ISAIAH 55:12 - "Corporate Joy"

"For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ." (Romans 14:7-10) Yes, there is a difference in walking individually, and in walking as One. Why? Because when we walk as an individual Believer, we have a tendency to be judgemental of others; to be always judging other Believers; Why is that? I think it is mostly because we are so focused on ourselves, that we begin to start looking upon the outward appearance, of not only ourselves, but of others too. Then we are living the life of a judge, and being judgemental of everyone and everything. Sometimes we will even express that judgement outwardly; but usually only with those that we find within the Body that are also expressing an outward judgement; this is commonly referred to as sowing discord; which means: causing division within the church. But here is the funny, but not so funny thing about what I just described: You can not be judging others and not feel judged yourself; and your judgement of yourself is 10 times more; Why is that? Okay, look at your circle of friends; and then figure that there are at least 10 friends that you have that you will confine in and share openly with. These are the ones that are judging you! The fingers pointing back at you; who actually may not even actually be pointing back at you, in reality, but because you are living this life of judging others, you believe in your heart that they are. It is really a mess, when you stop and think about it. This is the reason Jesus said what He did in Matthew 7:1 & 2, "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you again." The life of living a judge will only lead to isolation and individualism; which is not what brings glory to the Lord. There is a Joy and a Peace that is greater than we can know as individuals, and it comes from the church moving together as One. What must happen in our churches to create a change in this? This I believe is quite simple. Remember, with God, everything He requires of us is simple; in other words, it is really not complicated, (even someone living in Shasta Lake can do it). We must focus on Jesus! Really, that is all that there is to it. You see, He is the Head of the Church; which means that He is the One that we must all answer to; and as such, we are all members of His Body. Which can really be easy to understand, if you think about your own body, and how you treat yourself. If your arm is hurting, do you cut it off and discard it, or do you pamper it, and treat it with kindness? You can see that what you do is care for it, and protect it from any further harm; Right? Yet, in so many of our churches today, we will not treat each other with this type of respect and consideration. Instead, we do the opposite and cut it off, as if it is not really that important to us as individuals; but it is!!! Because what you do to your arm will affect you; it will cause harm to yourself, whether you know it or not, it does. We can not discard one of our members, without feeling the effects of it being discarded; we can not put down a brother or sister, without feeling put down ourselves. You may not realize that this is happening to you right away; in fact, you may actually feel as though you are lifting yourself up in the process; but in reality, you are weakening not only yourself, but you are weakening the Body of Christ; and when you do that, you are in essence taking away from the power of unity that comes from being a Body of One. We must be focused on Jesus, and on the fact that we are the Body of Christ. He is the Head, and we are the Body; it is really that simple..."Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people". (Isaiah 55:4)