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Gleanings From The Word

Tag: Bible reading

  • Every Member Is Necessary — 1 Corinthians 12

    THE BODY NEEDS EVERY PART — INCLUDING YOURS

    I have a friend who has not been to church in three years. He has his reasons, and some of them are legitimate. He was hurt, and the people who hurt him should have known better. But somewhere along the way, staying home became a habit, and the habit became a conviction, and now he will tell you he does not need the church to follow Jesus.

    I love him. And I think he is wrong.

    Not because church attendance is a rule to follow. Because he is a member of a body that is missing a part, and so is he.

    Paul does not leave us much wiggle room on this. Just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12). He is not describing a meeting you go to. He is describing an organism you belong to. Those are not the same thing, and the difference matters more than we usually let ourselves admit.

    Here is the part that should stop you if you have ever felt like your contribution to the church was minor. 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 members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary (1 Corinthians 12:21-22). Not helpful. Not appreciated. Necessary. That is Paul’s word, not mine.

    If someone has told you, by their words or just by the way they treated you, that you do not have much to bring — that your gifts are small, your role is replaceable, your absence would barely be noticed — Scripture is flatly contradicting them. The parts that look weaker are the ones Paul calls necessary. The ones that feel least visible are not optional.

    But let me say the harder thing too.

    Some of us are physically present and functionally absent. We show up, we sit, we leave, and we have arranged things carefully so that nobody really needs us and we do not really need anybody. We have been hurt before, or we are private people, or we just never got around to going deeper, and now the habit of distance has hardened into something we have started calling preference.

    The body feels that absence too, even if nobody says so.

    God does not tend to grow us in the quiet of our own company. He grows us through each other. Through the person who says the thing we did not want to hear. Through the one whose need shows up at an inconvenient time and asks something of us we did not plan to give. Through the Sunday morning conversation that turns out to be exactly what we needed and had no idea we were walking toward.

    That is not an accident of community. That is the body working the way it was designed to work.

    If the church has wounded you, I am not asking you to pretend it did not happen. Wounds in the church are real, and they leave marks. But the answer to a broken expression of the body is not to live permanently outside the body. It is to find your place in it again, imperfect people and all, because imperfect people are the only kind there are, and God has chosen to do His work through them anyway.

    You are not a guest in this body. You are a member of it. And somewhere in it, there is a function that belongs specifically to you, that nobody else can fill in the same way, and that the rest of the body is waiting on whether they realize it yet or not.

    My friend knows all of this. We have talked about it more than once.

    I am still praying he comes back.

    Kevin

    You might be interested in this – Read the Word. Read the Word. Read the Word.

    Some thoughts on finding a good church

    Find a good church

    Live in Abbotsford? There are many good churches. This is where I attend.

  • Way of Wisdom – Discovering True Enlightenment

    Way of Wisdom – Discovering True Enlightenment

    Oasis secene - theme the way of wisdom - Psalm 1:4

    Wisdom is a prized commodity. People of all faiths and cultures have sought it throughout the ages. Where can it be found? What is the way of wisdom?

    The Bible is full of passages that teach the way of wisdom and righteousness. They both come from the LORD. The psalms open with a clear sample.

    How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of Yahweh,  And in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,  Which yields its fruit in its season  And its leaf does not wither;  And in whatever he does, he prospers.  The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.  Therefore the wicked will not rise in the judgment,  Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.  For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous,  But the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1

    The Bible clearly teaches that both wisdom and righteousness are clearly related.

    Notice how the psalm begins, not with a list of things to do, but with a warning about where not to go. Wisdom starts with avoidance. Don’t walk in the counsel of the wicked. Don’t linger where sinners stand. Don’t settle into the seat of those who mock.

    That progression is worth slowing down for. You walk somewhere first. Then you stand. Then you sit. What begins as a passing influence can become a permanent address.

    We all know how that works. We’ve seen it happen to people we love. Maybe we’ve seen it happen to ourselves.

    But the psalm doesn’t stop at what to avoid. It moves quickly to what the wise person pursues, to delight in the law of Yahweh (the LORD). Not reluctant obedience. Not dutiful compliance. Delight.

    That’s a high bar. And it’s an honest one.

    The word of God is not a rulebook to endure. It is a well to drink from. The person who meditates on it day and night isn’t grinding through an obligation; they are drinking deeply from something that sustains them.

    The image the psalmist reaches for is a tree planted by streams of water. Not a tree that survives on rainfall alone, dependent on the weather, struggling in dry seasons. A tree with its roots in something constant. 

    It yields fruit. Its leaves don’t wither. Whatever it does, it prospers.

    That is the life wisdom builds, not overnight, but over time, with roots going down where no drought can reach.

    The contrast is sharp and final. The wicked are like chaff. Disconnected. Weightless. Driven by whatever wind is blowing today. When judgment comes, there is nothing there to stand.

    The LORD knows the way of the righteous. That phrase carries more than knowledge. It carries an intimate acquaintance. He knows the path because He is the one who laid it out and walks it with you.

    The way of the wicked perishes. Not because God abandons them dramatically. But because a path that leads nowhere simply ends.

    Wisdom is knowing which path you’re on. May you find it.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God) 

    Be blessed 

    Kevin 

    SUMMARY

    Psalm 1 teaches that wisdom and righteousness begin by rejecting the influence of the wicked and delighting instead in the law of the LORD. The righteous person is compared to a tree planted by streams of water, firmly rooted and fruitful, while the wicked are unstable like chaff that the wind drives away.

    KEY POINTS

    Wisdom begins with guarding where you walk, stand, and sit, because small influences can shape an entire life.

    The person who delights in and meditates on God’s Word is spiritually sustained, fruitful, and steadfast through every season.

    The righteous are known personally by Yahweh (the LORD), while the path of the wicked ultimately leads to destruction.

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