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The Body of Christ and Love

The following is an excerpt from Retired and Inspired : Making the Most of Our Latter Years by Wendy Billington.

As Christians we are Christ’s body; each of us is precious to him and necessary for his work here on earth. That is why we need to strive towards wholeness so that we can offer our best for him and serve him well as a member of his body.

Teresa of Avila, the 16th-century Carmelite nun, mystic and theologian, wrote these famous words directly referring to and reminding us of Paul’s teaching on the body of Christ from 1 Corinthians 12:

Christ has no body now but yours.

No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world.

Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Teresa of Avila

What a vivid analogy this is: the church, the body of Christ, is like and works as a human body. Each of us is a member and of equal worth but with a different part to play, essential to creating a harmonious whole. Paul goes on in his teaching to say to the Corinthians “Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.” (1 Corinthians 12:22).

Whoever we are and whatever gifts we have, we remain indispensable to God and his people. God has called us to love him first; to do this we are to live close to him. God has called us to love our neighbours. The love that God requires is not a passionate physical love nor the love we feel for others: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:18). This is a love not just of the heart but also of the mind and the will. It keeps on loving even when things aren’t going the way we would like. It is a resolve to put the welfare of others above our own with both actions and words.

The great calling of the church is for it to be family, nurtured through Christ’s love with that same love flowing by the Holy Spirit to its members – the body of Christ. That means that our own personal relationship with God needs to play a key role, but at the same time we must remember that this relationship isn’t just for our own benefit. We have been placed into the body of Christ alongside our fellow Christians, individually and collectively to witness God’s love to the wider world. ‘See how they love one another’ is the mark of a truly spiritual church.

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God’s Great Love

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:7-12

PRAYER

Dear Father,

We lift up all those who are suffering in Syria and Turkey right at this moment, all those who have lost their homes and families, the injured and those who will fall prey to hunger and disease. We also send our prayers of thanks to all the brave people involved in the rescue mission. Please give them the strength that they need to carry on with their strenuous and dangerous task. Thank you, God, for each miracle of another saved life.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

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You Hold Me

Your peace envelops me. The distractions of the world seem so very far off and last week seems a million miles away. There is no busyness, no worries of things to do and of those left undone. There is only You and I, Lord. I feel Your comfort and Your strength holding me up and You won’t let me go.

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Phillipians 4:7 ESV

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.”

Isaiah 40:29 ESV
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The Pursuit of God

God is the author of our salvation. There is nothing we can do on our own to gain it – not any amount of church attendance, not a lifetime of ‘good works’, not by praying to saints nor by the granting of indulgences. All the credit is due to God who secured our redemption by the blood of Jesus who willingly died for us on the cross.

We cannot even claim credit for ‘accepting’ Jesus for it is God who draws us to himself, and it is the Holy Spirit who guides and strengthens us from thereon. Just before he returned to his Father, after he had risen from the cross, Jesus said he would not abandon us and leave us on our own.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” – (John 14:26 – English Standard Version).

The following excerpt is from The Pursuit of God by A W Tozer.

“Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which briefly stated means this, that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man.

We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit.

“No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” (John 6:44 – English Standard Version), and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: “Thy right hand upholdeth me.”

“My soul clings to you; your right hand uphholds me.” (Psalm 63:8 – English Standard Version )”

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Thinking Is Not Enough

We humans want to help each other and that is good insofar as we can, but God wants us to press through to His presence where there is no natural or artificial help. Our denominations have their place, but they cannot aid us at this point of aloneness. He asks that we come with a naked intent unto God. We must want God Himself – and nothing more!

When we present ourselves to Him in this way, what a blessing to have His assurance that God Himself has removed all of the legal hindrances to our access. It is a glorious hard core of fact that Jesus Christ has removed all of the legal hindrances!

There are many legal reasons why I should not go to heaven. There are governmental reasons why I should not go to heaven. I believe that a holy God must run His universe according to holy law – and I do not belong there because I have broken every one of those holy laws in some way. Therefore, there has to be a redemption, a justification of some kind if I am to have God and He is to have me.

Thank God, it has been done! The New Testament language is plain as can be – in Jesus Christ and through His death and resurrection, every legal hindrance has been met and taken away. There is nothing to stop you except yourself – no reason why we cannot enter into all the depths of the fullness of God!

Here I must repeat – too many people are trying to think their way in. The only way to get in is to believe Him with our hearts forevermore, crying after Him and looking unto Him with a naked intent of love! The time comes when all we can do is believe God – believe what He says, believe Him and love Him!

The thinking process is not enough in this realm. The great God Almighty that fills the universe and overflows into immensity can never be surrounded by that little thing that we call our brain, our mind, our intellect – never, never, never! Never can we rise to face God by what we know and by what we are, but only by love and faith are we lifted thus to know Him and adore Him!

This excerpt is from the book I Talk Back to the Devil: The Fighting Fervor of the Victorious Christian by A W Tozer

(Emphasis in paragraph Four is mine)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

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What Happens To Our Pets When They Die?

From an article by Garrett Kell

My wife and I were recently awakened by the tears of one of our children. They’d found our dog, Nellie, dead on the floor.

Nellie was a cross-eyed Chihuahua who had brought our family so much joy. She was about as good a dog as a Chihuahua can be.

As the tears flowed, so did the questions. 

Why did Nellie have to die? Why did God take Nellie so soon? Will we see Nellie in heaven?

While some may consider these questions silly, I don’t.

The longer we live on this fallen planet, the more sorrow we face. Some suffering is small, and some is great, but it all hurts. Some families experience tragedy early and often. Our family has been spared significant tragedy, but times like these still leave their mark.

After a little while, we were able to talk about what we were feeling and the questions we were processing. Here are a few highlights.

To continue reading, please follow this link.

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When We Try To Run Away

We all get times when problems pile upon us and everyone seems to get on our nerves. We think to ourselves if only I could get away for a while for some peace and quiet, then everything would be okay. Wouldn’t it? Here’s what Socrates said:

“How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you? You are saddled with the very thing that drove you away. How can novelty of surroundings abroad and becoming acquainted with foreign scenes and cities be of any help? All that dashing about turns out to be quite futile. And if you want to know why all this running away cannot help you, the answer is simply this: you are running away in your own company. You have to lay aside the load on your spirit. Until you do that, nowhere will satisfy you.” Socrates (470 BC – 399 BC)

Prayer

Dear Lord, I come to You today to ask for help. You are my everything. Lord, I need rest. I give You my worry. Take it, Lord. I accept Your peace, love, and understanding. Help me to turn to You and not to myself, to stop doing and start trusting. Help me to wait on Your answers, because I know that they are good. Give me wisdom, hope, and peace. Thank you, Lord, for Your patience and grace. I love You, and I know You love me so much more than I could ever imagine. Amen.

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:29

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Trust in Christ Jesus

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 (Living Bible Translation)

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The Avowal

The Avowal by Denise Levertov (1923 – 1997)

As swimmers dare

to lie face to the sky

and water bears them,

as hawks rest upon air

and air sustains them,

so would I learn to attain

freefall, and float

into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,

knowing no effort earns

that all-surrounding grace.