It's Tuesday, and as we trudge into this week, I have a Quiz for you. Which body part do you think makes up 15% of your body weight? Bones; Skin; Brain; Or is it your Lungs? Make your guess & we'll talk more about this tomorrow. Hint: This part involves information about our immediate environment.
Tuesday 2/7
Prov. 27:25-27 After the hay is harvested and the new crop appears and the mountain grasses are gathered in, your sheep will provide wool for clothing, and your goats will provide the price of a field. And you will have enough goats' milk for yourself, your family, and your servant girls."
These verses go further into Solomon's instruction to his sons, his nation, and to you & me. If we are diligent & responsible (caring for those resources around us, whether fields, herds, or the people He has placed around us) there will be tangable (measurable, visible) rewards.
As I look around us, I see the tremendous damage that has been waged on our culture from a number of things, but as I look around us, I see the primary damage of attempting to live in solitude, has brought.
Some of it has been due to the Covid uncertainties, but in California some of this has been due to incompetent leaders who have chosen to live in a bubble and have failed to look outside of their own protected world. They have as Proverbs 27 says "they have failed to know the state of your flocks".
The church has even fallen prey to this temptation, thinking that cutting ourselves from others will somehow keep us safe. In reading medical notes, I believe much of our present illnesses, mental. emotional, physical, that children are suffering from is the lack of daily, contact with each other, and as a result their immune systems have become weakened. Walla, a record influx of a winter of illnesses, flues, colds, etc. This in turn has affected the adult population not only with immune suppression, but from many more important losses.
In my childhood I can remember my mom finding out thatJohnny had chicken pox and having a party to expose us kids (for they found the younger that we were exposed the more rapid the recovery time). This wasn't to harm us, but rather to protect us from illness of greater impact later.
Due to the isolation of our youth from the benefit of well meaning programs, church, youth clubs, service outlets, and contact with productive adults, we see some of our youth, still walled up in their caves, (bed rooms), fixated on social media that many evil influences have in many ways captured.
All of these harmful influences were there before, but because of the isolation of our culture we see the total impact these unchecked influences, can have on the developing community (our children & youth). Without the influence that comes from as Solomon says it "put your hearts into caring for your herds." The collective church community has immeasurable impact on many peoples lives.
I for one notice that there is a great population of families that have attempted to provide spiritual instruction without the broad influence of the living, growing, breathing church. (Watch on TV, Zoom, etc.)
Now don't take this in a wrong way, some folks have only this outlet due to physical limits. However, the church impact on our world has been harmed, by fewer folks attending church, the outcome has harmed our culture. You see THEY need desperately our input into an otherwise warped world.
The coming together of the saints, CANNOT be emphasized enough. Community, Praise, Thanksgiving, Fellowship, Communion, etc. those resources have been harmed, and they cannot be neglected as to the influence of the Spirit together with His people working is powerful. Just as Solomon spoke of the importance of these practical earthy issues, so also is the importance of the spiritual influence that is available from His body (the church).
So Go With God for He renews us when we gather together with His people, care for one another, help meet the needs of others, move ourselves onto new pasture lands, with new challenges, expose ourselves to the challenges of our world. For Greater Is He That Is In You Than he That is in the world.
No hint needed. Skin. And it is considered an organ.