We are… the Body of Christ

Recently I have been so struck as I’ve been reading through 1 Corinthians and Ephesians that we are the Body of Christ… the Body of Christ!!! This is part of our identity as God's people.

Here are a few things that have really blown my mind. I pray they will encourage you too and cause you to praise God as you consider what this wonderful aspect of who we are.

1 Cor 12: ¹² 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 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....

¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be....

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Being the body of Christ means:

• We are under Christ’s headship – It is the risen Christ who is our head, and God has placed all things under his feet and given him supremacy over all things (Col 1:18) The head is the place in the body that directs every part. He knows the way we are going and what the best way to get there is Eph 1:22-23 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
• We are all ONE body – forget the way we think about students and workers,  male and female, internationals and locals or whatever other categories we put people into... whoever you are, wherever you're from, whatever you do... whether in Carrubbers, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, SE Asia, Syria, or wherever the church gathers… we are all ONE… we have the same Spirit in us... we are all brothers and sisters, in Carrubbers and across the world and one day will all be gathered together around the throne… We have one incredible hope, but while we are here on earth we need to care for each other as we would care for our own bodies: 1Cor 12 ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Who do we need to be rejoicing or suffering with today?
  
• We are all different – sometimes I struggle with comparing myself to others, and sometimes I want to gravitate to people like me… or people I like… but God has made each of us different because it is in this diversity He is reflected and glorified. We can see something of Him in each other. He has given different gifts to each of us for the edification of one another … so I need to be the best ME I can be, to encourage you to be who God made you to be, and to celebrate the differences we have. If we were all the same, we wouldn’t be a body 1 Cor 12:14-20
  
• We need each other – we are all indispensable in the body of Christ… every single one of us is given gifts to serve and build up the church so that together we grow in maturity. Ephesians 4 : 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
• We have gifts that are given to bless and build one another up – Ephesians 4 and 1 Cor 12 talks about the leadership we have been given - we need to pray for these folks as they use their gifts among us - but they re not the only ones who are gifted in church. Each one of us has been given gifts and are empowered by the spirit to use them (1 Cor 12:11). Using our gifts we all enable the body work properly so that we will all be build up. Eph 4 ¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Now imagine attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ…

Praise God for making us the body of Christ!

We are… IN CHRIST

Today’s blog is a quote from one of John Piper’s devotionals:

"Being ‘in Christ Jesus’ is a stupendous reality. It is breathtaking what it means to be in Christ. United to Christ. Bound to Christ.

If you are ‘in Christ’ listen to what it means for you:

1. In Christ Jesus you have been seated in the heavenly places even while he lived on earth. Ephesians 2:6, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
2. In Christ Jesus all the promises of God are Yes for you. 2 Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God find their Yes in Christ.”
3. In Christ Jesus you are being sanctified and made holy. 1 Corinthians 1:2, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.”
4. In Christ Jesus everything you really needed will be supplied. Philippians 4:19, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
5. In Christ Jesus the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. Philippians 4:7, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
6. In Christ Jesus you have eternal life. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
7. And in Christ Jesus you will be raised from the dead at the coming of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” All those united to Adam in the first humanity die. All those united to Christ in the new humanity rise to live again!

How do we get into Christ?

At the unconscious and decisive level it is God’s sovereign work: “From God are you in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

But at the conscious level of our own action, it is through faith. Christ dwells in our hearts “through faith” (Ephesians 3:17). The life we live in union with his death and life “we live by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). We are united in his death and resurrection “through faith” (Colossians 2:12).

This is a wonderful truth. Union with Christ is the ground of everlasting joy, and it is free.

Devotional excerpted from “The Stupendous Reality of Being in Christ Jesus”

Completeness

Sarah Worth writes...

When you hear the word “complete” what do you think of?  I asked some friends and here are their responses:

Totally accepted in Christ -- no more striving!

Lacking nothing - we have all that we really need, in Christ, to live for God now and forever

Wholeness

Being married to my husband

The wee verse Ye are complete in Him! Makes me think how blessed I am in God!!

