Perfectly Joined Together

Have you ever NOT followed a recipe or a formula requiring exact measurements or ingredients?  When I was in the eighth grade, our family planned a camping trip with our chaplain's family.  Preparations were made - including food - and I was in charge of making the Snickerdoodle cookies...

Things were rolling along fine in my baking adventure until I came to one ingredient: Cream of tartar.  "What a weird thing to put in cookies," I thought as I pulled the tartar sauce from the fridge.  The cookies were baked and camping commenced.

Somewhere along the way we had a conversation about cream of tartar - I think it was when my chaplain bit into his Snickerdoodle and found a bit of pickle.  Not exactly your normal Snickerdoodle ingredient...  You can bet I'm well aware of what cream of tartar IS these days! 

When God composed the Body of Christ - His church - the Bride of Christ - He mixed together a perfect recipe.  (1 Cor. 12:18)  "God has so composed the body" (1 Cor. 12:24b) to blend together and work as one.  "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." (1 Cor 12:27)

This past weekend, as women gathered together retreating from our lives for the advancement of the gospel in our hearts - we talked community.

Not programs and longer to-do lists - but community - connecting together person to person.  And we all thought long and hard about Paul's words in 1 Corinthians:

18 But as it is, nGod arranged the members in the body, each one of them, oas he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts,1 yet one body.

21 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.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, pall rejoice together.

We confessed and repented of our disdain for the weaker parts... our aversion of the hard personalities in the Body... We thought hard on how each person was knit into our body for God's purposes, plans and His glory.

What would happen if each person in teh Body of Christ leaned in a bit... started better loving and caring for the rest of the Body?  Would they know we are Christians by our love?