The Fridge. . .the Final Episode
I started talking about my refrigerator some weeks ago because while we’d been out of town the electricity had been left off to it, and when we returned it resembled a science fair project. I compared it to hidden sin in our lives and how we needed to look at our own lives and clean out the junk. Then, last week I told you about the container that I found that still smelled like my rotten refrigerator and how it can be frustrating to think you let go of something when really you didn’t. I had to suck it up and throw out the container.
Today I bring you the final episode in my refrigerator tale. I buy milk once every two weeks. I didn’t realize when I bought my supply of milk that I had to wait to go grocery shopping for awhile because the refrigerator had lost a lot of his cool air and thus my milk would turn bad quicker. It came as a surprise to me when I reached into my refrigerator for the milk and what waited me was more foul smelling nastiness. Because the refrigerator had been turned off, I had to clean out the entire thing and bleach it, throw out two containers that still had a lingering odor and I lost a gallon of milk.
One can easily compare to my refrigerator tale of woe to the body of Christ. When one person decides that they don’t want to do what they know they must it’ll effect the whole body. Yes, God can raise up ones to fill the need in the meantime, but it’ll knock the whole body out of whack.
1Chorinthians 12:12-2612 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
We need to realize that we are one body, and we need to start acting like it. We all have a part to play and we need each other to get where God has called us.
Too many times envy, jealousy, gossip, and strive get waved in the body of Christ, but that’s not unity. We cannot just think about our four and no more. We have to work together as a team in one accord.
As I relate this to my refrigerator saga, if I’m the electricity to the fridge and I’ve decided I don’t want to do my part anymore the whole refrigerator suffers.
Please don’t make the body of Christ stink like a rotting refrigerator because you’ve decided you don’t want to do your part in the body of Christ. We all need each other. There are ramifications to your decisions, and you may not see those right away, but their there. Keep moving forward. Keep choosing to do what God has called you to do, so that we as the body of Christ can fulfill it’s purpose on the earth.
God has great plans for your life, so get excited!
Today I bring you the final episode in my refrigerator tale. I buy milk once every two weeks. I didn’t realize when I bought my supply of milk that I had to wait to go grocery shopping for awhile because the refrigerator had lost a lot of his cool air and thus my milk would turn bad quicker. It came as a surprise to me when I reached into my refrigerator for the milk and what waited me was more foul smelling nastiness. Because the refrigerator had been turned off, I had to clean out the entire thing and bleach it, throw out two containers that still had a lingering odor and I lost a gallon of milk.
One can easily compare to my refrigerator tale of woe to the body of Christ. When one person decides that they don’t want to do what they know they must it’ll effect the whole body. Yes, God can raise up ones to fill the need in the meantime, but it’ll knock the whole body out of whack.
1Chorinthians 12:12-2612 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
We need to realize that we are one body, and we need to start acting like it. We all have a part to play and we need each other to get where God has called us.
Too many times envy, jealousy, gossip, and strive get waved in the body of Christ, but that’s not unity. We cannot just think about our four and no more. We have to work together as a team in one accord.
As I relate this to my refrigerator saga, if I’m the electricity to the fridge and I’ve decided I don’t want to do my part anymore the whole refrigerator suffers.
Please don’t make the body of Christ stink like a rotting refrigerator because you’ve decided you don’t want to do your part in the body of Christ. We all need each other. There are ramifications to your decisions, and you may not see those right away, but their there. Keep moving forward. Keep choosing to do what God has called you to do, so that we as the body of Christ can fulfill it’s purpose on the earth.
God has great plans for your life, so get excited!
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