Called by God, 16

 ~ The Career Call To Be Active In A Para-Church Organization ~

 

Series Note  ~  In the first post in this series, we considered the Universal Call to all mankind.  Then we addressed those who accepted that call.  In posts 2-5 we looked at the new responsibilities to accept the Obedience Call.  In posts 6-12 we examined some new roles of those who accepted that initial call.  In posts 13-17 we are considering a sampling of specific career calls.

 

Comment  ~  At times there are individuals and organizations that seem to have a narrow picture of the universal Church of Jesus Christ.  Scripture clearly teaches that we are all part of one living organization.  Many strong and effective Christian groups are not local churches but organizations that serve the body of Christ or the unchurched.  Those who serve in para-church organizations are also an active members in their local churches.   

 

Scripture  ~  “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.  For in fact the body is not one member but many.

 

“If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body?  And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body?  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?  If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?  But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.  And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

 

“But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.  And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you;’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’  No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.  And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need.  But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.  And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:12-26).

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

 

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