Body Parts

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.  

Genesis 2:7

An adult human body consists of slightly more than 200 bones and 78 organs.  Five of the organs are considered vital to life, heart, lungs, liver, kidney, and brain.  Now, those are the rudiments of biology, the basics of structure and function.  However, life is not all biology, just the physical mechanism of the species; there are also the metaphysical (abstract) body parts, without which we could not exist.  There is spirit and soul to go with those body parts, and let us not back-shelf what gave life in the first place, God breathing His own breath into Adam’s assembled body parts.  Then, and only then, did he become a living soul.

God made humankind.  God also revealed to Apostle Paul the analogy that, as a human body functions in concert with all the bones, organs, and resident breath of God, so the human race, with all its different and unique parts, is to function inter-dependently, working together for the good of the body. 

Applying that principle to the “body” of Christ (the church), God’s intention is that the differences that form us into groups, male/female, nationalities, social strata, religious sects, etc, fade into the background.  As in Adam, Spirit supercedes flesh.  As a species, we have light years more in common than that which divides us.

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body.  So it is with the body of Christ.  Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free.  But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.  

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

In the Gospel accounts we find Jesus under attack by (supposedly) spiritually-wise religious teachers.  They accused him of being satanically-inspired, because Jesus had healed a demon-possessed man.  Jesus, ever the master of logic, as well as truth, told them their diagnosis was ridiculous…Satan casting-out Satan?

A kingdom divided by civil war will collapse.  Similarly, a family splintered by feuding will fall apart.  Mark 3:24-25

For You Today 

Our human bodies were created to have bones which support and protect the inner body parts, and those inner parts strengthen the bones.  All of that structure was formed to cooperate with the breath of God inside our spirit and soul.  We were created for better than feuding and dividing into camps. 

The smallest bone in the human body has a great responsibility to the rest of the body’s health…the stapes bone, which is commonly called the stirrup.  Located in the inner ear, the stapes bone is the link which connects sound waves to the auditory nerve.  In short, without this bone’s function our brain is cut-off from sound.  Without that little bone’s service, our communication with others is drowned in a sea of silence.

So, here is a word to hear; gird-up your stapes bone and let it sink-in:

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”  John 13:34-35

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Out of the Dust  and  Trans-Creation

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

How a HEALTHY BODY Works

 

Monday, June 13, 2022

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church:  the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.  This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.  Then we will no longer be immature like children.  We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.  We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.  Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.  As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.  

Ephesians 4:11-16

The obvious key to a healthy body is when all the parts are handling well their specific function, in concert with all the other parts.  It is so with the heart, pumping blood to the organs, and the spleen doing its’ filtering job, and the lungs providing oxygen to the brain, which, in-turn sends the right impulses to all the muscles.  And on it pulses, thirty-seven million times a year (give or take a few hundred thousand, depending on your metabolism). 

The “kicker” to this scenario is when any body part is infected, diseased, injured, or just plain not responding.  It can set off a falling domino effect, where all the parts begin to lose effectiveness, and finally shut down.  Dead in the water!

There are so many parallels that can be seen in the physical, or biological aspects of life, which reflect spiritual truths.  One such comparison is the body’s interdependence – all of the parts doing their respective jobs, results in a healthy, growing body.  Evangelists, pastors, and teachers might be compared to the nervous system, receiving messages from the brain (God’s will and word), sending appropriately-timed signals to alert muscles and organs to needs of both the body, and outside influences which need to be addressed.  The parts of the body receiving those messages are comparable to those members with gifts (strength, mobility, dexterity) to accomplish tasks which facilitate the body’s health and growth.  When all is working like a well-oiled biological/spiritual machine, there is a health that produces well-being. 

The church (in Paul’s metaphorical approach) is the body of Christ.  We are his hands, feet, and heart, doing the will of God, in His mission to the world. 

In the grand scheme of things God chose to do it this way.  He is omnipotent, meaning whatever power can accomplish is within God’s ability.  He could have chosen to make us like robots, mechanical, always doing the right thing, never a sniff of rebellion or hair out of place.  But love chose differently; God chose to share his way, his life with us.  To do that he chose to come to be with us, dwell in us, and share all, like a body shares…both joy, pain, loss, and strength.  It isn’t an easy thing, this life; it will never be.  But it is worth it!

For You Today

What part of the body are you?  Are you listening and watching for the signals coming from God’s Word?  Are you corresponding to the rest of the body’s needs and strengths?  Do you make the body of Christ healthier?  Do you tend to His world, his mission?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

The Power of a Movement

Friday, April 9, 2021

As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said.  When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God:  “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying,

‘Why were the nations so angry?
    Why did they waste their time with futile plans?
The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.’

