Spiritual Gifts of a Different Sort

So what is your spiritual gift? Encouragement? Teaching? Giving? Craftsmanship? Prophecy?

Wait, did you just say “craftsmanship”?

I am fully convinced we church people make two significant mistakes when we think about our roles in the church body. First, we look to the lists of spiritual gifts in the New Testament and think they are exhaustive. The second is the divorce we make between what we like to consider “spiritual” and “natural.”

There are at least two lists in Paul’s writings on spiritual gifts. These lists are not identical and I believe that is intentional. First, as always, Paul is writing to a specific audience with particular concerns in mind. In neither instance is he intending to be exhaustive on the issue of spiritual gifts. If he were, then why are some included in one list and not the other or vice versa? The answer is simple, though we often overlook it. Paul is not being exhaustive, but illustrative. But if this is the case, then how can we create a complete and exhaustive list of the gifts. We need to know if we are to help people take spiritual gift inventory questionnaires and help them find there calling in the church. This sounds like a significant conundrum.

Well, our answer is found in our second problem. We tend to divorce the spiritual and the “secular” into categories not conducive to biblical thought. In the Bible those lines are blurred, and what we would consider “natural” or “secular” may have very spiritual implications or opportunities. Consider Bezalel and Olihab. They appear first in Exodus 31 and again in chapter 35. These are two men singled out by God with this statement; “ the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship…” God would call out these men, and gift them in a particular way which is not included in our spiritual gift inventories.

A friend of mine once struggled with our lists, noting he never felt gifted in any of the areas we regularly included. Then he read about Bezalel. The light came on. God had gifted him in ways that he could help the Church, ways that while not included in our New Testament lists, are still gifts just the same. He is able to serve the church by the work of his hands. Not just through building maintenance, but also by helping other church members with projects in their homes. He found he could greatly bless others by the work of his hands, and thus minister to them.

He understood it. The purpose of “spiritual gifts” is what helps us to see if something is a spiritual gift. We must ask ourselves the question, “is there something I can do that can minister to the needs of others?” When we are able to answer yes, then do it. That is how God has equipped us. He has readied every person in the body to minister to every other person. And there is no limit to what that might look like. May we become creative in seeing how each of us might work toward reaching our brother or sister in the pew next to us.

The Greatest Valentine

With the approach of Valentines Day, Facebook is running amuck with posts by singles and married people alike about their plan to stay away from Facebook on that day. Their wish is to avoid reading posts related to the holiday. They desire to avoid reading from all the singles who will post complaints about loneliness or even disgust with the holiday. I, as a single person, recognize and also deal with the loneliness associated with Valentines Day. For years I jokingly referred to it as “Singles Awareness Day” or “SAD”. But this year I have something far better to focus on. No, this is not an announcement that I have a “significant other” to celebrate with. It is not the hyper-commercialism of the holiday, not the pagan historical connections of the holiday, but something much deeper. And better.

This renewed focus will not be easy, but necessary just the same. The fact is I am already engaged to someone. I have a marriage supper to look forward to. This may sound odd coming from a male, but I am a bride anxiously awaiting my groom. And my groom loves me in a way no other person could ever love me. This groom knows my inner-most being; all the dark, dirty, shame-filled secrets of my life. But still he loves me perfectly, completely.

This is truly good news. Hard to fathom for certain. But Gospel just the same.

So for all of us who are a part of the Church, married or single, we have a love to celebrate which far exceeds any marital love experienced in this life. We have the love of Christ, our groom. Let us all take time to celebrate his love for us on this Valentines Day. Let us pray that our Groom would come quickly for us, his bride. Let us long for the day when we will sit at the table and enjoy the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Extravagant Love

Ever drive through a wealthy neighborhood looking at all the mansions? Maybe you watched the old TV show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and was fascinated by the posh lifestyle. Some of you may have taken it a step farther and was able to take advantage of an open house and toured one of these homes, or maybe visited a mansion that has now become a museum. It seems one word comes to mind most when looking at these homes and the lifestyles of those who live in them.

Extravagant.

The word brings out negative emotions for many. The definition caters to that negativity as well. Webster’s second definition for it is “exceeding the limits of reason or necessity” and continues with “lacking in moderation, balance, and restraint.” One that applies well to wealthy neighborhoods would be “Extremely or excessively elaborate.”

