As I am been preparing for Sunday, Father, my text speaks of a wisdom that is not of this world but is of the Spirit. May my heart and mind be attuned to that wisdom. Use me as a vessel for Your work. Amen.
Luke 6:12-16 (<<click to read the passage)
I am not into sports all that much but my wife’s family? They are into sports! My father-in-law played the major three in school – football, then basketball, then baseball. Her brother followed suit – even playing football in college. Karen played volleyball herself. My son, Massey, enjoyed playing football from when he was little all the way through high school.
In the last year or so a cousin’s daughter and a niece, one in volleyball and one in basketball, have found themselves in challenging situations. They both excelled in their field and pushed and trained and practiced, and either their teammates just didn’t have the skill and ability they did or the rest of the team just wasn’t that interested in investing any time in developing the team – they didn’t practice and played half-heartedly.
I’m not well-versed on a lot of the technical rules and whatnot but one thing I do know is that it takes a whole complement of players to make a team. You can’t have a good football team without a talented quarterback. But the quarterback, no matter how good he is, can’t do what he needs to do unless his offensive line can protect him from the defensive line of the opposing team.
The men that Jesus appointed apostles made up His team. It was a mix of personalities and abilities, but He chose them all because of what they could bring to the table.
1 Corinthians 12 is a wonderful, Spirit-inspired passage from the heart of the Apostle Paul.
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ…we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. … If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. … 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.”
If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. (verses 12-15, 17, 18, 21, 26,27 NLT)
Today we all make up Jesus’ body – His team. We are all different. We all contribute different things. But each of us is valuable and when we don’t do our part the team doesn’t function as well as it could.
Feb 3rd, 2020, Mon, 1:02 pm
