Written by: Erica Sawyer
What does it mean to be the hands and feet of the church?? What does it mean to be a part of the body of Christ?? These are terms I used for nearly two decades before I knew what it really meant.
It has nothing to do with going somewhere for worship. It does not include a building, not even a denomination.
It has nothing to do with eating a bread wafer every month in remembrance of Him, either.
It doesn’t even mean tithing every week to your local church.
Nope.
It’s much more than that.
It is about loving people. It’s about letting the abundance of Agape love flow from God, to us, and out onto others.
The body of Christ is the church. If you are a true follower of Jesus, you are a part of that body. Each one of us has been given different gifts to be used to help people, and to love people that don’t have YOUR gift. Perhaps that person you helped has a gift that would in turn help you. This is what the church is supposed to look like.
Again, it doesn’t have to occur behind a specific set of walls. In fact, I’m not a big fan of organized “church” anyhow.
I’m in love with Jesus. I don’t need a big theatrical production with lights, mirrors, and smoke to move me. It actually, to me, takes away from what I would call worship.
I also have a difficult time justifying tithing knowing my money is buying 50′ plasma televisions, instead of providing running water to villages in Africa, or providing food for a homeless vet, or simply lending a listening ear to my own struggling neighbor over a simple cup of coffee.
We tend to think our service at church is what the Lord wants of us. I am not saying it isn’t. Some of us are called to serve in that capacity and that is where the body of Christ is amazing.
But here is my point. Pray bigger.
I bet if you prayed for God would open your heart up to HIS desires for your life, not your own, you would be overwhelmed by what He has in store for you.
Too often we try too hard to be Christians. We tithe. Check that off the list. We read our Bible. Check that off the list. We pray, another check. But do we really do these things?? Like, with all of our heart and soul do these things??
I’d like to challenge you to ask God that question.
What is your money buying?? I don’t think God needs smoke machines to get people’s attention. He uses burning bushes and talking donkeys!!
And if you’re in debt, I doubt very much, given Jesus hatred of such a thing, he would ask you to tithe until such debt is paid off. He can rain manna down from the sky if he wanted. He doesn’t need your offering out of obligation.
He wants our offering out of abundance of His love and His blessings. If you’re in debt, you don’t have monetary abundance. You better find a different way to serve, until you can clean that slate.
Maybe serving in the church is for you.
So, what about the service you do at church every week?? Is it tiresome to you?? It’s not supposed to be. If you’re juggling a job, three kids, dogs, and a home where your husband is deployed, I don’t think God wants you stressing out each week simply “to serve at church.” Serve in your everyday life. Hold a door for someone. Help someone in a wheelchair “get something down” at the grocery store. Give someone a hug that needs one. Tell someone you love them. Have your kids make some thank you cards for some military friends. Make dinner for your neighbor, that just had surgery, yet you had no idea.
Listen to the whispers of God. He will tell you.
In 17 years, I have never told this story to anyone, until now. The only reason I tell it is to encourage you to trust the voice of God. I’m going to call her Susan. Susan was a mutual friend of ours at church. One of her gifts was service and loving on people. She was taking in down- and-out people, providing them a room in her home, complete with meals and love, but was herself needing a lift. When I heard about this, something (the Holy Spirit) inspired me to send her an encouraging card with some money in it. I went to the ATM pulled out $60 and started to put the money in the envelope. That’s when God’s voice stopped me, “$40 is enough”, he said. I remember staring at the cash in my hand not really understanding why only $40, but by faith I listened that day, put the $40 in the envelope then mailed it off. I truly did not expect to hear anything about it the rest of my life. I had sent it anonymously.
A week later at church, my friend Mike and I were talking. He brought up our friend Susan and how somebody had sent her an encouraging card with money in it. The reason the story is significant is this—that day she had ripped a pair of her work pants which was stressing her out. She was going to have to purchase a new pair. When she opened the card, it had contained the exact amount her work pants were going to cost her. $40.
Again I tell the story to bring glory to God, not to what I did. I didn’t do anything that day but listen to Him, then faithfully act as his hands and feet. If we listen, and are faithful to His prompts, and let HIM do it, and let us stop trying, then and only then can we effectively be his hands and feet.
1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
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