“In fact, this has happened here in this very city!  For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed.  But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will.  And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.  Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.  Acts 4:23-31

Indulge me for a few moments to argue with myself.  Movements which have largely succeeded throughout human history all have one thing in common – the strength of the group is collectively greater than that of the resistance against the movement.  Well, duh…of course, preacher…they wouldn’t have been successful if they weren’t stronger, now, would they?  Certainly not; but the corresponding truth about what makes “movements” so strong is that even a perfect idea, moral, ethic, or timing for change, is powerless without the group!  A movement without a group is dead in the water.

Peter and John, even though they were the leaders of God’s sweeping movement of salvation, understood that God was empowering His church, not just a few brave apostles.  Earlier, Peter and John had healed a crippled man, and were arrested and brought before the powers-that-be.  God’s Spirit helped them to proclaim truth:

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man?  Do you want to know how he was healed?  Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.  For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’  There is salvation in no one else!  God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”  Acts 4:8-12

This truth unnerved the council and they set Peter and John free.  So, what did they do with their newfound success?  Did they run for Congress or the next elections of the council?  What they did was head right back to the group, the church, and placed this event in the hands of those who would offer up prayer to God for more boldness to accomplish his will.  And when they all prayed, honoring God and freely placing themselves at God’s disposal, the Spirit of God gave power that shook the building, and eventually shook the world.

Peter and John understood that God’s promises would be fulfilled through God’s church.  They understood that joining hands with God’s heart is a cooperative effort, and, apart from each other we are departing from God’s will.  But, joined together in lifting up God’s Sovereign, holy will, the church is a tidal wave of a movement, unstoppable for goodness and righteousness.

For You Today

If you’re like me, you’re tempted to do things yourself, rather than depend on anyone else, let alone a group.  But that is allowing the enemy to make us little droplets of evaporating puddles.  Rather, God calls the church to be a tsunami of righteousness for the sake of this world and His Kingdom!

So, church, put aside the drought of petty differences and preferences – puddle-up, river-run, ocean-gather, and wash this world for the sake of the cross.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Essential Rivals

 

Thursday, September 3, 2020

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body.  1 Corinthians 12:12a
The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.”  The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”  1 Corinthians 12:21
If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.  1 Corinthians 12:26

It is all so very connected; politics, religion, love, sex, money, breathing, or anything else you care to name.  The muse for this post is from a Facebook post of a friend, the pictured Native American’s wisdom about wings of the bird as part of the same body.  Of course, the older source would be Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church.  We are, indeed, the body, albeit connected in some very strange ways.  Yup...that same crazy bird in the middle is us…humanity.  We are an incredibly complex dodo bird!  And we need every part!

What plucks this analogy string so annoyingly resonant, today, is this time of year in a quadrennial political season.  Pandemic notwithstanding, the political push has been quieter, but lurking, nonetheless.  It seems to have ramped up lately, as the push toward November elections draws near. 

With limited space, and a huge subject (especially for a 5-minute devotional), let me get right to the point:

If we are so connected, how can we think anyone is useless?

Yet, you hear it every day: 

·       Republicans think Democrats belong in recycling. 

·       Democrats demonize Republicans. 

·       With every mention of, or sighting of Black Lives Matter, the Blue, White, Red, Asian, Gender-specific, Straight, or Whatever Lives cry for equal time. 

Preferential treatment, by definition, places one person’s value over another’s. 

And here’s the rub, in any arena, with any part of the analogy you care to push: 

Wings on the same bird were designed by our Creator to balance each other, to support each other, and keep us moving along, soaring, going higher.

But, when the wings on that bird are so busy swatting each other, that bird is going down!

From a Christian perspective, with all the backing of Holy Scripture to strengthen that previous statement, and empower the church to live it, even with the power to shame us into living it, we still can’t get it right.  Traditional-thinking Christians demonize Progressive-leaning Christians…and the blessing is returned.  And we get better at swatting each other as time passes. 

What a pitiful example of Christ’s love!

For You Today

If you’re of age, and inclination, this November you’ll cast a vote.  The election will be over, there will be a President.  Four years later (if the eagle hasn’t crashed and burned) we’ll do it again.

Keep the perspective that governments, movements, news cycles and your 401K are all temporary; the soul of another person is permanent.  Act with care accordingly!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

VIDEO

Title image Facebook post from a friend, Fran Grabowski 9/1/20  The title for this post borrows on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s work, Team of Rivals, how Abraham Lincoln turned his political opposition into a team that helped save America as a union.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on 1 Corinthians 12 see: We Are the Body of Christ and Holy Mixtures - Part 5

 

Where the Nut Lands

 

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body.  So it is with the body of Christ.  Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free.  But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

When we were studying for ministry at New Orleans Seminary we lived on campus.  The road circling the campus was just about a mile loop, and, being exceedingly typical students, Elizabeth and I were also exceedingly poor.  Walking the loop was our entertainment mostly.  During the months of October through December, nuts fell from the pecan trees that encircled that loop, and we learned to bring bags along on our nightly walks.  It was there I developed my addiction for pecans.

