BY PASTOR DOUG BATCHELOR

An Amazing Fact: Every square inch of human skin consists of 19 million cells, 60 hairs, 90 oil glands, 19 feet of blood vessels, 625 sweat glands, and 19,000 sensory cells that can transmit information at more than 200 miles an hour.

Of all the analogies used in God’s Word to describe the church, the one that is most vivid and inspiring is the symbol of the human body. In the New Testament, the church is repeatedly described as the body of Christ. “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” 1 Corinthians 12:27. Perhaps this is because it is made up of so many diverse parts that work together in harmony as one unit. Or perhaps it is because the same God who created our physical bodies also designed the church.

For many years it was a common practice for doctors to yank the tonsils out of anyone who repeatedly complained of a sore throat. Since then, doctors have realized that the tonsils are not just some evolutionary “vestigial remnant.” They serve a distinct purpose in helping to protect the pharynx from invasion by disease-producing bacteria. You might feel like you’re just a tonsil or an appendix—a member that doesn’t seem to accomplish anything other than to get in the way or cause problems. But that is never true! God designed that every Christian becomes an active, thriving member of Jesus’ body and He most certainly has a purpose for you.

Paul writes: “Much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.” 1 Corinthians 12:22-24.

Do you see the Day of the Lord approaching? The closer that Day gets, the more committed we need to be to the church—the body of Christ!