The Body of Christ (Part 1)

1 Corinthians 12:12-20

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

====================================================================

How many of you say this, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body." How about if I put it in this way, how many of you compared yourselves to the worship leaders, pastors, small group leaders, etc? Have you thought after comparing yourself, "Oh I'll never be like them so I can't be effective in ministry at all." or "Since I am not like them, I won't be anything else."

I am constantly facing this temptation in compare myself to these worship leaders, pastors, small group leaders, etc. I compare my own achievements to them and I get depressed because I don't think I'm making any impact at all. My achievements don't match up to them at all. I was never happy with myself because I could never be like them.

I think the root of this thinking is the fact that we are never satisfied with how God has created us to be. So we always compare ourselves to others that we would like to be. We see something in the other person and we want that. So we try and be like the other person. However, as hard as we try, we never seem to be able to get the same reactions as they do. Do you know the reason why? It's because your not the other person, your you!

I had a very enlightening discussion with my pastor a couple of weeks ago and he has really helped me with appreciating who I am. That I am still part of the Body of Christ even though I'm not a small group leader or something "great" like that. I've realized that the gifts God has given me through my experiences has allowed me to be able to speak to certain people about specific life issues. These are some things that not many others can do. After the meeting with my pastor, I sat down and came up with this statement:

God has put you on this Earth to be you, not someone else. If you try being someone else, you will always set yourself up for disappointment and will never be happy. Your experiences, faults, gifts, successes, God has given you to make you unique and perfect for whatever role he has for you in the Body of Christ. Your worth is not determined by people or what other think of you, it is determined by God, and He has already given it to you. So be happy with what God has made you into. Remember God does not make junk.

We are all part of the Body of Christ and we cannot be effective as the Body of Christ until we can acknowledge our part in The Body. Are you able to look in the mirror and be happy with what you see?

For those who can say "yes" to that question. Great! Keep it up and continue your role in the Body of Christ. However, if your like me and can't say that yet, I want to challenge you to spend some time in prayer with God and talk to Him about your role in The Body of Christ. That He may reveal that to you and that you will be able to accept whatever He has for you.

God Bless.

Living Room

So this is a song that has been really impacting me lately. Unfortunately, there isn't any site that has the music to this so if your interested in hearing this song, please let me know and I can send it to you.

I hope you all enjoy the lyrics:

Living Room - Mark Harris

My life has been like an old house
Far past the outskirts of town
The kind that you see down a dirt road
And wonder why it's not torn down.

Abandoned and empty
Forgotten and appears
So overgrown and
Ravaged by the years

Chorus:

So come through the doorway
I’ve closed in the past
And tear down the walls of my pride
Open the windows and push out the darkness by
Letting in heaven’s pure light
Banish the silence and open this tomb.
Fill up my heart
And make it Your living room.

Let there be music and laughter
And let there be memories displayed
Moments are framed to remind me
Of your sweet goodness and grace

Let a fire burn brightly
And let it be known
To all who come near
This is your home

So Lord won't you come through the doorway
I’ve closed in the past
And tear down the walls of my pride
Open the windows and push out the darkness by
Letting in heaven’s pure light
Banish the silence and open this tomb.
Fill up my heart
And make it Your living room.

CHORUS

Lost Passion

What does it feel like when you are passionate about something? You feel motivated, driven, you love every aspect of it, you never get tired of it, in some ways you can be an expert in it, etc. Whenever you get the chance to do something relating to this passion, you feel at home and it is your time away from the stresses of reality. Does being passionate for something somewhat feel like that for you?

Well, that's the best way I could explain my passions. My passions included IVCF in ministering to university students/young adults and Judo through coaching and teaching important live values to the kids (and adults). Eventually, another passion was with my Environmental Engineering degree in wanting to fight against the water crisis overseas. These three things were the things that were driving me the most throughout most of my life. Judo being my biggest passion.

However, what happens when God is calling you somewhere else that is not your passion, or what if he takes away your passion? How does that feel? You have no motivation, you feel empty, lost, stressed, your not driven to move forward, in some cases your never happy, sometimes you feel left out and unloved, the list can go on. In this situation, how do you find that passion again? How do you know what your passion is anymore? Especially if it was God who removed your passion. How do you know when God is calling you towards something when you don't feel passionate about anything anymore?

