Active Members of the Church
I have been on holiday this week. I had a million things planned to do, turn out the kitchen cupboards, sort out the piles of papers, magazines and correspondence that have been waiting for me to find time to read them, plant some bulbs I had already planted but he squirrels dug up again, repair the broken down front hedge that scratches the car every time I drive in or out of the garage and so on. I sure know how to have a good time! Not for me lazing around on a boring sun kissed, tropical beach or hiking up the Andes to see an ancient Inca temple. I like my own bed and my own food and I hate flying.
Anyway, I did none of it, firstly the sniffle I had been ignoring for a week in the hopes it would take the hint and leave me alone developed into a hacking cough and secondly Mark had even more paperwork awaiting attention and I ended up helping with his as it was more urgent. The only thing that did get done was defrosting the freezer which decided for itself there was too much ice for its motor to cope and started the process for me – I had to react or the motor might have given up completely and then I would have been in trouble. Crisis intervention!
The best thing about the week was not having to go out every day – as Mark has been off work too I have not even had to chauffeur him to and from the station. However not going out means I do not necessarily register what day it is and consequently was not prepared for leading the prayer meeting. I need not have worried; as usual God was looking after me. The hymn “Shine Jesus Shine” had been running round in my head all day and was on the disc in my car CD player so I realised this was what I was meant to play at the start. It is concerned with flooding the world with God’s glory and setting hearts on fire. After we had sung this I sat down with my Bible prepared to thumb through for a relevant passage. It fell open at Psalm 146, which is almost the same as Isaiah 61, which is the passage we have been considering a lot recently. After many years of Bob M telling us dry bones shall live (Ez.37:1-14) and that God’s work cannot be contained within the church walls, we feel ready to take the next step and go out as Is.61 tells us to, but we now need to know how.
Mark brought us the passage a few weeks ago when he was recounting something that happened in Macedonia that caused him to act in a different way from usual. It reminded us that we each have our particular gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor.12:1-11) but we can treat them like a comfortable pair of old slippers. Sometimes we are put on the spot, however, and we have to do something for which we would normally consider ourselves unsuitable, out of our comfort zone in modern parlance. Mark, who does not normally do touchy feely stuff, was required to be a counsellor. Similarly, a preacher may be asked to lead, a prophet may need to pray for healing or we may suddenly find ourselves using tongues when we do not usually do so. It is only then that we become aware that we are not limited, the Spirit actually enables us to use all the gifts He has available, we just have to have trust Him. He will always give us the tools we need for the task He has set us. We may never need to use that particular gift again but for the one occasion we can.
In a smallish church like ours, we do not have the luxury of being a bystander; we all have to be active members. If we want to see God’s Kingdom spread into the surrounding area we all need to be a part of the body of the Church and we each have to take on more than one role. We cannot do this if we do not meet on a regular basis, to worship and to pray together. We need to seek God’s help and guidance and listen to His answer. We know from the Bible that we can achieve more if we pray together (Acts 12:5) and, from experience, that the answer can be like a jigsaw with more than one person receiving pieces. If some one is missing none of us gets the whole picture.
