I have encountered so many people who will not listen to reason that I have almost completely given up speaking directly to anyone. Instead I write and write and write, hoping that anyone who is willing to listen will see and either be blessed and encouraged because I said something they already knew, or someone will learn something new.
Then there are those times when others write things and I am blessed, because they said something I already knew or they said something I had not heard before, but shed new light on an old principle from God's Word.
Goodness.......this sounds like a family... could it be, that families can interact in love, sharing what they know and being willing to admit when they needed to learn something they didn't know?
The family of God is unified, not because they compromise truth to be friendly, but because they are all seeking truth. Each one is at a different level, a different ministry, personality and bent, but all completely unified by Christ. We call this "Kindred Spirits", Family.
Each one in the family of God bears burdens and encounters varying degrees of spiritual growth. Each believer is unique with an individual task they have been given for a collective purpose......to spread the good news of the gospel and to Glorify God.
1 Peter 4:7-11
"7 The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.
8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
9 Be hospitable to one another without complaint.
10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."
Each one of us has a job to do, no one else can do our job for us and no one can judge us for the job God has given us. If anyone suggests we do something God has not told us to do, then we simply reply in love, "God never told me to do that, He told me to do this."
EVERY believers has a job.......EVERY BELIEVER!
1 Corinthians 12:14-26
"14 For the body is not one member, but many.
15 If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
19 If they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now there are many members, but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;
23 and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable,
24 whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,
25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it"
Do not think that God has not given you something to do, no matter how small you think it might be, He has a purpose and we never know where HE will take our work. It is not up to us to count numbers or evaluate technique, we are simply to ask Him what we are to do and then obey when He presents us with our assignment.
Let no one discourage you, do not look for praise and honor from men, but embrace Christ, to be pleasing to Him. No one is above another one, everyone is equal in God's eyes.....sinners saved by Grace only useful because they are in Christ.
