Issue 911 – Rooted Together – November 16, 2022
I found these large tree roots next to a walking trail through the forest. Tree roots not only grow into the ground but intertwine with the roots of other trees, causing each tree to help anchor the next.
When I see something like this, I wonder what finally caused this forest giant to be uprooted and fall over. There must have been some significant force applied to topple it. Was it a windstorm? Trees often break off in the wind, but they don’t typically get pulled up by the roots. The soil under the roots doesn’t seem to have been eroded, although these roots are old, and the ground could have settled back again. It remains one of those unimportant mysteries in life, those things that make me go “hmm” for a moment and are promptly forgotten.
Like trees, people are rooted in their communities. A healthy community can make the difference between someone standing in a life storm or succumbing to it.
God created us to be relational beings. Different people have different social and emotional needs for community, but none of us was designed to stand alone.
We are born into families. Except for Adam, who God handcrafted from the dust of the earth, each of us comes from the genetic material of others. We all have parents. They may not be good or present parents, but we were designed to be part of a family.
Our church communities are also families. All believers are born again of the blood of Christ and become part of God’s family. God’s Word encourages us to gather with our families regularly.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Hebrews 10:23-25
There are seasons when that isn’t possible. Many believers were forced to meet virtually with the recent pandemic that shall not be named. Meeting electronically certainly beats not being able to connect at all, and I am grateful for the technological advances that made such meetings possible. It would not have been feasible even 20 years ago.
Still, an online, virtual meeting doesn’t replace true face-to-face fellowship. The digital church is like a video game of auto racing; it gives a taste but isn’t nearly the same as the real thing.
The body needs to come together to function correctly. A scattering of body parts across the city doesn’t make for a functional body, even if it is all the parts. The body must be intact to function.
Every believer is needed. Every believer is an integral part of the church at large, of the one body. We need to be part of our local assembly.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12:14-27
I don’t know if you are a hand, a foot, an eye, or some other part of the body. I do know that you were designed to be an integral part of the functioning whole, and the body needs you.
If you aren’t gathering regularly with and participating in the body’s work, I encourage you to start today.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the English Standard Version (ESV).
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