Tag Archives: Body of Christ

Setting an Example

One in the LordLiving in the Spirit
Light a Candle for Children
September 18, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Philippians 1:21-30

 Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel,—Philippians 1:27

 The fractured nature of the church universal right now is distracting many of its members from fulfilling the call to be one. When we are not one in Christ, we are not the whole Body of Christ. It will take the whole Body of Christ working together to meet the goals of love set for us by Christ. If winning the debate is more important to us than loving the persons about whom we are debating, we have moved from being a catalyst for progress to being a stumbling block.

Education has become a political football in Oklahoma and probably throughout the land. It has fallen into the abyss of wanting to have our cake and eat it too. We want the best schools in the land with little or no investment of time or talent, much less taxes. We argue about test scores and classroom sizes, parental responsibility and teacher tenure, state financed storm shelters or county financed shelters in schools, and what standards will we follow anyway. These disputes meet their goal: inertia. We are left now with no standards, not enough funding, and no new storm shelters—not a pretty picture. Of course, every school day without adequate resources and planning means every child falls a little more behind attaining his or her full potential.

The church cannot and should not be solely responsible for solving government’s problems, but surely the church should be setting an example for working together, for being one with a common mission. I fear that the lack of mutual respect in our churches today are being reflected in our society in general and that is showing up in classrooms across this land.

Oklahoma Fact: in 2013, Oklahoma ranked 40th among the states in education of our children*.

Prayer: Merciful God, forgive us when we place our desire to be right above your call for us to be one. Heal our souls, O Lord, so that we can move past ourselves and truly consider the needs of the others we are called to serve. Amen.

*http://oica.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013-KC-State-Profile-OK.pdf

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Wholeness to Oneness

TornadoLiving in the Spirit
August 22, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Romans 12:1-8 

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. — Romans 12:3-5

It is a paradox but it is true, in order to be whole we need one another. Our Western culture is sometimes defensive about our interdependence. After all, we are the pull-ourselves-up from the bootstrap kind of people. Whenever I hear that phrase, I always want to ask where did you get the boots and where did you get the strap.  Truth is there are a few people who are quite accomplished at many things, but there is no one who can do everything. Even if we found our boots and strap just lying by the road, someone showed us how to use them. Someone instilled in us the gumption to do the work necessary to succeed.

If interdependence is true for society, it is even truer for the Body of Christ. Jesus prayed for us to be one just before his crucifixion. He knew how important it was to have all the talents and skills God instilled in each of us to work together in Christ to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven.

Of course, when a group of people with totally different skills and personalities get together chaos could result unless they know who the leader is and they know what the job is that needs to be accomplished. I live in the heart of tornado alley and I have been amazed at how much a group of people from several diverse churches can accomplish in clearing debris, feeding and sheltering those left without homes, and comforting the injured and those who lost loved ones. They don’t check to see if each other were immersed or sprinkled, take communion every Sunday or never, read the King James or the Common English Bible. They just do their very best to love the way Jesus loved. I am not saying those other things are not meaningful. We are very diverse in culture and education and income levels and that is actually more than OK that is what Jesus expected. We need to find the spot where we can worship and serve God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength both separately and as God calls us together. Who knows we might learn a new song we just love or share a tear with a stranger we had never met who helped us pull a living breathing child from a pile of rubble.

Prayer: Jesus, Son of God, make us whole make us one. When we are a leader help us lead, when we are followers help us follow as we go about the business of being Your Body here on earth. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.