"For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones." (Ephesians 5:30)
Many Christians say this albeit without words, "What can I do? I'm just one person." Well, alone, in the grand scheme of things in earth life, relatively little. But you are not alone, "one person." You and I are a part of the Church, the Body of Christ, "of His body, of His flesh and of His bones." This means that everywhere and anywhere the Church is, i.e., the visible Presence of Jesus Christ in the earth, you and I are. Everywhere the Church is at work winning souls, feeding the poor, shaping the destiny and course of nations, there are you and I.
I have seen many Second War news reels over the years, but there is one which has always gotten to me in a sobering way. It is a film taken of the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach. It's a gray, rainy, wind swept scene which captures about four men coming ashore, one falls, obviously hit by some sort of small arms fire, but it is one of another man which is most disturbing to me. He just drops, no stumbling, no reaching to hold a wound, nothing like so many Hollywood films----------------- just a dead drop. He was one young man, what, maybe 18, 19, 20? The war, life, family, everything ended for him in that split second. Now, some might say that he contributed nothing to the victory which was later to come, but I don't. I say that he and the hundreds of others just like him, dying in varying ways, all part of the victorious Allied effort against tyranny around the world, are represented in that one young, lonely man in the chaos of that day, on that beach of Normandy, so far from family and friends. Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You for him. May he have found mercy on his soul.
Whether or not you prayed for us yesterday as we prayed just outside the White House where the leaders of five nations were meeting, and later at the Capitol Building and Supreme Court, you were there, possibly in a passive mode if you did nothing, but in a very active mode if you prayed for us. Multiply this by millions and millions of examples throughout Church History, and we can see just how powerful, "is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." Tithes, offerings, "supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks," all are just some of the active participations in the work of Jesus Christ around the globe. Where the Church is, there is Jesus Christ, and, there are you and I.
Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You today for showing me just exactly what and Whom I am a part of. Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
