we decided to order matching blue T-shirts to wear to the show so we were able to find one another in the parking lot. After standing outside for about 25 minutes, we were finally allowed to return to the theatre to resume the show.
In my opinion, this was the best part of the play. Moses and his brother Aaron made a couple of trips to Pharaoh to request that God’s people be set free. Pharaoh was warned about the plagues God would pour out onto the Egyptians if he didn’t comply, but he refused anyway. The first plague included turning water into blood. He also sent frogs, lice, flies, livestock diseases, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness. The last plague was death of all of the firstborn in Egypt IF they did not apply lambs blood to their door post.
This part made me do some deep thinking. Each and every person in that building had one thing in common. Everyone’s salvation depends on if they have applied the blood. The blood that He shed for all who would believe and keep His commandments.
Here was our church group, surrounded by one thousand others. We were all gathered together in the same building to witness a biblical reenactment and lesson that was meant for everyone who was gathered there. There were hundreds of families present. There were several church groups. And there were multiple denominations.
Denomination.
That is a scary word for many. But why is it?
What does God have to say about which denomination is correct? In short, nothing. Not once did God recommend us to be Catholic, Lutheran, Missionary Baptist, Assembly of God, Methodist, Presbyterian, Church of Christ, or Southern Baptist. He never said, “If you attend this type of church, you will be truly mine.” He just called us to be The Church.
Denominations are man-made. They are dividers of men. They are dividers of God’s people. Denominations are not scriptural.
So what does God say about denominations. Before Jesus Christ was arrested, one of the last things he did was pray for all believers. He prayed for those present-time believers and he prayed for future believers. He prayed for you and me. Why did He pray? He prayed because he knows we are human. By nature, we have strong opinions and we want to be right, and God knows that.
In John 17:20-21 (amplified version) Jesus prays to God for us saying, “I do not pray for these alone but also for all who will ever believe and trust in Me through their message, that they all may be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may believe without any doubt that You sent Me.
Jesus prayed for us in hopes that we would work together to edify Him. When we focus on our differences, it divides us. Instead, we need to emphasize what we have in common. Like Moses and the Israelites, as long as we have applied the blood to the doorpost of our hearts, we are His. It is time for us to come together and win souls for God like never before. Let us set aside our differences and do what Jesus called us to do.
