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Gleanings From The Word

Tag: Kevin Corbin

  • 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.

  • Purpose in the Process: Why God Takes His Time with Sanctification

    a narrow trail atop a mountain stretching as far as the eye can see - the long road to holiness

    I’m not a big fan of process; I like instant results. Unfortunately, God’s timing seems a process to us. It’s a long, narrow road that isn’t always easy to follow. 

    Becoming a Christian is quick and simple. When we become believers, our sins are forgiven, the Holy Spirit moves in, we are justified and have the imputed righteousness of Christ.

    Becoming Christ-like, that is, the process of sanctification, is a lifelong process. It’s the day-by-day, moment-by-moment choices that lead us to be made like Jesus. 

    One source describes it this way: “Sanctification is the process by which believers are set apart for God’s purposes and are progressively transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. It is a work of God’s grace that begins at the moment of salvation and continues throughout the believer’s life. Sanctification involves both a definitive aspect, where believers are positionally sanctified in Christ, and a progressive aspect, where they grow in holiness and obedience.”

    It’s easy to get frustrated along the way and quit. We face the challenges of temptation and sin. Sometimes, it’s just plain hard work, and progress seems slow.

    C. S. Lewis wrote about the student who is tempted to quit his Bible reading because he hasn’t been perfectly consistent with it:

    “No, he doesn’t quit. You don’t expect to see a drastic change overnight. But he continues to work at it. Some days he misses. Occasionally, he makes sinful choices that really set him back. But he stumbles along, developing the skill of Bible reading and getting better and better at it. After a week nothing looks that different. After a month, you can kind of tell. After a semester, there’s noticeable change. After 5 years, he’s unrecognizable. Have you been struggling? Are you tempted to give up? Don’t do it. Get back and try it again. Little by little, “you are turning the central part of you…into something a little different from what it was before” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

    There must be a purpose in the process, or God would have just skipped it altogether. His goal in the process is laid out clearly in Paul’s writings.

    And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified. Romans 8:28-30

    It can be a long journey. It’s going to take our entire life to get there. When we do arrive, what a time that will be. We will have been fully sanctified – set apart for God, made Christ-like, and be ready for life ever after with the one who loved us enough to die for us.

    Press on, my weary companions. Keep your eye on the prize. When you fall, get back up.

    It will be worth every moment of struggle, hardship and effort.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God) 

    Kevin 

    You might also like “Profound Change: The Journey to New Creation“

    SUMMARY

    Salvation happens in a moment, but becoming Christ-like is a lifelong process of sanctification that God uses purposefully to conform us to the image of His Son. Though the journey is slow and hard, it is worth every struggle — press on.

    TAKEAWAY

     Justification is instantaneous; sanctification is progressive and lifelong 

    God has a purpose in the process — conforming believers to the image of Christ (Romans 8:28-30) 

    Falling short is not the end; the call is to get back up and keep pressing forward.

    You might also enjoy, “Right belief must become right living.”