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Section 1: Opening Prayer
Dear Lord, help me spread Your fragrance where ever I go. Flood my soul with Your Spirit & Life. Penetrate me, posses my whole being so utterly all my life may only be A Radiance of Yours. Shine through me and be so in me that Every soul i come in contact with may FEEL Your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only You, O Lord! Let me preach You without Preaching, not by words, but by my Example by the catching Force, the sympathetic influence of what i do, the evident fullness of the Love my heart bears to You. Amen.
Section 2: Story
Section 3: Message
Read Ephesians 4:1-16
Read Romans 12:1-8
- Important Rules for life from Romans 12
- Know yourself.
- An honest assessment of our own capabilities, without conceit and without false modesty is one of the first essentials of a useful life
- Accept ourselves and use the gift we have been given.
- We are not to envy someone else’s gift and regret we did not get a certain gift
- God is in every living creature:
- Know yourself.
- The dung beetle
- The earthworm
- The efficiency of life depends on the humblest creatures. We all have a part to do, and must humbly accept our task, even if it is not in the lime light.
- Whatever the gift we have comes from God. This is χάρισμα or Charisma, a gift from God, also related to χάρις or Charis – grace. In the NT charisma is something given to humanity by God which we could not have acquired on our own.
- One could practice cello for all of their lives and never play as well as Yo Yo Ma, because of the gift he was given for cello.
- One could practice basketball everyday of their life and never be as good as Michael Jordan
- Everyone has their own gift – be that writing sermons, building houses, sowing seeds, fashioning wood, manipulating figures, playing a musical instrument, singing, teaching, playing a sport.
- Whatever gift we have we must use it for the betterment of the whole body and not our own self preservation/betterment.
The Complexity of the Human Body:
- Skeletal System
- The total number of bones varies at different ages. At birth, the human body contains ~270 bones. This number declines slightly during infancy as a few separate segments join to form single bones. From young childhood through puberty, the bone count increases as wrist and ankle bones develop. Post-adolescence, the bone count steadily declines again with the gradual union of independent bones.
- The adult skeleton consists of 206 bones:
- 28 skull bones
- 8 cranial
- 14 facial
- 6 ear ossicles
- the horseshoe-shaped hyoid bone of the neck
- 26 vertebrae
- 7 cervical or neck
- 12 thorax
- 5 lumbar or loins
- the sacrum which is five fused vertebrae
- the coccyx
- our vestigial tail which is four fused vertebrae
- 24 ribs plus the sternum or breastbone
- the shoulder girdle
- 2 clavicles, the most frequently fractured bone in the body
- 2 scapulae
- the pelvic girdle
- 2 fused bones
- 30 bones in each of the four extremities
- a total of 120
- The paired bones include the 12 ribs on either side, 8 wrist bones, 5 hand bones, 14 finger bones, 7 ankle bones, 5 foot bones, 14 toe bones, 3 auditory ossicles, and the parietal, temporal, palatine, lacrimal, nasal, upper jaw, cheek, lower nasal concha, collarbone, shoulder blade, hip, arm, outer and inner forearm, thigh, kneecap, calf, and shin bones. There are also a variable number of sesamoid bones, ranging from 8-18 in number, which are small rounded masses embedded in certain tendons and usually related to joints.
- The number of entries in Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body has 13,000 entries.
- 28 skull bones
- Can we live with out parts of our body?
- With only 1 kidney
- Yes, but impaired
- The Appendix
- It sometimes becomes swollen, and it was noticed that people can survive if it is removed, and was therefore labeled as useless. We now know that it plays a role in antibody production and protects our intestines from infection. The appendix lessens the chances of a person getting leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, cancer of the colon and cancer of the ovaries.
- The Tonsils
- These organs in the throat protect us from infections.
- The Coccyx
- These are vertebrae found at the bottom of the spine. It was once thought to be useless, a remnant of a tail from our evolutionary past. It has since been discovered that some important muscles attach to it, namely the levator ani and coccygeus. Without it, our pelvic organs would just fall down, we wouldn’t be able to walk, sit upright or have bowel movement.
- The Thymus
- This “worthless” organ has been discovered to play an important role in the development of the immune system. In this gland lymphocyte and antibody production takes place. Without it, our immune system would not develop properly.
- Pineal Gland
- Produces vital hormones, such as melatonin. It also affects the functions of other endocrine organs.
- Thyroid Gland
- Produces the hormone thyroxin that controls metabolism and growth. It’s deficiency at birth causes cretinism.
- Pituitary Gland
- It is the master endocrine gland which controls and stimulates almost all the other endocrine glands in the body. It ensures proper growth of the skeletal system and control the water balance of the body. It’s malfunctioning causes gigantism, Cushing’s syndrome, dwarfism, diabetes insipidus, acromegaly, etc.
- Adenoids
- Nictitating membrane of eye
- Wisdom teeth
- Parathyroid
- Ear muscles for wiggling
- Body hair
- With only 1 kidney
- How is the church like this?
- The church is the body of Christ and, therefore, made up of many members, and each member serves a function and each is important to the body. Even the lowliest of members is needed and has a vital role to play in the body!
- How are our parts/vocations important in the Body of Christ
- There is no one else in the world that can do your vocation
- There is no competition to complete your task.
- By understanding we have a clear part (even when we may not know what it is) in God’s plan we are freed to:
- Appreciate our gifts and abilities
- Not envy others gifts/abilities
- Appreciate their contribution to the Body of Christ
- We are not in any way depreciated by their giftedness
- There is no one else in the world that can do your vocation
A few quotes:
Palmer J. Parker Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation p. 16 “True vocation joins self and service, as Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”
Martin Luther:
“How is it possible that you are not called? You have always been in some state or situation; you have always been a husband or wife, or boy, or girl, or servant. Picture before you the humblest estate…Yea, if you had five heads and ten hands, even then you would be too weak for your tasks, so that you would never dare think of making a pilgrimage or doing any saintly work.”
“The idea that the service of God should have only to do with a church altar, singing, reading, sacrifice, and the like is without a doubt but the worst trick of the devil. How could the devil have led us more effectively astray than by the narrow conception that service to God takes place only in church and by works done therein…The whole world could abound with service to the Lord, Gottesdienste – not only in churches but also in the home, kitchen, workshop, field.”
Section 4: Learn and Engage
– What are 3 things you learned?
– What is 1 question you still have?
– What part of the lesson did you most identify with?
– What part of the lesson was hardest for you?
– Where have you seen God this week?
Section 5: Closing Prayer
Dear Lord, help me spread Your fragrance where ever I go. Flood my soul with Your Spirit & Life. Penetrate me, posses my whole being so utterly all my life may only be A Radiance of Yours. Shine through me and be so in me that Every soul I come in contact with may FEEL Your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only You, O Lord! Let me preach You without Preaching, not by words, but by my Example by the catching Force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the Love my heart bears to You. Amen.