A Healthy Body

God is an amazing Creator.
Look at the people He has made.
What variety!

The miracle of a mother’s egg and the father’s sperm coming together to form a baby.
Not a glob of tissue, but a baby…who has a soul…who is made in the image of God.
That baby has a unique genetic code imprinted in every cell at conception.
No two sets of fingerprints are alike…anywhere…in the whole world.

That should astound us.
That should make us want to know the Creator who spoke and made…perfectly.

We can take clay and sculpt whatever we imagine.
We can use watercolors, oils, or pastels to produce a masterpiece.
Unlike God, we have to start with something in order to create.
God creates ex nihilo…out of nothing.

If we really took time to notice the intricacies of the human body, we would be speechless.
Organs and systems working together all under His control.
We are unaware of the beating of our heart, or the countless breaths we take each day.

We forget that even the smallest injury can wreak havoc on our body.
We all know the pain of a corneal abrasion, as we shield our eyes from the light.
We don’t think about our little toe until we stub it on the bed frame at night.
We expect our back to be strong so we can lift or carry things, but soon see how debilitating a back injury can be, forcing us to slow down and rest.

We are God’s Body…the church…and Jesus is the head.
God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
(1 Corinthians 12:18-20)

No one part is more important than any other.
Ironically, the parts we don’t think about are the ones that can weaken the whole body when they are injured.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor…God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
(1 Corinthians 12:21-26)

Our physical bodies need all the parts to work together in order to function properly.
The Body of Christ, the Church, needs to have the same cooperation.
The Body gets hurt when the individual parts fight against each other.

How healthy are we?

Consider this prescription for better health:

• Have a prayer workout every day
  (pray continually…1 Timothy 5:17)
• Lift the weight of the world with God’s Word 
  (Your Word, O Lord is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens…Psalm 119:89)
• Run the race of righteousness
  (I do not run like a man running aimlessly…1 Corinthians 9:26)
  
• Walk together in unity
  (…a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus…Romans 15:5)
• Exercise the mind of Christ we have been given
  (But we have the mind of Christ…1 Corinthians 2:16)
• Swim upstream as aliens, foreigners in this world
  (The Lord watches over the alien…Psalm 146:9)
•  Strengthen the heart of flesh, which transplanted the old heart of stone
  (I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh…Ezekiel 11:19)

The worlds needs to see a healthy church Body.
We need to show the world a different way…an excellent way.
How are they going to see Him clearly, if they don’t see Him in us?

Let’s get healthy..for HIS sake…and for our own.
The world is watching.
They are learning good habits or bad habits from our example.