Sufficient

Finished like it was intended to be in the first place

Perfect Fusion

I wonder if you would have a similar response to the ones listed?  The majority of the friends who replied to my question were Christians, but I am sure a lot of us have thought ‘if I could just earn more money, change job, do my dream job, be fitter, be thinner, be healthier, move to another country, get married, have a baby, retire early, have grandchildren, and so on I would be happy, I would be complete.’  These desires are not wrong as long as we realise that our true worth and stability comes from Christ.  Life will not always be stable.  All of us face trials and differences and we may not get those things we desire or think we need, but does that mean we are any less complete than someone who does get those things?

Are there times you feel you are incomplete? We think that because I am not or do not have a, b and c I am incomplete?  Maybe someone makes a comment implying that they think you’re missing something?  They may not come right out and say it, but they say something like ‘I could not do what you do if I did not have…’.  Over recent years I have had some very dear Christian friends say some of the following comments to me:

“You really need to have children to fully understand”

“I could not do what you do if I did not have my fiancé”

“How is a beautiful woman like you not married?”

What is it we think will fulfil, satisfy and complete us?

I have struggled and do still struggle with loneliness and sometimes feeling incomplete as a single woman, but God graciously and gradually over time has been moulding and continually shaping my view of what it means to be complete; to see my value and worth coming through the Lord – who I am in HIM – who HE has made me to be and not in what I do, what I have or what I do not have. This is a daily journey!

Scripture tells us that as believers in Christ Jesus we are:

saved 

forgiven

accepted

beloved of God

daughters of God

servants

chosen in HIM before the foundation of the world

new creatures

I am known – truly known by God – all of me, not just the parts I let people see and know.

I am called a child of God – HE has given me HIS name.

adopted into HIS family

kept by God

secure

Colossians 2:9 shows us that Christ encompasses everything we will ever need for our spiritual life, enjoyment and satisfaction.  In Christ we lack nothing!  We are full, whole and entire!  God is working in us through troubles and all of life to make us more like Himself.  (James 1:2-4)  God finishes HIS work in us completely!  HE will bring to conclusion the work of salvation in our lives that HE has started. HE does not leave things half-finished.  (Philippians 1:6) We can have complete confidence in our Saviour.  In Psalm 119, David talks about God ordering and arranging the details/conditions of our existence.  God is faithful.  God is constant.

A friend recently asked me something she had also been challenged by - Do I trust God for my Eternity? If I do, how much more can I trust Him for the here and now?!  HE is the accomplished and skilled God of all!  Who better to have confidence in than the very one who created me and molded me in my Mother’s womb. (Psalm 139)  “Your hands made me and fashioned me.  I am Yours.”  “You established the earth and it stands.” (Psalm 119)

Genuine faith sees the world through the lens of hope and trust in the Lord, and knows that comfort is not willed up or made up, but that the comfort is given from a loving Saviour who has walked the same paths as we have.  One who took my place and took all my sin on HIMSELF, that I might be free!

I love this quote from Tim Keller's little book 'The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness',
"He took the condemnation we deserve; He faced the trial that should be ours so that we do not have to face any more trials.  So I simply need to ask God to accept me because of what the Lord Jesus has done.  Then, the only person whose opinon counts looks at me and He finds me more valuable than all the jewels in the earth...true Christian identity operates totally different from any other kind of identity.  Self-forgetfulness takes you out of the courtroom.  The trial is over.  The verdict is in...Like Paul, we can say, 'I don't care what you think.  I don't even care what I think.  I only care about what the Lord thinks! And He has said, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus", and "You are my beloved child in whom I am well pleased." Live out of that."

Have I ever just dwelt on the fact that as a child of God, “My Father is God”? HE knows us intimately and wants us to see how complete we are in HIM.  We lack no good thing if only we will come to HIM and rest in HIM.  HE knows our sorrows and heavy hearts and meets us in our need.  HE does not leave us to sorrow and HE takes our worries on HIMSELF.  May we remember this simple, yet very full sentence and remind ourselves often that in Christ we are complete and whole!  Praise HIM!

