WE ARE THE BODY

1 Corinthians 12: 14 – 17
Way back at the turn of the century, I was getting ready, along with my buddy Ray, to go to Daytona bike week for the first time. Before we left, I had an accident that bruised the bones of my left leg quite severely. I was weary of going to the Dr. for fear that he would put me in the hospital because I broken my leg, and began to walk with a cane to try to relieve my pain. This didn't work and in fact caused more pain to both my legs and back until I finally relented and went to the Doctors.
He told me that the reason that me pain was getting worse throughout out my body was because that I was trying to compensate for my left leg by putting more strain on the rest of my body. His non-medication treatment was to give me crutches thereby taking the strain off the muscles that were over compensating for my weakness and easing my pain level immensely.
14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
18 But in fact God has arranged 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.
As our bodies have many different parts that are inter-connected, so do we have many different people (parts) in the church as a whole.
God has given each believer gifts that are to be exercised for the common good of the church. But when some don’t pull their weight, others far less gifted in those areas must pitch in. Although the body of Christ continues to function, it is not functioning at its best.
There are some overworked Christians around!
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 combined the members of the body and has given 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.
The lovely Mrs. Block and I discussed not using our gifts as given us by God last night before going to sleep. I had admitted that I was being lazy in not finishing my search for my spiritual gifts, and was rather quite happy doing what I am doing.
Her point was that if I had special gifts that God has given me, and was either not aware of them or not using them to their fullest, then I was disappointing God with my laziness and needed to ask for forgiveness.
Upon reflection I have to agree with her, and will be finishing my search this week. Even though I am one of the many in our church that has a tendency to pick up the slack and fill the voids in our ministries, I should find out my true talents and use them for God.
God wants us to use our spiritual gifts to benefit others in the church. When we work together, we keep the body strong.