One Body

During the service on Sunday morning, we read I Corinthians 3:9, which presents the following metaphors: "[Y]ou are God's field, God's building." These are profound and instructive concepts to explore at some point, but they reminded me of another metaphor Paul uses later in Corinthians and also in Romans: "As we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we--being many--are one body in Christ" (Romans 12:4-5).

God's people are a body. It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I will confess to being nosy--wanting to know what's going on with everyone and, if possible, to tell them how to do their jobs. God has been teaching me for some years now to mind my own business and do the work He has given me. So when I came to Romans 12 on my memory work list, it was a good reminder of these truths.

How smart of God to use common comparisons we can all relate to. My feet do lots of hard work. So do my eyes and hands. Naturally, the feet are best suited to carry me from place to place (and dance the occasional jig) while my hands dig in the dirt and type on this keyboard. How foolish it would be to try to walk on my hands all day long--just as foolish as trying to do everyone's job in the body of Christ.

As I listened to Sunday's sermon, I was also thinking about the many members of our Grace body. One we will miss is Jon Carter. Pastor Ben noted Jon's humble and quiet service over the years, and I recalled that he helped paint my classroom, working for hours on something that he would never personally use. Earlier, just after Sunday School, I had been talking to Carol Woods about a memory my son has of her and some helpful advice she gave to him years ago. Right before that, another church member thanked me for influencing her son in a good direction. Each one of us had a part in carrying out God's work--a part that we could perform best.

We are all members of the same body, friends. I could not possibly do it all myself, and neither could you. We need each other. I'm so thankful for God's wisdom in putting us together in this place.

--Sherry Poff

An Opportunity Not Lost

Over three days this last week, I sat in a large convention center room in Indianapolis with over 8,000 women and heard God’s Word opened and exposited by both godly women and men. What a blessing! My thoughts today will be short, but I want to tell you about the end of one of the messages I heard that will stick in my mind for months to come.

It was Friday evening, and author and Bible teacher Jen Wilkin was speaking on Deuteronomy 15. (The plenary sessions were all from the book of Deuteronomy.) This passage deals with God’s desire for the Israelites to cancel debts in the seventh year, lend to the poor, and release slaves (in this context more like indentured servants) in the seventh year. Jen Wilkin spoke on generosity as seen in this passage and focused on the contrast between being tightfisted toward your poor brother (verse 7) and opening wide your hand (verse 8). Near the end of her message, she said that she’d been recently teaching through the gospels in her women’s Bible study at her local church in Texas. She’d been struck by how Simon, a stranger in the crowd, was the one who carried Christ’s cross. She continued as tears welled up in her eyes, saying something along these lines: ““Where were his friends? His disciples? Why weren’t they there and stepping forward to help Christ with the cross? Oh, if I had been there, I would have carried that cross for my Savior. Oh to serve him when he needed it most! Or to have been there with Mary and Martha, when Jesus came to their house. To have served him a meal, washed his feet, seen to his needs. Oh how special that would have been – to serve Christ.”  I knew what passage Jen Wilkin was going to follow this up with and immediately knew the Lord was challenging me. And sure enough, the verse that followed was Matthew 25:40, “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me.”

Do you also wish you could have in some way served Christ as he walked this earth? To have made him a meal, provided him a place to stay for the night, brought him a drink of water? Do you feel the awesomeness of the privilege that would have been? Yet our opportunity is not up. Who do you know that is in need? How can you show generosity in investing your time, talents, money, or experience to help the least of these? Let’s ask God this week to open our eyes to someone in need, and may we be faithful to lay aside selfish desires and serve. And as we do so, may we see the face of our Savior.

--Amy O'Rear

My Friend

My Friend

I have a friend, a friend of over twenty years, a bosom friend.  We laugh. We cry.  We pray.  We share.  We need each other.  I learn new things from her and about her.  I miss her when I don’t get to spend time with her.  Often when I call her, she says, “I’ve been thinking about you and was getting ready to call.”

If my need for her is so great, what should my need be for time with my friend, Jesus?  He called me His friend. John 15:15. He has been my friend for more than sixty years.  He has been there when I was tired.  “Come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  (Matthew 11:28) He has been there when my heart was broken and my life seemed to be crumbling.  “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  Psalm 34:18. He has been there to supply my every need. “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.”  Psalm 34:10.

I could go on and on.  He has been my life, but have I made an effort to spend time with Him?  To get to know Him better?

Philippians 3:8 and 10 have expressed my stated goal for many years, “I count all things but loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed unto His death.”

I want to know Him better, but I have not always made the effort and the commitment to do that. Sometimes I have had that excitement about my time with Him.  Sometimes I have longed for an awareness of His presence. But not always.  Sometimes I have been rather casual about my time with Him.  Sometimes I have been bored.  I am embarrassed to write that.  I want the overwhelming need of Him to control me.  I want the longing to know Him better to control my life, to be the most important motivator of my life.  I need Him.

“I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every hour I need Thee!

O bless me now, my Savior—I come to Thee!”

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things . . .

In obedience to a recent suggestion from our insurance agent, I set about photographing and listing our possessions. I told him it didn’t seem important, as our things are few and old. But he wanted to talk about “replacement value.” So I dutifully laid out and cataloged all our worldly goods. If you haven’t done it, you should. Not for your insurance agent; for yourself. It’s an eye-opener.

To no one in American culture would we seem affluent, but this girl who grew up dirt-poor felt rich, rich, rich when thinking of replacement value. At the same time, I began to feel burdened with “stuff.” How many Phillips screwdrivers do we really need? (And with all these in the house, why can I not find the size I need when I want one?) Do I really want to give the storage space to these fabrics I have had for so long?

I thought about the photos our missionaries to Africa have shown us of families whose possessions are a one-room home with mud walls, sleeping mats, a water jug and a cooking pot, and the clothes on their backs. If the lady of the hut is a Christian, what, of value, do I have that she does not?

Luke 12:13-15 tells us, ^“Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’”

At that point, Jesus told the parable of the rich man and his new barns, concluding with, ^“But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” ESV

What difference does it make whether our items are many or few, valuable or worthless, if one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions?

Some items are irreplaceable, like my mother’s 1950 china cabinet and the yo-yo doll my grandmother made. But what difference does it make, if one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions?

Do I place undue value on my world treasures, compared to my God riches? Do I even recognize my God riches, or am I so absorbed in my world riches that I cannot see the valuable ones? Does “Count Your Blessings” turn into a recitation of “things”? Can I catalog my God riches? Probably not. Should I focus on things to which I cannot account definable value? Jesus thinks so.

Some ladies like to “shop ‘til you drop.” Not me; I hate shopping. Some delight in chasing after yard sales. I did formerly; now I feel I don’t have room for more stuff. Couponing is a favorite way of acquiring goods for many. I like the approach of a friend who said, years ago, “I just tell the Lord what I need and how much I can spend on it, and He brings it to me.” But, regardless of our methods of spending or saving or getting, these things do not have nearly the importance we assign them.

Jesus wants us to become rich. His riches are not in our bank accounts, living rooms, closets or storage sheds. The treasure is in His Word.

 --Lynda Shenefield