Welcome to healing the land with Kevin Mitschelen, brought to us by pure assembly.
Well, this is Kevin Mitschelen. And welcome to healing land, I am just grateful that you've taken the time to be with us another week. And I believe in in this particular session here, we're just gonna we're gonna be talking about something, a major part of healing land, and that is seeing believers in Christ coming together in unity. And that is something that I just want to read this to you just off the gate, right out the gate and and Jesus Christ saw this portion, this part as something that's, that's really large. And I'm not sure if this particular verses is read very often, it's becoming more apparent, maybe I'm just becoming more used to it if anything else, but it is something growing up. I didn't hear a lot. And that is john chapter 17. Matter of fact, it wasn't till probably about 20 years ago. I said, Oh, yeah, I've read through that, but, but actually hear a sermon on it. Not too much, until probably about 20 years ago. And then I've been hearing a lot more of it in the last 10 years. And still, I think the Lord's doing something here, at least in my life. And so let me read this to you because there's nothing more powerful than then Jesus Christ and His This is called the priestly prayer. But this is something that Jesus Christ Himself, prayed right before because you go to chapter 18, right before he is captured, to go to the cross. So let me read this, and john chapter 17, verse 20, beginning of verse 20, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, father are in me and I you, that you also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory that you have given me, I have given them to you to them, that they may be one as we are one, I in them, and you and me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them, even as you love me, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me, maybe with me, where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous father, even though the world does not know. I know you. And these know that you have sent me, I made them I made known to them your name. And I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved, maybe in them an eye on them. There's a lot in that verse. And I would like to bring in now Karen Baker, who's been a friend for a while. And her heart is, is just I was thinking just all over the Scripture. Unfortunately, we've just talked. And so Karen, welcome to the program. Thank you so much. And she is with one church michiana. And just that title of of who she's with, I think describes her, her heart, her love for Jesus Christ. And so, Karen, I do ask this of all the guests and that is otherwise it's a very short interview. But you love Jesus? Oh,
yes, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. With all my heart, and, boy, I just, you know, don't know where I'd be without them. It would be it would have been a very dark road.
So yeah. Amen. So your heartbeats, in many ways for unity? Why?
Yes, absolutely. And yeah, I just love, love, love that this is the scripture that you wanted to open with, because it is where I've been living, especially, I would say the last couple years, maybe the last five years. But why unity? That's a great question. I think I was kind of born with this, this sense of wanting to see people just love each other and get along well, I remember being really young. And our, you know, our household was not the perfect household. We did go to church, but you know, wasn't perfect at home, a lot of strong personalities and so on. But I remember being very young and at the top of our stairs that went to the basement and two people in our family were down at the bottom of the stairs. And they were arguing I don't even know if it was a real argument or if it was just strong, you know, the strong personalities coming up but I just remember being at the top just crying like Stop, stop fighting get along. And the stories that my family says is that even when I was younger than what I would have been to be there. When there was biting going on I would cry. Just growing up. So there's just kind of a sensitivity I think that I've had over the you know, just as a young child and You know, and I'd everybody maybe started with that, but that was the Holy Spirit, you know, comes on us and so forth. I think as we're more sensitive, we get to the Holy Spirit, the more we can be. Oh, yeah. Let's Let's be, you know, peacemakers and
yeah, in some ways, I call it the the Andrew effect, which has no relevancy to anyone except for me and maybe my family, and that is, as our family, the family I grew up with, as we got older, and you know, we would come over to mom and dad's for a meal, whatever. Andrew has Down syndrome, and he is this precious young man. And you had to do it, Andrew, what did you do? Because, you know, Andrew had that effect on you. And, and it I he had a heart that he could sense if one family member was having a problem with another family. Wow. And so he would physically go up to someone else. It say one person would be one corner of the room and other person would be another corner. I mean, you have that in family? You just do. Yeah. And and because you Maybe someone's got pride or whatever going on. And he would he had that ability to even sense it, even if it wasn't being stated. Yeah, it was thick. That's amazing. So he would grab someone's hand. And he go, come with me. Come, come come, you know, and and then he would physically take them over to first Shake, shake, shake. You know? Wow. That's Andrew. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. In some ways, Karen, you are my my aunt. Because to the at the big church. Yeah, that's the church.
