It’s amazing what can stand out to a person during a church service or any program that is dedicated to the worship of our great God of Ages. It could be something said by the liturgist, a song during praise and worship, a word from the sermon, a hymn or a discussion during Bible study.
The key, I believe is to be expectant. The whole service is a form of worship to God.
For me, it was the words of this hymn that struck me:
Love, like death, hath all destroyed
Rendered all distinctions void;
Names and sects and parties fall;
Thou, O Christ art all in all!
It took my mind back to a sermon I had heard years ago in another church. The words of this last stanza of the hymn – “Christ from whom all blessing flow”, had been stressed. We had sang it twice or so, this very stanza.
What does it mean?
Basically, it refers to our unity in Christ, it affirms that this unity transcends all sects and denominations.
A sect refers to a group of people with somewhat different religious beliefs. Key word here is somewhat.
In Christ, though we are many, we form one body. As followers of Christ what unites us across the denominations is the belief in the death and resurrection of Christ as the source of our salvation.
I’ll never forget how many years ago I declared this to someone and he commented my conclusion was too simplistic! Is it really?
Let’s read the words of that hymn again. 🤔
Just as a body has many parts., so in Christ we have different functions and gifts. Guess what,..no gift is greater than the other. None is too small and none is too big.
Each must play his or her role just as each part of the body plays its role for the body to function.
Another key lesson is that in Christ,..there no major, lieutenant colonel, professor; titles don’t matter. What matters is service to God! On judgement day, I greatly doubt we’d be arranged according to our titles. Better still, go to the mortuary and observe if there is any difference in how bodies are handled. A body is a body. It humbles you when you enter the mortuary. Hmmmm.😌
1 Corinthians 12:12-26 NIV – Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.
16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.19 If they were all one part, where would the body be?
20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.21 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!”
22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,
24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it,25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
So let’s use our gifts to serve God and do it enthusiastically, and like my Pastor added – lets’s do it with swag! 😅😆
God bless you!
🤗
God bless you!
God bless you tooo Pokuaa!
🤗