…Our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked.
1 Corinthians 12:24
The word blended also means “adjusted,” “harmonized,” “tempered,” and “mingled.” I was so enlightened that in the Body, we are many members. And since we are many, we are blended by God to become His unique, organic Body. This includes being adjusted and tempered. Just like the one bread in 1 Corinthians 10:17, we are also being made into “one bread.” In baking, the baker doesn’t just mix the ingredients. The baker needs to sift them, to blend them until the distinctions disappear and you will just see the one dough. In the Body, it is the same. Since we are many, we also have a lot of differences, distinctions and peculiarities. And most of the time, we love ourselves too much and we like being unique. We love being different from others. This is why when the Lord tries to build us up into the Body, we feel hurt and sometimes, we try to escape. This is because we have not seen the vision of Body much and we still love ourselves too much. We feel violated and offended. Then we dwell on our feelings. Then we would feel bad about the saints, about the church. Thus, we miss the building. We miss the Body. But in 1 Corinthians 12:24, it is not us who blend the Body. It is not the brothers and sisters. It is God who blends us together. He is the Baker. He is the One crushing us to pieces so that we could be blended perfectly into one.
In a communal living with the saints, the Lord really makes the building and the Body-life so practical to us. I believe God is sovereign in putting us together here in the meeting hall to live together at least for this entire term. He is the Baker, right? As the Baker, He didn’t just put the ingredients together and let them blend themselves. After putting us together here, I believe He started blending us already. For this entire term, we experience a lot of crashing, misunderstandings, clashing of attitudes and characters. Within a month, we are quite exposed to each other already. We saw what each one is like in a normal setting. We get to see who we really are outside the meetings. There are disagreements concerning some arrangements. Even in simple things. But praise the Lord! Crushing is necessary for the building. Truly the Body-life is not just full on enjoyment. There is cutting so that we could be buildable to one another. We are limited by one another and restricted by one another. We clash, we even fight, because God is blending us together. Once we saw this light, everything became clear to us. I personally began to have this prayer, “Lord, I don’t want to miss Your building this term. You out me here so that I could be built into Your Body. Lord, I don’t want to escape Your building.” Through much prayer, light and fellowship with the saints, thank the Lord, I’m still here in the training. Even up to the last month of this term, the Lord is still bringing me to the experience and reality of the building of His Body.
In His Perfecting Hands 