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In Uncategorized on October 26, 2009 at 1:32 am“The Body of Christ”
In Uncategorized on October 2, 2009 at 2:39 am1 Corinthians 12:21-26
21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
While the bible says everything that needs to be said… I’ll just share my personal interpretation and application of it. I may be wrong, but my conviction is one with experience that makes me confident that my take on it is accurate.
Years ago, my family was a victim of a painful church-split, and at the time my relationship with God was distant, very far from honest and real on my part. This experience drove me into a search for the truth, and a love for the truth mixed with an angry, bitter view of the church, and to all those in place of leadership inside and outside the body who were using their status for personal gain, even when unintentional and just a weak moment in their personal life.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” In a world where individuals are extremely busy and self-absorbed in all their striving for whatever end, I find it is hard to most of us to stop, and take a step back to look into the heart. We live in a world that blows with the wind, if not, desperately grasping for it, escapism, identity crises.
The desire for unity and peace in any arena is a God-given desire that is in the heart of every person, regardless of how hard their heart is, even for the atheist. A heart may be walled up and the desire is deep within, but everybody wants it in their life. But in the church… or the “body of Christ,” it has become a place of striving for many, to find some sort of balance, a united vision… a feeling of being “on the right path” as a body of believers.
Until Jesus returns, the only right path the body of believers will have, is Jesus. No formula, order, organization, event, style of teaching, theology, interpretation, worship service, etc, will have any weight or “right path” unless it is centered only in Jesus.
Obviously this sounds elementary, but the heart IS deceitful. It is often hard to immediately see if something being done is to make the individual feel better about where their flock of believers are moving, growing (in numbers), or how their formula for evangelism is working. It can quickly become about a person or thing instead of Jesus if things aren’t kept in line with Jesus, and always given up to Him. If it’s always focused on Jesus, the fullness of why Jesus is so important and so necessary. Once our personal interests get involved, it becomes pious, self-righteous and self-seeking.
Each group of people, geographic region of believers, individuals, etc, are different parts of this body. While one part of the Body is meant to be the mouth (evangelists, worship leaders, anything that Jesus would say to be the mouth), others are meant to be the legs, whether that means the workers who make it all work financially, administratively, anything that keeps the body moving forward. The eyes could mean prayer, and an awareness to the spiritual and natural climates of creation. The only one who can be the whole body, is Christ himself. He is the perfect intercessor with Wisdom, accomplishing the Father’s will, and is moving and doing great things all over the earth, even through us.
It takes laborers doing their part, and choosing with the grace of God to be a vessel for Christ. It takes complete surrender, and freedom from the bondage sin. The apostle Paul describes everything needed for the individual to be free when he speaks of captivating the thoughts. EVERYTHING negative, starts in the mind, and when it becomes an action or words slipping from the tongue, it begins its destructive course.
God is the one who is sanctifying us in his own timing, on his terms. We will eventually see our role and purpose individually in our days, even if we are not the last generation before His return. As long as we keep our relationship with Him honest and repentant, He will guide us to the light, and the way He desires the body to operate.
Throughout history He has been doing a great job at showing us how we so foolishly abused the light He gave us. (Think of the catholic crusades). See how far we have come? The level of maturity (sanctification) that has come from our blunt abuse of the Scripture to getting closer and closer to pure, undefiled religion, coupled with the knowledge our need of a real relationship with Him, instead of the pious order of Catholicism! Only God can be given the glory to the revelation of our weaknesses, as He continues to shine the light on this dark, dark world.
I just got back from my first trip as an evangelist, and now know that this is where I am called to be. We are all evangelists in our personal spheres of influence. But to be one who travels, and reaches out to the world is one God makes known and lets them know in their personal journey. We all have roles, and will find it as long as we surrender all to Him. Our personal dreams, desires, idols and sin puts God in a box, and He is so kind to respect it, and let us chase the wrong path until we return to Him.
Eventually, the body will be One… and until then…. fight the good fight of Faith! While we are painfully divided, only one thing keeps us together, and that is Jesus… lets give up our devices of sin, call it sin, and let Him pull us back together. He paid for it in full.
