A Body

1 Cor.12:¹⁸ “…our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. ¹⁹ How strange a body would be if it had only one part! ²⁰ Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. ²¹ The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

Members belong together, a Christian without a church family is an orphan. If you go to the market and you see a bodiless head trying to sell something to you, will you buy it? If you see a hand just bouncing around in the market, what will you do? You will probably run because that is abnormal. The members belong together. Atrophy is inevitable when a Christian removes himself or herself from fellowship. I will illustrate atrophy with this example of something we did just for fun as children. We catch a lizard and cut off its tail. The dismembered tail begins to wiggle on its own like it still has life. But after a while, the wiggling reduces until it is lifeless and still, then decay sets in. That is atrophy.

Similarly, when a log is pulled out of a bonfire, the log remains on fire for a while and that is usually the deception. Someone who has pulled out of church thinks he or she is fine because he or she still feels goose pimples when he or she prays. Really? Did God say, as many as are led by goose pimples, they are the sons of God? Church is not just a place you go to worship on a weekend. Beyond the Worship Experience on the weekend, church is a place where you build authentic relationships. There is so much value in building real authentic relationships and being in fellowship with other people. A lot of people go to church, but they are not interested in making connections with anybody or knowing anybody. Christianity is not just about attending church, praying and worshipping God alone. While that is good, it is not enough. You need to connect with people and make friends.

I want to challenge you to make real connections this weekend when you go to church. Talk to someone you have never spoken to before. Make a real connection and please remember the person’s name. Take that name to God and pray for the person by name. Then look out for the person at the midweek service and the following weekend. The beauty of fellowship and doing life together is, our fellowship with God is strengthened by our fellowship with other Christians. You are as strong spiritually as the group of people you are moving with. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. When we do life together we are stronger. When two Christians read the Bible together they get much more from God’s Word.

Prayer: Father, I ask for the grace to uphold my responsibilities in my church family. Lord, please help me make real connections that will strengthen my walk with God, in Jesus Name. Amen!