Monday, January 14, 2013

Holy Spirit come

I may be the worst blogger ever. Sporadic much? Oh well. I know you'll forgive me...

Just wanted to share a little something that I found very encouraging this weekend. We spend a lot of time talking about unity in the church. It is critically important - and for many reasons. God created each of his children so magnificently different. But how does he expect us to be unified while embracing those differences?

Ephesians 4:3 says "Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace." When our focus in life is connecting with the Holy Spirit, we will naturally be bonded to people who have the same purpose.

I read a blog devotional by Cody Carnes recently and he said:
"Being a unified body doesn't mean we all operate exactly the same, look the same way or live out the same calling. It means we're all connected to the same "brain" - the Holy Spirit. Just like our brains communicate with our hands and tell them to move, the Holy Spirit communicates with us. When we obey, we can confidently walk in what we were created to do."

And what "we do" looks different. What God constantly reminds me is that we all worship differently. We all connect with God in a different way. We are all called to do different things in life. But God is the bridge between those things and all are important in the body of Christ.

"The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit... If the whole body were any eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it." - 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 17-18

So we have to do our part. Connecting with the Holy Spirit ourselves so that we can live as Christ's body as He intended. I love this A. W. Tozer quote so much:

"Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified."

If you'd like to read the original devotional (and I recommend you do), you can find it here :)

Happy Monday, friends! Praying you are able to connect to the Holy Spirit in a strong way this week.

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