As I mentioned I am in the mountains of western North Carolina. I am staying in the home of my friends Greg and Kathy and their five dogs. We met about three and one half decades ago. At that time Greg had not yet gone to law school and I was in the very early stages of starting my career as a counselor at law. Indeed, when we met some people thought of Greg as a minister in the traditional religious sense. Over the years we have swapped “careers”. Some people now think of me as a minister and Greg as a counselor at law. There was a short season when we actually practiced law together in the same law firm. However, never in the same location, he was in Florida and I was in Virginia.
The amazing thing is this. From the first times we met through the years until today, we have only met face to face on average two or three times a year at most. And those occasions were never more than a week or so at any one time. But every time we have met or talked on the telephone, we have known that for reasons we can never put into words, we are connected. God has ordained our friendship and our relationship. On a spirit to spirit level through Holy Spirit we are connected in a joint. We each know that we can trust the other. In our spirits we are praying for each other in ways and on levels that go far beyond any intellectual, social, or biological understandings.
In Ephesians 4 Holy Spirit tells us “we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” (NASB) Whom are you connected to in a joint in the Body of Christ ?
We often seem to forget that it is in what our joints supply that the Body is held together. Yes as individuals we must be cleansed and re-created so that we work properly. But we must never forget to honor the joints where Jesus has connected us. It will never work to substitute activity, effort, or organization for our joints.
Are you connected ? With whom ?
His, thus Yours,
Stuart
His-Family 