Differences

"The body is not one member, but many" (I. Corinthians xii. 14).

[A devotional by A. B. Simpson}

I like the point that A. B. Simpson was making in this devotional both religious and also secular. As for the religious aspect to fully understand we must read these other verses along with verse 14.

1Corinthians 12:15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? 1Corinthians 12:16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? 1Corinthians 12:17 If all the body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If all hearing, where would be the smelling? 1Corinthians 12:18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body as it has pleased Him.

Ah, there lies the answer, "as it has pleased Him." I believe that is why we were put here, not one is any more important than the other. Once He becomes, because we let Him, part of our lives, we all please Him! Now read as A. B. Simpson in this devotional explains about the "phonograph". Keep in mind this was written, "a long time ago". I had to do research to understand what he was talking about. Yea, right! Forgive me lord for that fib.

[We have a friend who has a phonograph for his correspondence. It consists of two parts. One is a simple and wonderful apparatus, whose sensitive cylinders receive the tones and then give them out again, word for word, through the hearing tube. The other part is a common little box that stands under the table, and does nothing but supply the power through connecting wires.

Now, the little box might insist upon being the phonograph, and doing the talking; but if it should, it would not only waste its own life but destroy the life of its partner.

Its sole business is to supply power to the phonograph, while the latter is to do the talking. So some of us are called to be voices to speak for God to our fellow-men, others are forces to sustain them, by our holy sympathy and silent prayer. (Some of us are little dynamos under the table, while others are phonographs that speak aloud the messages of heaven.)

Let each of us be true to our God-given ministry, and when the day comes our work will be weighed and the rewards distributed.]

Amen, to that comment about being true to our God-given ministry. Please be what God created you to be.

Now about the secular aspect I found in this devotional. Man and woman. Let me explain. For Christmas I got a new Bible as a Christmas present called the Adrian Rogers Legacy Bible. As I was starting my daily reading plan, beginning in Genesis, I read one of his many articles pertaining to a bible verse or verses. In chapter two of Genesis Mr. Rogers speaks about "Celebrate the Difference". Just as A. B. Simpson was discussing each body part being better or more important that the other, Adrian Rogers asked, "who is better man or woman?" He made me chuckle when he said the answer is "yes!" He wrote that God made us different that He might make us one. Interesting.

Mr. Rogers wrote that the difference between male and female is the difference between the beauty and the beast. Another difference is what Adrain Rogers wrote as the tortoise and the hare. Guys we are the hares. We may have a lot more energy but the women have durability. Therefore the women are going to outlast us. A third difference is what Adrian Rogers called the romantic and the mechanic. He wrote man has a job to keep the garden. Remember now he is referring to Genesis and the Garden of Eden. So man needed a hard outer shell. The woman was the homemaker, she is to love, nurture, and raise the kids. I loved reading as Adrian wrote, "a smart man will learn to be romantic, a smart woman learns to keep herself as physically attractive as possible." Which is better, neither, God made us different.

OK, two differences left. The radar and the computer. The man takes in and analyzes information logically, like a computer. A woman takes in the same data but also sweeps a scene like radar, noticing and feeling what a man might miss. As I think about myself, "might miss?". Now get this part about the brains hemisphere's. Adrian Rogers writes the man uses the left hemisphere while woman uses both sides of their brains. That is why science is showing "men only have half a brain!" Guys, Adrian Rogers wrote it, I just rewrote it.

Now the last difference is the lover and the achiever. The man wants to fix, looking for admiration for his achievements whereas the woman wants to be loved. She wants to be understood and cherished. That is why God's Word tells husbands to love their wives, and He tells women to reverence or respect their husbands (Ephesians 5:33 So each husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself, and each wife should respect her husband. ). Why? So that we can meet each other's deepest need.

God made us different that He might make us one!

OH, sure now I get it!

My thanks to my daughter for a wonderful Christmas gift. Your mother was right all those times she said, "your father has only half a brain!" I love you.

From God's heart, to mine, to yours,
Ed Shagott