My blogging routine kind of took a hit last week with all the activity in my life. It was one of those great weeks of travel and significance. Being with our son and daughter-in-law to help with the twins while their new baby sister was born was an awesome privilege. I did some travel back and forth and really only ended up taking 2 days of vacation while Ella stayed a few extra days. Yesterday ( Sunday ) is kind of a blur as so many great things got packed into one day. Church was exciting as I was pumped about preaching a message on sacrifice and what it must have been like for Abraham to obey God, without questioning, when he was told to sacrifice Isaac on the altar. That picture of obedience blessed me as I put it together with the sacrifice that God made with His own son, even to the death on the cross. It makes me want to be ready to pass any test God throws at me. He will provide. I can only imagine the emotions of Abraham since the Bible doesn’t share them. It was faith all the way that God knew what He was doing, and that God keeps His promises, no matter what.
Directly after church I headed south, stopping to do the opening prayer at one of our churches that was voting in a new pastor. It was a defining moment for that church and a privilege for me to be with my pastor, the District Superintendent at that meeting. God has great things in store for that church under the leadership of their new pastor whom I have known for many years.
From there, I headed to Missouri for the 4th birthday party of our twin Granddaughters. I made it in time for some of the presents and cupcakes. Part of the blessing of the day was to hold 4 day old Abby and 4 year old Maggie and Emily. I love it that Maggie and Emily did not want us to leave and wanted a firm date as to when we would be back.
Arrived home about 11 pm feeling that we are indeed blessed.
God is Great!!!!!!
Showing posts with label Gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gifts. Show all posts
Monday, February 9, 2009
Monday, May 19, 2008
Appreciate the gift
Some notes from yesterday's sermon:
1 Corinthians 12:7-11
7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. 12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.
God’s order
Once we are filled with the Holy Spirit and are operating in His gifts, the streams of living water flow naturally.
We’ve got diversity of Gifts here
High-visibility gifts and low visibility gifts
The high visibility gifts are not more important than the low visibility gifts
These are simply different manifestations of the character of Christ and the church needs them all, functioning in harmony, humming along like a well tuned race engine.
When Jesus was with us He served, He helped, He comforted, He encouraged, He gave of himself. We need those qualities of the Lord among us.
Through the gifts of the Spirit, God comes along side of us to do in His power, what you and I could never do on our own.
Gifts were never given for you to enjoy some privileged relationship with God.
They do not lift you to some higher spiritual plateau.
When we try to use spiritual gifts for that reason, we are on the wrong path. Because that is not the reason they were given.
We need to appreciate our gifts.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11
7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. 12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.
God’s order
Once we are filled with the Holy Spirit and are operating in His gifts, the streams of living water flow naturally.
We’ve got diversity of Gifts here
High-visibility gifts and low visibility gifts
The high visibility gifts are not more important than the low visibility gifts
These are simply different manifestations of the character of Christ and the church needs them all, functioning in harmony, humming along like a well tuned race engine.
When Jesus was with us He served, He helped, He comforted, He encouraged, He gave of himself. We need those qualities of the Lord among us.
Through the gifts of the Spirit, God comes along side of us to do in His power, what you and I could never do on our own.
Gifts were never given for you to enjoy some privileged relationship with God.
They do not lift you to some higher spiritual plateau.
When we try to use spiritual gifts for that reason, we are on the wrong path. Because that is not the reason they were given.
We need to appreciate our gifts.
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