The Lord's Ministry

I had a great experience yesterday (22/8/2020) while having reflexology done on my feet. Reflexology is a type of massage involving the application of pressure to the feet, hands and ear. Reflexology theory is generally based on the fact that the toes are connected to various part of the body (Cirino, 2018). There are various theories on the benefit of reflexology, I will focus this writing on the Zone theory.

According to the zone theory, the body is divided into ten vertical zones. Each zone is connected to a different part of the body and associates each part to specific fingers and toes. It is believed that it is possible to access body parts by touching the fingers and the toes. There are well-established health benefits such as stress relief.

The practitioner prepared my feet with a warm gentle massage and left it for a few minutes before beginning an intense massage of my feet and each of my toes. As she started the full massage my mind went to the part of the bible in John 13: 1-5, where Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. We have always associated this humble act of Jesus to servant leadership style, but at that moment I felt that there was more to that act. The disciples were probably stressed with the knowledge of Christ’s impending death, and Christ was doing everything possible to calm them down. He guided himself, got a bowl of water and washed the disciple’s feet. This was to assure them of His relationship with them and His continuous support at that crucial moment. Peter resisted the washing of his feet until Jesus told him the implication of his action before he could surrender his feet to be washed.

Likewise the majority of us today, we struggle to surrender our problem and situations to Jesus Christ our saviour because we feel wise in our own eyes. Let us allow Jesus to relief our stress, let Him carry your burden for you, accept His offer of rest to you. If you can surrender your life to Jesus He will take care of you, keep you secure and grant you peace on every side.

Unity is a very important quality necessary for harmony in the home, community and Church. Even though we might be many we can all work together as one, and our ability to work together will produce quality result; the Bible says  “one will chase a thousand while two will chase ten thousand”. Currently, all over the world we are trusting God for revival and transformations in homes, community,  Churches, and  return of God’s glory to His Church. To achieve all this we need to work together as one and seek God’s face in prayer together, Share the truth of God’s word together and work in the vine yard together as one. Unity is a long term struggle and we need to begin to work on each other to overcome it. If we can work and fight together as one the Lord will fight for us and grant us victory at home, in our community and Church.

Looking at the word of Jesus in John 17:20-23 , it occurred to me that Jesus is encouraging us to take on the quality that has helped Him to succeed in His mission. He abode in the father and the father was in Him and both of them worked together as one. Jesus released His glory to us for the purpose of unity, so that He can dwell in us while the father dwells in Him, so that we can be one with them as a body of Christ. He asked that we all be made complete so that the world may know that God ( the father) sent Him ( Jesus) and that God loved us as He( Jesus) has been loved. In my humble opinion, the implication of Christians not working together as individuals or as a Church is that we are telling the world that Jesus has not come from the father, and that we are not true followers of Jesus and  that the glory of Jesus is only given to His disciples. What then can we do to overcome the disunity in homes and Churches?

The first area of focus is love; to work together  and live in unity we need to love each other  unconditionally. Think about each other in the mind of God and see individuals with God’s eyes.  Henry Nouwen wrote,” Love unites all, whether created or uncreated. The heart of God, the heart of all creation, and our hearts become one in love. This is what all the great mystic have been trying to tell us through the ages; Benedict, Frances, Hildegard of Bingen, Hadewijich of Brabant, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, John of the cross, Dag Hammarskjold, Thomas Merton and many others, all  in their ways and  own languages, have witnessed the  unifying power of the divine love. All of them , however, spoke with a knowledge that came to them not through intellectual arguments but through contemplative prayer. The Spirit of Jesus allowed them to see the heart of God, the heart of Universe, and their own heart as one. It is in the heart of God that we can come to the full realisation of the unity of all that is  created and uncreated”.

Prayer points:

1. Lord Jesus, fill our hearts with your love and the love of the Father, so that our hearts may think and act in the love of the Father even through our strengths and weaknesses.

2. Lord Jesus, let your love unite husbands with their wives and parents with their children.

3. Lord Jesus, release to your Church the wisdom to work together as one body.

Blessings always,

Rev. Mrs. Ayoka Olabisi