First Corinthians 12 peeled away a big layer. I learned that everybody has a ministry in the Church. Ministry isn't reserved for only the people onstage. I once thought that if you didn't sing or act or speak - or if you weren't off in Africa wearing one of those little missionary shirts - you weren't in ministry. I mistakenly believe that I was just part of the audience. Eventually, I discovered that there is no audience in the Body of Christ. There are only believers. We're the body. We're the hands, the feet, the ears, and the toes, and when everyone in the body isn't performing ministry, the body suffers. It limps and crawls. It doesn't work. I was trying to show my kids that we're the first and primary way that Jesus is going to love on others. He's got to love them through us. That's His design for the Church. We are their clearest picture of Jesus, and how we act is how they're going to see God.
Way too many Christians forget that this is God's plan for the Church. They either sit back and become part of the "audience" instead of part of the Body or they take on the whole job and try to become the entire body themselves. I have known both types. No matter which way a person falls they cripple the Body of Christ. God made the Body to work together to win victories for His kingdom. God has given each of us different skills which we need to use in ministry to serve Him.
To use the words from If We are the Body...
But if we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body,
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way.
1 comment:
That would make a great ring tone! :-)
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