This year at this Holiday Folk Fair we are celebrating Diversity! One definition of Diversity is the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization. Take a quick look around you…. Diversity is a reality here at the Holiday Folk Fair! Diversity is a reality but the way we deal with and handle diversity will impact our communities and our world!
First of all, we must note that diversity came from our Creator God. God Himself is diverse! God is one but exists in 3 Persons. God is the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit UNITED as One!
A diverse God decided to create human beings in His own image. Although we may be different types of people (we are diverse) we all came from One God! We can try our best (and we should) to be united even though we are different from each other but unity in diversity will only truly happen as we go back to our Creator God. I commend you for being here not just at the Holiday Folk Fair in which we celebrate our differing cultures but gathering right now in unity to worship the One and Only Creator God!
No matter who we are, where we’ve come from, the type of food we eat, how we dance and how we speak, God’s desire is that we be united in Him! Gathering regularly to worship God is a good start to continue our celebration of unity through diversity; how do we keep it going? Let us remember a few things from God. God speaks to us through the Bible!
From the very beginning in the Book of Genesis, God created human beings in His own image and told the first man and woman to multiply and subdue the earth; we today are the product of that multiplication call! In the book of Psalms, King David’s statement is true for all of us; and so, let us all say this together…. Psalm 139:13-14 “For you, my God, created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
From the very beginning of life, each of us born at different places, unique families and cultures, learned different languages, we are diverse but we all live in this same world under one God!
In the future we can note a gathering in heaven as described by the apostle John in Revelation 7:9-12….. “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”
In the future, in a place called heaven, people from every nation, tribe, culture and language will be united with the Lamb worshiping God for eternity. There will be unity in diversity for eternity because of the Lamb! The Lamb is the key to unity in eternity! All of us as diverse as we are will be united forever if we believe in the Lamb! Who is this Lamb? The Bible tells us that the Lamb is Jesus Christ who was slain but rose for the grave.
And so, there is a life in the future in which a multitude of diverse people who believe in Jesus Christ will be united with God forever and ever! And so, no matter who we are, are we personally confident that you and I will be there in heaven? If you have never believed in Jesus Christ as your Only Savior and Lord, now is the time to believe before your future arrives; and as Believers of Christ right now, we are to live for Christ!
There is unity in diversity at the beginning of life! There is unity in diversity in life eternity! What about our lives right now? Here’s what God tells us while we are living in this world from the Letter to the Christians in Ephesus; Ephesians 4…. tells us….lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…… each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift…..
The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
I encourage you to read Ephesians 4 during the week and note the details of how we are to live in diversity. But here’s the bottom line, as we believe in God and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit lives within us and the Holy Spirit is the one who will empower us to do the right things. And so, as we live our lives today, let us daily yield to God the Holy Spirit to bring unity in the midst of our diversity!
Let me summarize what we need to remember to live out our diversity to bring unity:
1. We are all created by God and as we unite with our differences, we will see God more and more! You and I are uniquely created by God; own it!! And when we look at other people, see God through them!
2. Eternity in heaven will consist of diverse people who had faith in God through the Lamb Jesus Christ!
3. Let us all personally and constantly think of and yield to God the Holy Spirit within us!