In a previous pastorate there was a husband and wife who had pecan trees.  Being fond of my addiction to pecans, each year at the church’s annual benefit auction I would make sure we got some of Joyce and Jack Fagg’s crop!  For a month or so after the auction I munched day in and day out.  I stashed them everywhere.  I am truly a nut – nut! 

                       (O.K., I got that out of the way…now to the main point.)

The old saying about a nut not falling too far from the tree is true, except if there is a sower, or gardener, who wants to do something with the nut, and, in that sense, where the nut lands is a matter of what hands hold the nut.  Joyce and Jack always dedicated part of their crop to raising funds for the church’s mission.     Once I got my hands on them, they were likely to end up on top of vanilla ice cream, inside pancakes, or the top right drawer of the desk where I wrote sermons.  Ultimately all of them found their way into the ministry…that is, the minister!

Paul’s point about the body of Christ can’t be ignored; we may look different from each other, talk differently, and have vastly different gifts, calling, and background, but we are ONE body with differences, and that is the Sower’s choice.

Paul wrote a companion sentence to this concept of one body that the church (and this violent, turbulent, self-destructive world) needs to hear:

No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.  Ephesians 5:29

Nut trees, like every living, growing thing, can get infected.  If the church is like a body with many members, all deserving care, so our human family tree needs care from the infection blight of hatred and violence.  It is a self-inflicting illness that destroys from within. 

But the church cannot do anything at all when it comes to addressing hatred if the church is busy proclaiming hatred.  Sweet and bitter water do not come from the same fountain, in the same way that truth and lies do not come from the same heart and mouth.  If the church is going to truly be the church of Jesus Christ, it must not, in any way, represent the anger and violence we see in the culture today. 

I was once told by a well-meaning friend that I shouldn’t let certain people, who were part of the church I was serving, do what they were doing.  He said, Russell, this is your church; don’t let them do that to you.  I had to tell my friend he was wrong; it wasn’t my church; the church belongs to Jesus.  My job, as a nut from the Jesus tree, was to teach and work with the other nuts God put in my pathway.  It was not my prerogative to shell and crush them.

As for this world, and the so-called movements we see against hatred and racism, whatever is done in the name of Christ isn’t always what the Sower-in-Chief designed.  If you fight fire with fire, you’re going to (at the least) wind up smelling like smoke.  And, very often, that will be the least of it.  Resorting to beastly behavior to combat monsters, makes a monster of he who would combat monsters.  Movements against hatred and racism ought not adopt such as their tactics.

 Let’s Pray Together:

Father, you sent Jesus to be our Peace, and to teach us peace.  He did so by sacrificing his divine rights for us.  He did so without retaliation and vengeance.  Our prayer is for wisdom to know how to be peace-makers, not just people who talk about peace, and for courage to act like the Prince of Peace.

For You Today

If you’re truly a member of the body of Christ, you’ll not fall too far from the tree that gave you new birth.  Stay in the Sower’s hands until he plants you where you’re needed.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!    

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on 1 Corinthians 12 see So, Which Gift? and Holy Mixtures – Part 5 and We Are the Body of Christ

Overcome Evil with Good - Series #2. Be Humble Like a Worm

[1]

Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.  Romans 12:21(NLT)

We found last week that God expects us to submit our bodies to Him.  And it’s evident that doesn’t mean we climb up on an altar and wait for the guy with the knife.  It’s a heart-kind of submission; we become ready to live sacrificially, rejecting the way of this world’s system which puts self-first.  Instead, we put the needs of others (which are the needs of the Kingdom) ahead of our own plans.  In serving this way the Kingdom of God is served, and the bonus is we are transformed into God’s children who have renewed/changed minds.  Paul says we are being made into the image of Christ.

Now, that’s wonderful, but it is just the beginning stages of what God has for us.  It’s like graduating from Middle School; at that point you’re just learning how to learn. 

So, Paul takes us a step farther into becoming true, mature disciples with the word because.  He says:  Because your minds have been transformed it now makes sense to do these other things … and then he gives us the HOW of using those transformed minds to be a bigger blessing than we can imagine. 

He teaches us how to be worms.

Worms?  Really?  Yup!