Yeah, absolutely. Because we all need to just really, you know, put down some of the things that divide us and really focus on what unites us. I would add one other thing that as to why I think that this is kind of important to me to my dad's family that his mom's family has mom moved away from Chicago to our area, because they didn't get along. And my dad as a father not even realized, I don't even think he realized the fullness of what he was doing. But he laid a lot, he laid a line down that that the enemy was not going to cross that our family, us girls, we may have our differences, we may have our times where we are Spats and so forth. But we were going to get along. And it was really interesting, because I don't think he really even did a whole lot to make sure we got along when it was just laying that line down that, you know, that was the expectation. And and, and so I think that that just did a lot for our family. But um, but yeah, I think that was another thing. That's probably another thing too, that, you know, I think that as people are working, whether it's in their families or in churches, and so forth amongst churches, I think if we kind of all have that approach of this is going to happen, like we are going to get along and start there. If we can all start with that premise that no matter whatever their differences and stuff, we're going to find those common places where we can get along, I was listening to a W. Tozer a week ago. And he said, You know that we have certain body parts that without them we die. And if we think of the the church as a body, there are certain things that we have to come into agreement on primarily the death, burial resurrection of Jesus. He didn't you say that he didn't go to that far. But you know, pretty much that's the those are core, those are key. But as long as we can agree on the death, burial and resurrection, he said the other body parts we could, you know, we could do without so the other strong opinions we have about things we can probably do without, you know, some of those things is to be able to come into agreement that Jesus is Lord of our lives. And that's where we come together as family.
And that's very good. That's why when you were talking about that, and then some of the questions, they'll come to my mind. Okay, so you have this, this feuding family. Yeah. Like, like, like the church. What, what do you think? What's the kind of statement that comes from that?
Well, you know, that's, that also makes me think of the Scripture that you just read to, because what I like and to in john 17, you know, here, Jesus is saying, be one, so that the world knows that God loves them, that God sent me to them, and loves them, aka Jesus loves them, too. Right? And without the disciples being in unity, and now who's the disciples now we use, we're the disciples were the ones that are spreading the good news of Jesus. But if we're not getting along in the church, I it makes me think of being in middle school in high school, when I would go to a friend's house, right. And the friends were, you know, even if it was, you know, just one of the parents that that was there and fit in family and then the brothers and sisters, you know, or pet, you know, a combined family, whatever. As long as they were getting along, and they loved each other. We were hanging out, you know, we're watching movies together eating their pizza, you know, we're spending good time, quality time together there. But when we go to a house where they're like bickering, they don't get along. It's like, Hey, get your stuff in. Let's get out here. We're not staying in this environment. You know, there's not enough love for each other there. Let alone love for me. So why would I want to stay And I feel like a lot of people that are outside of the church have that view of Christianity is there, they they're not even getting along over the carpet of the church that they can't get along over that, which I think we've progressed. For example, you know, no, but now today, it's like masks, no masks, politicians, we know which ones you're going to serve and, you know, are not served, but which one are you going to follow, and so forth. And so we just lot of times, let all of that get in the way of loving each other, through Jesus, sometimes we can get into those conversations, and you can see that upsetness just rising up, you know, in somebody else, and it's like, I'm, we're brothers and sisters, you know, we're let's, let's, let's, you know, yes, we can have conversations. Yes, we should talk about some of these things in the right context, but and let's not get so overwhelmed with our emotions, that love goes out the window, in those conversations,
and a part of love too, is to be able to be able to sit down like in a family. Yeah, be able to sit down and say, Okay, we have a there is a situation here. Yeah. And, and is that iron sharpens iron kind of idea. Right? says okay, you, you, you have you see scripture this way, I see scripture this way. And it's good to base it on scripture.
Right, right.
I feel that way. And, and you can, we are feeling beings as well. So we can talk about that too. But to be able to just sit, sit down. And to put our I say this different times, especially to my my kids, you need to put your big boy pants on. And you need to be able to say, Okay, I'm going to put my big girl pants on my big boy pants on and we're gonna we're gonna love each other enough, absolutely. Talk about our differences. We're not gonna yell, not gonna scream. We're going to simply say, Jesus is the one that we serve. It's not Kevin, right? It's not Karen. You know, God forbid, you want to serve me? or somehow put me up some elevated, right. Yeah. But we will put a name of Jesus. Absolutely. Yeah.
Yeah. And there's definitely a place for you know, conversing about different things. And I think that one of the things that we can maybe even talk about is, you know, who side is God on? Right.
