T.T. 54 - Playing for God's team.
New Zealand recently hosted the Rugby world cup when the twenty best teams in the world came to compete for the Webb Ellis trophy.
Rugby is, of course, a team game. And the object of team games is that all the individual members work together for the benefit of the team. This is because people working together can achieve much more than a group of individuals. If each team member plays their part, the team usually does well. If, however, one player doesn't play the part he was chosen for, or is missing (perhaps having been sent off for foul play), or simply plays badly, then the whole team will suffer.
The idea of teams comes from God. Actually, God Himself is a team. There is one God, comprising three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And, of course, all Three are essential.
Without the Father, there would be nothing. He is the Designer and Creator, so without Him, none of us would exist.
Without the Son (Jesus), we would all still be God's enemies, awaiting His righteous judgement for the sins we have committed. However, the good news is that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins on the cross. So now we can be forgiven, receive God's gift of eternal life, and spend eternity in heaven.
Without the Holy Spirit, nobody would have believed that Jesus is the Son of God, The Holy Spirit, although He is a real Person, is also the power of God. God does whatever He wants to do through the power of the Holy Spirit. Without this, Jesus couldn't have healed the sick, raised the dead, or performed any miracles. Jesus could still have died for us but, without the Holy Spirit, He would never have been raised back to life again.
When Jesus came to earth, He didn't try and do all that He had come to do by Himself. No, He chose a team to help him. Firstly, He chose twelve men (Disciples) whom He trained up on how to share God's love with this world. And then He sent them out to do it. Later, Jesus trained up seventy more disciples, before sending them out. In turn these disciples trained more people to share God's love, and so on and so on. This "training and sending out" still continues about 2000 years later. The members of "Team Jesus" now number in the billions and are found throughout the earth. They are usually simply called "The Church".
A good example of "Team Jesus" in action is in the "Feeding of the 5,000". A young boy gave up his lunch of two fish and fives loaves of bread, Jesus multiplied it, and the Disciples distributed it to the crowd. Without the boy, there would have been no food to multiply. Without Jesus, it would have remained just two fish and five loaves. Without the Disciples, it would have been impossible to distribute the food to all those thousands of people.
With every team, sporting or otherwise, you will notice that all the members have different jobs, skills and abilities. Rugby is an excellent example. If you have seen a Rugby team lining up before a game, you will note that the players are all different. Some are tall, some are short, some are muscular, and some are slim - and yet all still members of the same team! This is because they have different tasks to perform within the team. Some players (the locks) need to be able to jump high to catch the ball, some (e.g. the hooker) need to be able to get down low to scrummage for the ball, some (wingers) need to be able to run fast, some (the props) need to be very strong, some (half backs) need to be able to catch and handle the ball well.
It is, of course, important that each player plays in the right position. Imagine a team where the short half backs played as locks, the big burly props played on the wings and a tall lock played as hooker. Such a team would easily be beaten.
Conclusion.
As with Rugby teams, it is exactly the same with God's team, the Church. God has given us all different gifts and abilities. Some may find they are good at teaching, some at giving, some at helping those in need, some at comforting those who are sad, some at making friends, some at leading groups in singing, some at praying, etc, etc. So it is important to find out what you are good at, and then concentrate on doing that for the benefit and the building up of the Church as a whole.
posted by Maurice Sweetsur @ 12:21 AM