I.       Paul says BE HUMBLE Worms

Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning:  Don’t think you are better than you really are.  Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.  Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body.  We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.   Romans 12:3-5(NLT)

The Apostle wants us to keep our heads from swelling.  Like the worms who eat the dust of the earth, we were taken from that dust; so bragging is not an option. 

Honestly evaluating who we are, means simply keeping in mind that God is God, and we are not.  Paul reminds us that we are all part of each other, so we should respect the worm-ness of our fellow dust dwellers! 

Then Paul gives us a vivid picture of what (Who) all the worms in Christ’s church represent:  we are the Body of Christ.  It takes only a little leap to start figuring-out the deep responsibility that covers us when we take that seriously.  It means we look out for more than #1.  The entire body is important.

I had a dear friend named Jerry many years ago who was fond of saying:  When one part of the body hurts, we all bleed; when one part of the body is tickled, we all laugh.

Of course, that’s my friend’s way of quoting a verse we’ll encounter next month in this series:

Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.  Romans 12:15(NLT)

But at the base, what the Apostle is getting at here is that we are a worm-gathering.  And that’s not just the church – it’s all of God’s creation. 

Diversity is a buzz-word used a lot these days.  While I know what the culture means when it is used, my definition goes light years beyond the surface of our culture.  True diversity has very little to do with race, gender, color, ancestry, social status, tolerance, or sexuality preferences; we are ALL worms!  And when it comes to what God has given us to do on this planet, our physiological differences should not determine our worth.  God has made red, black, yellow, and white worms; but He has given us all the task of eating the dust. 

Now, in case you missed the metaphor; eating the dust is what worms do.  They do it naturally because they are worms.  That’s their God-given purpose.  In doing what comes naturally (for worms) they create a soil, packed with the kinds of nutrients that will grow wonderful crops. 

Back on the human side of this metaphor, the soil that God has given us to fertilize is our culture.  We worms are to be about the larger business of creating an atmosphere of Godly soil for the world, so that fruit may come from that ground.

Eastern and Mid-Eastern cultures spend a lot of time bowing to one another.  It is a show of respect and personal humility.  Now, when it is not genuine, just a reflex born of habit, or a formality to get past – then it’s not humility; then it borders on contempt. 

For a Christian disciple of Jesus’ family, we can do the same thing – lots of talk about Christian values, beliefs, convictions and deeds … but if there is no contribution to the life of the body, there is no genuine humility.

Only that which is done in true humility builds the body of Christ, or the world that God loves, and wants us to reach.  So, be humble, worms!

II.   Paul says BE USEFUL Worms

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.  So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.  If your gift is serving others, serve them well.  If you are a teacher, teach well.  If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.  If it is giving, give generously.  If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.  And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.  Romans 12:6-8(NLT)

Paul doesn’t waste a whole lot of time on amenities; he cuts right to the important issues.  He says, if God has gifted you this way … get busy!  Use that gift!  And use it to the very limit.

Notice the adverbs:

·      Prophesy with faith

·      Serve well

·      Teach well

·      Encourage personally (be an encourager)

·      Give generously

·      Lead seriously

·      Show kindness gladly.

Do you get the idea it’s just as important HOW you use your gift, as just the base fact that you do use your gift?

Does it not make sense then, that everything we do to be useful in the Kingdom must be done with excellence and to the utmost of our ability and strength?

This is the working-out of what Jesus called our response to the first commandment to love God with all our strength, all our mind, and all our soul.  Worms know how to do that.  God created them to eat dust and make fertilizer.  They eat, and it passes through their entire body, and they leave behind a wake of fertilized soil.  A Christian disciple should be about the same thing. 

I have many people who encourage me in what I do.  But two, in particular, are masters at it.  One is my brother’s sister-in-law, Anne.  Anne is my Barnabas that lives in Waynesville, near Lake Junaluska.  She reads my devotional every day and the sermons I preach.  With just about every one I send out I can expect an email back from Anne, with encouraging words how it helped in this way or that.  God has used her to lift my spirit and illumine my pathway on so many occasions I can’t begin to list them all.

A second encourager is my bride, Elizabeth.  She sees me at my best, and she knows me at my worst.  And in every moment, whether I’m mowing the yard, digging a hole, making a pastoral visit, preaching, or just paying the bills, she believes in me. 

I can’t tell you all that entails, but I can tell you I’m encouraged when I’m around either of these sisters in Christ.  It’s like they’re eating the dust all around me and leaving a trail of encouragement wherever they go!

If you want to overcome some of the evil of this age, get busy putting the good gift God placed within you to work eating some of the humble dust of those who need your gift of encouragement, or teaching, or serving, or giving … whatever He created you to be, be like a worm – humble and busy; turn the soil around you into a fertile field!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Let the church say “Amen”!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com