Exactly. That's a great, great way. Yeah, I remember Oh, you mentioned interesting, because I'm love history. And one of the things Abraham Lincoln actually did in the Civil War said the same exact thing what you just said. He said, he basically he's like, I don't know which side Gods on. Yeah, but I want to be on his side. Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, if you look in the book of Joshua, they're getting ready to go tear down Jericho. Yeah, they see somebody with a sword. And they're like, hey, Whose side are you on? And the answer is neither. I'm here as a representative of the army of the Lord war, right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you're and then he goes into instructions. Right? He says, I'm not on your side. You have a son of Israel. Yes. Right. You are You are Israel, God's Son. But I'm not even on your side. I'm on God's side. And yes, I have instructions for you to go forward to tear down these walls. But I'm, yeah, he's not on. Yeah. So when we think that we have the corner, yeah, the corner opposite opinions on different matters. And we think, well, you we can't get along unless you get onto my side. Well, God's not even on my side, probably on that matter, you know, in the arrogance that Kevin has, right.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, unfortunately, we're down to just a few seconds before, we're going to hit this break here. And we'll be back in just a few seconds. But pure assembly is the one that that sponsors this program. And so if you could go to pure assembly, calm, pure, semi calm, that'd be wonderful to be able to just see what's going on there. And we'll be back in just a few seconds. I'll have Karen and we'll see on the other side. Thanks.
Hi, I'm Dawn board member of pure and healing the land is brought to you by pure assembly. Pure assembly is a nonprofit with a mission to heal the wounds of A divided and injured nation through prayer, unity, repentance, and edification. To learn more about us, check us out at www dot payoor assembly.com. or find us on Facebook. Just search for pure assembly. While you're there, we'd love you to like us too. Thanks for listening to healing the land.
Welcome to healing the land with Kevin Mitschelen. And we have our guest Karen Baker with one church michiana and I love her heart. I love the fact that both Karen and Preston her husband, they just have open and extended their house in so many different ways and their family just really love on the church of michiana. And so that's primarily where this this program is being broadcast. We are broadcast on the internet, which is wonderful too. So if you want to do catch us on the internet, it's pure assembly comm we have have, we have a page there we can go to as well. But I want to get back to the whole unity concept. And eventually we kind of get into application of it. But you had brought up during the break, you brought up Karen, some scripture. And if maybe you could touch on that, I think it'd be really good.
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, we were just left off talking about Joshua, and how that when the angel of the Lord approached, he's the angel of Lord said, He's not on either side. And I think going into continuing on with that, that thought process in Romans 14 for the scripture says, Who are you to judge someone else's servant to have their own master servant stand or fall and they will stand for the Lord is able to make them stand? And I think right now it's really important to remember that when we are debating there's so many hot topics right now. Right? There's wear a mask, don't wear a mask, there's get the vaccine, don't get it back.
Oh, you brought those things.
Here we go.
We were just marshmallow test here. Now let's say
we even have the politics, right. Yeah, right. Boom, how can you know, whatever side you're on? How can if you're a Republican, how can that democrat really loved Jesus? Right, you democrat? If you're a democrat? How can the republican really love Jesus and be a Republican, you know, we can really get to the brass tacks of all of that. But it's not our call to judge. It's the you know, it's the master. It's, it's Jesus's call to judge. And we can just know that they're going to stay on because the Lord will make them stand. And so again, weed, it's weak, it takes the responsibility off of us to be judgmental. So judge me, we can judge fruit, right? We're told to judge fruit, but we're not to be judgmental. so judgmental is putting somebody in a hole and like putting something on somebody and saying, you are this way, instead of saying, Oh, you did this. It's you are this. And so an example might be Oh, you left your socks out? versus Oh, you are always messy. Right. You're, you are a messy
again. But in that, man, you you touched on some really good and hard things because especially with social media mixed in with all that I can I can easily because I we all have triggers, and I can easily go Ah, you believe that and pick the topic. do politics, okay? You really, really, that's what you believe, you know? And then, but in the grown up thing to do? The grown up Christian thing to do. The one who loves Jesus Christ puts Jesus Christ first is actually saying, You know what? I know that this person is my brother and my sister. Let's go do lunch. Mm hmm. Yeah. And let's talk about Yeah, because this is where I'm at. I'm struggling with what you have. And and instead you have this little fight on social media. And the next thing you know, I hate you, you know, and that those kinds of things. Yeah, really, then the enemy loves. Yeah,
yeah. And I've had friends that have abandoned social media, because they're just like, that's not where I'm doing my fight. Sorry.