These are all questions I have been asking myself lately. If some of you have been following some of my previous posts, my greatest passion is no more. That's right, Judo is done for me. After 12 years of dedicating my life to it and 8 years of coaching, I finally responded to God, calling me to quit Judo. Also, since I am "officially" done classes and University, I'm not serving on IVCF anymore which was another HUGE passion of mine. Even my passion for fighting against the water crisis is on the rocks right now because of these other two. To be honest, I really don't want to be an Engineer.

These three things were my passions. Everyone knew me for these passions, Christian and Non-Christian, and they really admired me for them. However, since they aren't necessarily my passions anymore, it's as if a HUGE hole is left in my life. Not being able to work towards something. It's extremely hard to deal with. As I'm talking and chatting with my friends, I feel like I can't contribute to a conversation because I don't feel like I have a passion I could talk about much. I love hearing about all the things my friends are doing realted to their passions. I love seeing their eyes light up when they get to talk about what they love to do the most.

That feeling, that light in my eyes, is something that I feel I'm really missing right now. I try and find new passions by trying out children's ministries or taking ballroom dancing classes but, it's not the same... I guess it will never be the same so long as I keep comparing them to what I use to do. Is it wrong to want to hold onto some of these things?

As I write this, I look back and say to myself, "Where is God in my passions?" Shouldn't God have His own category? I should still be passionate for God even if it isn't in a ministry setting. So the next question is... How does one become passionate for God without a ministry role? I've only known how to be passionate for God within a ministry. Am I to go out and seek ministry opportunities or just wait? These things have been weighing pretty heavily on my heart ever since IVCF has finished for me.

So I don't have any outstanding scriptures to share or an awesome devotion to end things off. This time, I'm asking for your advice and input. If you have any scripture or thoughts about this, I would love to hear about it.

God Bless.

Do you still not understand?

Mark 8:17-21

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"
"Twelve," they replied.
"And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?
"They answered, "Seven."
He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"

====================================================================

This piece of scripture relates to the disciples worrying about not having enough bread. Jesus noticed this and asked them how many basketfuls were there when he fed the 5000 and 4000 with only 5 and 7 loaves respectively. The disciples reply back saying 12 and 7 basketfuls respectively. What do you think was going through the minds of these disciples? To us it would seem so obvious that the feeding of the 5000 and 4000 is a miracle, but it seemed like the disciples couldn't put 2 and 2 together. They still did not understand. I'm sure we have all thought... "Man these disciples must be pretty dumb."

Now, after studying for this passage for the first time, I instantly thought those exact words. I thought how stupid these disciples were to NOT realize what was going on and trust that the LORD will provide. However, the more I thought about it... the more it seemed like the disciples weren't much different than the Pharaisees. Then it hit me, are we not like these disciples in our own daily lives?

You may ask, "What do you mean by that?" How many times have you said, "I'm not going to do this because I don't have enough money." Isn't that the same thing as the disciples saying, "It is because we have no bread." I think we all like to tell ourselves that we understand but do we truly understand? Are our hearts hard? To the point where we still constantly worry about "not having any bread?"

A friend of mine gave me this verse on a night where I was just crashing (it's been happening to me a lot lately). During that time, I was blaming a lot of things because of my past and just feeling really sorry for myself. Also, I have been complaining about not being able to get a job. This has been ongoing ever since summer now.

After I read this verse, the first thing that my friend mentioned was, "Hasn't God provided for you in every single way in the past? Why do you doubt Him now?" These words really stuck with me. Here I am complaining about all the "bad" things happening to me and thinking that there's nothing that can be done.

I've gotten to the point now where I am just sick and tired of complaining and feeling sorry for myself. It's not doing myself any good and it's not doing the people around me any good either. I look back and I do see all of the times where God has "feed the 5000" or "feed the 4000" in my life. I see that God has provided me in every tough situation; For every co-op job, in fact... EVERY job that I have ever gotten was provided by God. Every need, God was there. Do I really understand now? Why should I doubt Him now?

So in closing, I want to leave you all with this...

"Do you still not understand?"