We are… a family

This year I am exploring a few of the things the bible teaches about our identity – not my identity – but ours collectively as we think about our new identity in Christ.

Family is an important marker of identity in our society. I was once introduced to someone in church who seemed to recognise me and yet couldn’t place me… so she asked “who do you belong to?” as in who are you related to or married to… my knee jerk reaction was “I don’t belong to anyone… it’s just me!” which is sometimes how I and others can feel in church… but that is SO FAR from the truth of what the bible teaches… I belong to Christ first and foremost, I am His daughter, His Child, but I am also your sister…

Eph 2:19 says “So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God's holy people. You are members of God's family.” NLT

I have surrounding me every Sunday a vast number of brothers and sisters – older younger, some like fathers, mothers, aunts and uncles, others more like nieces and nephews. So how should I view and relate to the church congregation?

1 Tim 5:1 says “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, ² older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.”

This way of seeing and interacting can have an enormous impact in people’s lives… for example, I recently read a fantastic book written by a church pastor who struggles with same sex attraction. He writes of some of the challenges he faces in choosing to live in obedience to the bible’s teaching on sex and marriage. His experience has been that when the church has chosen to just define family in biological terms this has increased the pain in his own life as he will never be able to marry and have children. However, thankfully he has also experienced church being family for one another, being a caring community, getting beyond the superficial and inviting him to share life with them and this has been an enormous help to him and to others. It was so striking to be reminded that our spiritual family are to be for us all a place where we can belong, share real life, carry burdens, speak truth, and where we can know intimacy and love. There are so many among us who do not or can not have their own families… whether because they have never met someone or because they have lost someone, whether they are far from their own families or their families are far from the Lord, and there are many who despite having a family close at hand, the pressures and stresses of this life are too much and they need the love and support of others around them. We are called to be family for one another. We have been gifted with one another as part of God’s incredible gift of salvation. Let’s rejoice in who we are and reach out to others in light of them being our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

To read Ed Shaw’s book “the Plausibility Problem; The Church and Same Sex Attraction” – one of the best I’ve read in a while chick here

To hear Ed Shaw in person – he is speaking at the Solas Conference this Saturday at Charlotte Chapel!! Click here for more information

We are…. A Holy Nation

Karen Clark writes...

Watching the Olympics this summer gave me more pride in being British than I would normally feel the rest of the year round… national identity can be a good feeling when associated with sports men and women winning medals, but perhaps it doesn’t feel so good when we watch the news or follow politics.

The bible has an interesting take on national identity too.

In the Old Testament, the storyline of God’s redemption seems to be tied up with one nation, the nation of Israel. They are called God’s people and God reveals himself uniquely to them as a nation. In Exodus 19, Moses calls the people together with this promise from God: ⁵ Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

Israel had a special purpose as God’s people and a special relationship with Him. What a privilege! But as we know too well…  Israel failed to obey Gods voice and didn’t keep God’s covenant…

Thankfully, there was an Israelite who did obey, living the perfect life and dying in place of all who mess up and fail. He – Jesus - the true Israel as he is called - made it possible for us to inherit the blessings of this covenant relationship and be included in the people of God…

Peter writes: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

We are, if we are in Christ, a Holy Nation!!

So what does it mean that we are a holy nation?

It means that we are set apart for God… no longer belonging to the world, the culture, the social structures that would want to define who we are… Instead we are defined as God’s people, we along with millions of others across the world who have trusted in Christ for salvation, belong to Him!

It means in the local church context… as we gather together to worship we are one in spirit no matter our background or status. We have all been called from darkness to light!

It also means we share a good and fair ruler. A king who calls us his special treasure, his special possession. He calls us to obey him because he knows what is best for us. 