And Wakefield, you die on?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then back to, you know, just a mask, for example, you know, I have friends that I that they happen to live in areas where they can kind of get away with this, I guess. But they have heard from the Lord, they were never to put on a mask. And to this day, they have not put on a mask. But then you have somebody else that's listening to this, and they're just all up in arms, like, you know, right. And so just the same I have friends that, you know, if I would do something, you know, if I was promoting an event, then I was hearing from them because they heard from the Lord they were always supposed to wear a mask, because that was the that was their way to share love of the love of Christ with other people was to always wear a mask. And that's what they had heard from the Lord. So who are we to judge that this one or the other heard or didn't hear from the Lord and that they were doing the wrong thing? It's, you know, their father in heaven is the one to bring the judge, you know, to, to judge and they will stay on because
God will make them so as a unifier. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. How do you How does Karen work with those camps?
You know, that's a great question. And I, you know, for me, like, I just kind of do what I feel like I'm supposed to do in the moment. Personally, I haven't been in a situation as of yet where I've had to try to get the person without the mask on the person with the mask to come together. So for me, I've kind of just spent, you know, I in that particular instance, I don't have a thing where I'm saying it can save I've brought these people together so forth, but it's just kind of being sensitive to the Holy Spirit on my behalf. You know, what am I supposed to do in any given situation?
And so thanks because that helps. The one thing that as you're also speaking, it just reminded me of like, okay, we live in a world that is literally dying.
Yeah.
And for us this somehow squabble you know, why am I Yeah, I will. I'll put a tutu over my head. Okay, if it means Give me the name of Jesus Christ. Yeah, that's because people are dying literally, when they die. They're going to hell,
right?
I can't have that on me. Yeah, I have to I can't save them. But that can point to them to the right direction. Right. And to somehow say, I'm going to let something like this. Yeah. Are you kidding me? Yeah. How can you let something like this exactly? A piece of cloth on or off your face? get in the way of someone's eternal soul? Because it's going to be his song. Amazing. Grace? Yeah. Been? We've been there for 10,000 years. Okay, hairs in my in my 7080 years, I'm gonna be on this planet. Yeah, if someone wore a piece of cloth in there,
right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think when I had one friend, that's a minister that felt like to wear a mask was showing that they didn't have faith. But on the other hand, I think, and I understand that, and that's where they felt that and maybe they didn't after time, I don't know, cuz that was early on. But I think we needed to be thinking of what does the person need from me that's approaching, you know, like, will they not even want to come get prayer? But if I don't have a mask on, you know, right? Or will they you know, it? Or will they not, you know, what do they need if they don't want to mess so they can, you know, connect with me better? That's where I want to fall is to try to, like you said, Go after get give them what they need? Yes. Holy Spirit and do that, man.
I'm glad you shared that also. Because when I it is, what is it that? How can I approach them the best? Yeah, because I am a, in your case, a daughter of the living of the living God, I'm a son. Yeah, I believe in God. And so therefore, I'm going to go to them as that.
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And for me, and you had asked I, you know, how I handle it to a lot of times To be honest, I just don't even engage in those conversations, because I don't feel like they're fruitful. If I feel like I have a person that we can be. Yeah, well, whether they're the same or not, but if I feel like it can be a fruitful conversation, then we go there. But if if it's not going to be fruitful, and it's just going to be Why aren't you this? or Why aren't you? That's not going to go anywhere. So I just did a lot of times I let it go. But you're right. There are those times where we need to press in. And I think I was hearing one of our common friends, Gil. Michelle, I think he might have been the first one to for that I heard this from to, to be willing to risk the relationship in order to gain the relationship, you know, make it deeper. And so there are those times to do that, for sure. Right. Especially if you know you're with somebody that is, you know, ready to go there and not just be
Yeah. Yeah, that's it when we looked at the one thing that was hard was 2020. Yeah, for sure. Because we saw so many things flare up. Yeah. Because you when you also are confined to your house. Yeah, you got all these different things that are pressing that our culture is not used to. In some ways, that was, it was hard, but it was somewhat refreshing, too, because I'm like, Oh, these are the things I've been boiling up and now are being exposed. Guess what? One we need prayer. To be able to come to to be able to put a big boy pants on Yeah, to be able to talk about this, these things and to be able to find unity because they were there already been talked about? Yeah, maybe Can we go we only got four or five minutes left? Is there a way we can talk about some of the application of of what you've you know, once you're it's machine ism? Yeah, there's a movement. Yeah. And so I'd love to be able to hit that. Pure assembly kind of goes in with you know, prayer, unity repeat. Yeah. We have this a lot of the same heart here. Absolutely. But boy, you've just really been going in on the unity.
