Author: Dave Dishman (Page 338 of 475)

I’m drawn to the back few rows of church. It’s quieter back here, out of the way. In many of our modern churches, built in more of a theater style, the back rows are dark. I feel hidden, in my cocoon, as I watch the service. With my coffee, and no one to engage with, it’s really quite comfortable.

Unfortunately for me, Paul brings a different perspective on living the faith. Using the metaphor of the human body, Paul explains how each one of us forms a vital part of the whole—there are many parts, but one body.

Just as a finger cannot function without the rest of the body (FYI, I saw a severed finger once—it lay there, useless), we as followers of Jesus need other believers around us, just as they need me and you. Paul again: God has put the body together…its parts should have equal concern for each other…Now you are the body of Christ, and each of one of you is a part of it.

Christianity is a participatory religion. It’s not a “consume a service like a TV program” religion. I must engage, I must exercise the gifts given by the Holy Spirit to build those around me, just as I benefit from the gifts of others. I must step forward toward people, not shirk my role. In short, I cannot act as a severed member.

Bummer for my preferred worship style. While I still sit in the back, I greet my fellow back row denizens. And when I leave the sanctuary for the bright light of day, I enter the greater body of believers. I need the push from Paul, because it’s really comfortable to stay in the shadows.

1 Corinthians 12 in week thirty-six of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Karen Zhao

I listened closely as one of my favorite writers shared his life verse. Slightly embarrassed, he smiled as he explained to us that while he studied the Bible carefully and took seriously the injunction to rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15), he actually took his verse out of context!

I thought of him this morning when I read the verse he referenced, I will make you a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff (Isaiah 41:15).

The passage refers to the Lord’s redemption of Israel. But these same words motivated a humble man to communicate in powerful and effective ways. This leader devoted his life to destroying the arguments of the enemy of our souls, and pointing people to the Lord.

Maybe a little out of context, but certainly in the spirit of the text. A couple lines earlier Isaiah wrote, I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

The Lord waits to take our hand, to calm our fears, and to help in our times of need. But don’t forget that beyond all that, the Lord stands ready to create threshing sledges out of his humble followers.

Pretty good life verse, even out of context.

Isaiah 41 in week thirty-six of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Robert Wiedemann

As a kid, I loved church potlucks. Being in the Ozarks, someone always brought fried chicken, someone always brought jello with fruit (which I considered then, and still today, a salad), and most everyone brought a dessert. A plate full of fried chicken and jello salad laid the foundation for a similar-sized plate of desserts. That holy bliss of fats and sugars hangs in my memory.

The church members in Corinth also joined together for shared meals, but they apparently didn’t get any training on potlucks. When together, instead of sharing their food equally, the rich took more and the poor received less. Some even went home hungry—hard to imagine at a church potluck.

Paul hammered the selfish church members—you despise the Church of God by humiliating those who have nothing. Paul seemed frustrated and embarrassed for the less privileged members.

As I read 1 Corinthians, a theme emerges. As Paul instructs this young church, he continually labors to move the members of the body from getting to giving.

Perhaps the most fundamental and profound step of living out our Christian faith involves moving from getting to giving. Do I look to my faith only for what I receive, or do I also look to serve others? Do I reach out and meet someone obviously new at church, or do I slip by with a nod? Do I respond to appeals for help, or assume someone else on the email thread will take care of it?

Getting to Giving. The crux of discipleship.

So I must ask myself—would I share my heaping plates of fried chicken and jello salad and desserts? As a junior high boy, no chance. But as an adult, and hopefully more mature follower of Jesus, I believe I would.

Maybe.

1 Corinthians 11 in week thirty-six of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Tim Cooper

I cannot read Isaiah 40 without thinking about the movie Chariots of Fire, featuring the story of Eric Liddell, the British olympian and missionary to China. Here Liddell reads a section of Isaiah 40, and if you’ve never seen the movie, or watched it in a long time, it’s well worth the effort of punching those keys on your remote.

I also find the words of Isaiah encouraging for those of us non-olympian types. In a couple of weeks my wife and I will walk a section of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage in Northern Spain. Covering 70 miles in 6 days, the hopefulness—they will walk and not be faint—stands out to me. Sore feet and achy muscles go with the experience, a long walk in the same direction.

A long walk in the same direction also represents our life of faith. Which makes these words from Isaiah especially significant:

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Amen. Let’s hope in the Lord, and renew our strength.

Isaiah 40 in week thirty-six of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Rachel McDermott