And lastly, it means we are called to be His priests in the sense that we are to be a light to those around us, to tell others of this King and call others to belong to this nation.

Pray for each other today that we might know our new national identity as a holy nation, a people belonging to God!

Hi there.... and welcome back to a new term of Women to Women blog posts...

This year we will be looking together at prayer... not that we might learn to master the mechanics of prayer but that we might get to know God more personally through prayer...

Our desire is that we might:

• grow in our relationship with God - drawing near to Him and depending on Him
• grow in our fellowship with one another as we pray for each other
• grow in our bible knowledge of how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit help us in our prayer (we all know we need help... none of us approaches this year thinking we've mastered it)

We'll look at the role of the trinity in prayer, praying in different circumstances and some examples of prayers from the bible.

Please pick up a term card at church and mark the dates in your diaries to join us.

Our first night is going to be a one off special for both the daytime and evening groups as we look together at "The God to whom we Pray". There will be food to share together from 6pm and we'll start off the night at 7:30pm. Email Sue if you want to come eat so that we can cater for everyone.

Psalm 17:6 I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.

Where are you from?

^"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going." (John 8: 12-14)

Karen Clark writes..

Where do you come from? I was just down in my hometown of Galashiels at the weekend for the annual common ridings. It was good to see 300 or so horses parade round the town and everyone out cheering them on. It was good to see a few old faces from my childhood and hear how they are doing. It was good to see the borders on a beautifully sunny day....

Where am I from? Well, normally I would have answered Galashiels! But after hearing Christopher Ash teach from John 8 last week*, I was reminded of Jesus’ answer to this question; He says I am from “the Father who sent me” (v 16, 18, 23, 26, 29).

Jesus defines himself, not in terms of time or place, but in terms of relationship and purpose.

Because Jesus was obedient in carrying out His purpose in redeeming us, we too can define ourselves in these terms. We are in Christ. We belong to God. We are His children. We are heirs with Christ, We are His bride, His friends, His beloved.

We also have a new purpose to identify ourselves by; we are God’s coworkers, His ambassadors, His body, His image bearers. We are called to glorify God in whatever situation we find ourselves in.

What a challenge to think of ourselves in this way!

Jesus says “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Following Christ includes accepting and enjoying the new identity He has given us.

So, where am I from? Much as I love the borders, I am SO glad to be able to answer that question in relation to my new identity in Christ!

*The Staff Team were away last week at the “Evangelical Ministry Assembly” conference in London, this article is based on my reflections from one of the talks given by Christopher Ash. Conference Talks are (or soon will be) available to listen to online at the proc trust website. There are loads of other great resources there too so do have a look and see if there’s anything you might fancy listening to. Do have a look at our own resources page on the W2W website too!

How do you feel about yourself today? I’m about a 6 out of 10!!

What kind of things would need to happen to make you feel better about yourself or worse about yourself?

I can imagine, if you’re anything like me, then things like getting through the to do list, having a good catch up with a friend, “hearing” the scales say I’ve lost a pound would maybe push me up to a 7 or an 8… while getting a critical email, forgetting someone’s birthday or discovering another grey hair could see the number fall below 5!!

We can so often, even inadvertently, let the world determine how we feel about ourselves and not believe the one who created us and made us to be like Him! The bible says SO MUCH about our identity (masses more than it says about who we marry or what job we should do) and we’ll be looking at that on Wednesday in W2W…

but meanwhile…

take time out today to read Psalm 139…

Our all knowing God knows every intricate detail of our lives, our everywhere present God is in us and with us wherever we go today, our all wise God made us the way we are for his glory and his good purposes (“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” – Praise him for making you the way he did!). And at the end of the Psalm, David sides with God and says "I’m on your side God! Lead me in your ways!!"

How do you feel about yourself today? Let your response be determined by who God says you are. He’s the one who knows you and made you. Choose to be on his side, unshaken by the enemies lies!!

Hope to see you on Wednesday

~ Karen

For more blogposts check out the W2W website