From the beginning, God has desired to communicate with humanity, to manifest His truth and love. His crowning act of communication was sending Jesus Christ into the world. After His death and resurrection, Christ ascended into heaven and is no longer visible on earth. But God, through Christ, sent the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself in another Body - the Body of Christ, the church. When Christ's physical body was here, He manifested love, holiness, wisdom, power, and all the authority of God. Followers of Christ, as members of the Body of Christ, are to reflect these attributes to the world.

God wants to reach the whole world with His truth. Therefore, the Holy Spirit has specifically empowered and enabled members of the Body to carry out some very important functions. In the Old Testament, Israel was God's vehicle to reach the world. In the New Testament era, Jesus and His disciples were God's vehicles. Today, God uses the church to communicate to the world His nature, His truth and His love.

God has placed this family here in this community to be His witness. Their witness is not only verbal - merely a communication of the Gospel in specifics - but it is also the witness of love and unity. It takes sincere commitment on our part as well to pray for them, support them. Commitment involves a personal vow by us (CBC) to exercise the priorities God has mandated for building Christ's body. We must realize that we are a strategic part of a great masterpiece that God is building to glorify Him.

There is a famous story from the days when Sir Christopher Wren was building St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Wren was taking a tour one day and asked one of the building workers, "What are you doing?" The workman replied, "I am cutting this stone to the right size."

He asked a second man working elsewhere, "What are you doing?" "I am earning money," he retorted.

When Wren asked a third man, the man paused from his work and excitedly replied, "I am helping Sir Christopher Wren to build St. Paul's Cathedral!"

As believers, we must remember our lofty position in the Body -- we are here, in the Spirit's energy, working to help the Lord Jesus Christ to build his church.

Living to Expand God’s Kingdom,

CBC's Servant Leadership Team