Many Members

1 Corinthians 12
 12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If 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? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while 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, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

I find this is the hardest thing for us to do. Many times I think the hands are saying to the feet why don't you be more like a hand. I guess the trouble comes from how do we determine that is an action that is lead by God and one that isn't. Is it possible for a hand to know what a ear should be and shouldn't be doing?

I guess this is where we have to read verse 18, and pray to God for guidance that he we exalt what he has planned and stop everything else before it gets started.

Transforming

I've been amazed recently at several old testament stories. How Abraham was promised to be the father of many nations yet didn't have a child till he was much older. How Joseph had dreams about his brothers bowing down to him yet he spent many years as a slave and in jail. David promised king of Israel spent many years as a hunted rebel.

It's as if God in control finds putting people in important places is the easy part. It's the transforming people that takes time.

I find a common them amoug all those people is that they tried their best to serve God wherever they were (though they all had short commings).

A Generation Gone

So last week my grandmother passed away. Though I still have a grandmother on my mom's side, but for the most part the children of the pioneers here in Manitoba are fast disappearing. The world is changing once again.

I spent allot of time with her when I was younger. She was my babysitter, she feed me supper every day after school.

It's funny how this world works. Death though painful and destructive creates new life. This cycle of life that keeps on going. At her funeral I could not help but feel happy. I know she is going to heaven and is enjoying life ever after with Jesus.

God lead us.
God bless us.
God be with us
God bring us to green pastures.

Non-Violent Action

So I am reading "I have a dream". The best part of the book for me is "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

Here are some of the things that stick out for me.

Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.

We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with.

One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will.

Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment.

Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated."

For modern day examples check out Christian Peacemaker Teams