Yeah. Yeah. So one church, Machina actually, Kevin, I think you and Gil kind of were starting to coin that back a few year or several years back. And then Gil Michelle, who is the pastor at that church downtown, he and his wife are good friends with my husband and myself, as well. And, you know, there was a time where I was going to gilham like, hey, there's this movement going on. And you know, we had the church of Ephesus, the church of you know, Philip II, what about one Michigan a church and he's like, Well, I was kind of thinking one church Michigan, like absolutely that is a that's really so I just you know, I think you know, we see it as a movement like there's this movement going on it's been happening before we were born people have been praying for unity Do you maybe they were seeing what what is just now really coming to light that we need that for the for the church to really be able to disciple and help people get saved we have to be and united before that's really going to happen before they're really going to come in. So so as you know, nobody I think owns one church Machina I am associated with that name. Now, just because I try to help facilitate different things between unity influencers. That's kind of another concept that On the newer side, I think of biblical unity influencers, people who want this unity, you're definitely one Kevin, want this unity on in the context of the Bible. And just you know, having a, having some different events where we can kind of come together in unity. And really one of the things that we do is we have a newsletter, basically, it's called unity sightings. So when we hear of things that are going on, that people are doing, in that our biblical unity focused, then we like to just put that email out to people to say, Hey, this is what's going on in michiana that we know of. So if you have something that would fit that you could definitely send me something at Karen, which I'm k RI and by the way, say that at one church michiana.com I'm pretty sure if you get get, forget that I think we have info works for that one too. But so info or Karen k r i n at one, church michiana.com, let us know, if you have unity, things going on that are in the context of biblical unity. And I like to say for the sake of evangelism, for the sake of helping people to come to know the Lord better, then we like to get that out. And one other thing that we've been doing, we've been doing operations declare life. So speaking of all the negative narratives that have been going on, especially in 2020, and then you know, that was highlighted then and continuing on, then we like to just let the church come together in different places around michiana. We just had one on Saturday, June 12. And so yeah, and we just, you know, so many great testimonies come from that where people are like pulling into parking lots and saying, will you pray for me, but basically, what it is, is you have a cardboard sign, and it just a sentence on it that that talks says, one of the fruit of the Spirit is in your sentence. And it's like, it might be something like michiana, you are kind to michiana, you are loving, you know, but so then the people that are driving by that, see those signs there, it resonates, because it doesn't matter if they know Jesus or not yet there's a seed inside of them that that that resonates with and then so that has been turning peoples that have been getting so excited about that. With lots of smiles and so forth. People are asking for prayer, and even starting to come to some Bible studies and stuff from the people that are putting it on. Wow. And you have one I think scheduled in August two. Yes. We have one August 21. Okay, so
definitely get involved. Yeah. Did you did why don't you share that one more time? How can they get ahold of you? If this is important?
Okay. Yeah, the best way actually, probably is to go to one church, Michigan a.com. And there's a way just to get your email address in there. And then you'll be getting notifications of the things coming up from there.
I can't think of something you are in my world. You're the Andrew effect. And you're that you're that God's put that on your heart. It's not easy. Humans love to tangle. Yeah, but since we have the joy of the Lord in us, yeah, right. A peace. Yeah. That's that's the part that I've been seeing those unity sightings. I've been seeing more of that. And thank God for that. Because we have a world that's so hungry. Yes. Very, very hungry. And they need the Big C church. They need Christ in their lives. And so all we can do is point them to the right direction. But we can't do that. If we keep pointing at each other. Yeah, so for sure. Well, we are at a time unfortunately, I think with Karen, we could just as different guests we have here we could just go for an hour. Maybe we'll have to eventually get enough funding so we can do that. But so for right now. God bless you folks, I'm glad you've been able to listen to healing land with Kevin Mitschelen. Take care.
Second Chronicles 714. If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.
Healing the land is brought to you by pure assembly. Pure assembly is a nonprofit with a mission to heal the wounds of A divided and injured nation through prayer, unity, repentance and edification. For more ways to get involved and to be a part of their ministry. You can reach them@www.hp your assembly.com that's p u r e assembly.com. Or look for pure assembly on Facebook.