Our Body

     Have you ever thrown a rock into a still lake?  When it hits the water it makes waves that ripple across a large area.  I've noticed that same effect happening in my body and even in the church.
     I've had bad headaches since in was in the 6th grade.  But in my thirties my headaches became unbearable.  My sister Carmen, worked in a pain center and suggested that I come in.  The first thing that the doctor tried was cortisone shots once a week, in my neck and back.  Next, I started attending a pain management group.  And the last thing that I did was to visit Fay, who taught biofeedback. 
     I had a terrible headache, one visit to Fay.  She hooked me up to the biofeeback machine.  The machine showed me that my stress level was very high.  Fay told me that the pain that I was feeling in my head was the shadow of the real injury.  Next, she massaged small areas of my back and neck.  The pain started to melt away.  She told me that the areas that she was massaging were shadow areas.
     During that time at the pain center, the doctor found that I had a fused vertabra and that was what was causing my headaches.  The pain in my neck back face and arms were all coming from my neck.  That injury in my neckrippled to other parts of my body.
     The Bible talks about the Church as being one body.  1 Corinthiams 12: 12 says, "The body is a unit through it is made up of many parts and though all its parts are many, they form one body."  Just as all of the parts on our body form one body, all of the different parts of the church form one body.  And as in the human body, there can be shadow pain rippling through the Church body. 
     The next time you are depressed and you can't figure out why, pray for someone else.  The next time you are tired or angry, or maybe have a loss of faith, without any real reason, pray for those closest to you.  Pray for your Church body.  Romans 8: 26- 27 says, "In the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."  You might never know what difficulty in some other person, you might have helped by using your own shadow pain as a place to start a healing prayer in your body and in the Church body.  And just as a rock can cause a ripple in a calm lake, our intercessory prayer can cause a ripple of faith, happiness and health through out our Church.
     1 corinthians 12: 27, "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it."  1 Corinthians 12: 26, "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."