The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Something Bigger Than Ourselves"
We are all part of something so much bigger than ourselves, namely, "the eternal purpose which He (God) purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).
Of course, this truth also applies to many things in our earthly lives as well. Beginning with our parents and family, and proceeding to neighborhoods, churches, schools, teams, clubs, workplaces, communities, states, and nations, every human being lives life not only as an individual, but also as a member of larger entities than ourselves. To the degree we know and accept our place in each venue will be the degree to which we function either well or poorly. This applies most importantly to believers in the Lord Jesus and our place in the body of Christ.
"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2 19-22).
God knows and regards each of us so personally that "the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:30). This does not minimize, however, our spiritual existence in union and function with Christ and multitudes of "fellow citizens with the saints." No Lone Rangers have a place in the body of Christ, including our Lord Himself - "He is the head of the body, the church" (Colossians 1:18). God purposed that even His Son should be part of that which we might not want to say is bigger than Himself, but which is vitally other than Himself (and of which He serves as an - the - essential component. "That in all things He might have the preeminence").
Since the advent and atoning work so of the Lord Jesus, God does not see Christ without seeing Him in spiritual union His church. "As the body is one, and hath many members, so also is Christ" (I Corinthians 12:12). This bears powerful witness to how important it is that we do not view ourselves in merely individual terms. This does not minimize our personal place and role in Christ, but rather speaks to how important we all are as "members one of another" (Ephesians 4:25). Indeed, if earth were the only planet in our solar system, its course around the sun might not be nearly as important as it is because it journeys together with other celestial bodies. The same principle holds true with believers who journey in the Son. We all matter so much individually, a primary reason being because we matter so much to each other. This we must know because it is true, and because we only properly function as believers in the light of being "members one of another."
"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."
(Ephesians 3:14-19)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Fight the good fight of faith."
(I Timothy 6:12)
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