"Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel." (Phil. 1:27)
There's a story of a lifeguard on a beach who heard a woman cry for help. He swam out to the frantic woman and grabbed her by the hair. He then swam back to shore only to discover that he had a wig in his hand. He swam back to the woman and grabbed her arm and upon reaching the shore saw he had brought back an artificial arm. He swam back out again and grabbed a leg. You guessed it--it was an artificial leg. He swam back out to the screaming woman and said, "Woman, if you want to be saved from drowning, you had better begin to cooperate with me!"
Friends, we get nowhere fast when we detach ourselves from the people in our groups and fail to unite our hearts and hands in cooperation. As Reuben Welch is found of saying, "We really do need each other." We can do so much more together than we can do individually.In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey introduced a new word to our vocabularies and conversations: "synergy." The basic idea being communicated by it is that the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. Synergy takes place when two or more people together produce more than the sum of what they could have produced spearately.
As Christians we're not called to be lone rangers. We need to seek out other Christians in the Body and become involved in the ministry of their lives. We also need to allow others to become involved in our lives as well. In Phil. 1:27 the apostle Paul encourages us to stand together in one spirit. We're to live with a spirit of cooperation. We're to stand side-by-side as soldiers. We're to stand united as gladiators striving against a common enemy for a common cause. We're to join together heart-to-heart and hand-in-hand for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as we work together, God works in powerful ways.
(This devotion adapted from Devotions for Sunday School Teachers 2 by Stan Toler, John C. Baldwin and David Graves)
http://www.onesolitarylifemovie.com/
There's a story of a lifeguard on a beach who heard a woman cry for help. He swam out to the frantic woman and grabbed her by the hair. He then swam back to shore only to discover that he had a wig in his hand. He swam back to the woman and grabbed her arm and upon reaching the shore saw he had brought back an artificial arm. He swam back out again and grabbed a leg. You guessed it--it was an artificial leg. He swam back out to the screaming woman and said, "Woman, if you want to be saved from drowning, you had better begin to cooperate with me!"
Friends, we get nowhere fast when we detach ourselves from the people in our groups and fail to unite our hearts and hands in cooperation. As Reuben Welch is found of saying, "We really do need each other." We can do so much more together than we can do individually.In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey introduced a new word to our vocabularies and conversations: "synergy." The basic idea being communicated by it is that the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. Synergy takes place when two or more people together produce more than the sum of what they could have produced spearately.
As Christians we're not called to be lone rangers. We need to seek out other Christians in the Body and become involved in the ministry of their lives. We also need to allow others to become involved in our lives as well. In Phil. 1:27 the apostle Paul encourages us to stand together in one spirit. We're to live with a spirit of cooperation. We're to stand side-by-side as soldiers. We're to stand united as gladiators striving against a common enemy for a common cause. We're to join together heart-to-heart and hand-in-hand for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as we work together, God works in powerful ways.
(This devotion adapted from Devotions for Sunday School Teachers 2 by Stan Toler, John C. Baldwin and David Graves)
http://www.onesolitarylifemovie.com/