But extravagance does not automatically necessitate a negative connotation. God’s love for his people could easily be called extravagant. He loves to lavish gifts on people, gifts that are far more than any of us could ever earn or deserve. Scripture is full of examples, but one that comes to mind personally is God’s continued grace in using a sinful and obstinate people as described throughout the Old Testament.

The K-Love Christian radio network once asked listeners to call in describing how God has shown them his extravagant love. Some answers were typical. Others, well, convicting is a good word:

• God providing finances for a brother and sister to go through college.
• A wife commenting on God’s gift of her husband.
• A young man praying through the night to be released from a drug addiction, only to find himself free of it in the morning.
• One young girl mentioned God’s extravagant love in giving her a disability.

Makes us think. How has God shown his extravagant love towards you?

Not of My Own Intelligence

For anyone who thinks they are pretty special for having a strong understanding and knowledge of the Bible, below can be a very humbling passage:

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Matthew 13:16-17

The very fact that we have the ability to read Scripture and come to a proper understanding of it and thus a saving faith in the God who inspired it, based on this passage (and even the preceding verses), have no claim to their own ability to understand. It is indeed a gift given by God.

So whether you’re John Piper, D.A. Carson, Pastor Bob, or John Doe; whatever ability we have to understand Scripture, to come to saving faith in Christ, to mature through reading and study and prayer, to offer biblical counsel to others, all of it is ascribed to the good pleasure of God. He chose us, he opens our eyes and ears and hearts.

To God alone be the Glory, Honor, and Praise.

The Long Awaited Messiah Has Come

Simeon is quite possibly my favorite part of the story surrounding the first Christmas. Here is a man who desperately yearned to see the long awaited Messiah, and God was gracious to promise he would not die before the Christ came. He understood this was to be a deliverer who would pierce the hearts of many. I wonder if he had Isaiah 25:6-9 in mind as he spoke.

6  On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.
9  It will be said on that day, "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation."

What a beautiful reminder, the long expected Messiah came for one sole purpose, to save his people, to “swallow up death” through his own death. To remove the veil that has blinded us all from experiencing his glory.

Living Single in a Married Church World

The question that plagues so many, how is a single adult to survive in a church world that tends to relegate singles as second class and unusable in the Kingdom of God? A special thanks to a friend of mine, Gabe, for pointing out to me a recent blog by Steve DeWitt on the issue of living single and how we may use this time to grow in our faith. However, as I pointed out to my friend and received his agreement, it seems DeWitt is overemphasizing some things and missing out on others. This is not to say his insights are not helpful or even wrong, for I would argue that he is right, but incomplete. Here is my response to his post on the purpose for feelings of loneliness.

First, it seems DeWitt makes a too solid distinction between "loneliness" and "aloneness". He equates loneliness with solely being an emotion experienced to remind us of our singular need for God only. I would disagree. We can have full fellowship with God and still feel lonely. That was the point of God parading the animals before Adam in Genesis 2. Adam was able to see all the pairs and it left him feeling that something was missing for him - a sense of loneliness (2:20). Yet this occurred before the Fall when Adam would have had complete fellowship with God and thus total satisfaction in Him. So how could Adam experience this sense of something missing if all was to be found in God alone? This is the point. Man was created to experience fullness in relationship, and particularly in a triune sort of relationship I would argue. That triune relationship is God-man-woman.

Now does this excuse our lonely feelings. Yes and no. Those feelings for a single person are natural and healthy because we have not fully filled the role as we were created. However, we enter into a sinful position when those feelings become chief in our lives, when filling that void becomes our primary pursuit and thus an idol of sorts. This is an opportunity for us to learn to die to self. Thanks to the Fall our needs and desires have become out of whack, and over-blown in our minds. The true goal is to make all our desires and passions balanced, priorities aligned so that pursuit of God is first, others come second. Note they are second, not made so that they are not a priority at all, but put into their proper place.

We do need to follow in DeWitt’s steps, using these feelings of loneliness to drive us toward finding our rest in God. Spousal relationships will not fulfill that lonely feeling, but nor will having only a good relationship with God. Only when we are filling our role as we were created to be in its fullness will those feelings be resolved. Even here though we encounter a problem. Married people with strong relationships with God still can feel lonely, and that serves as an indication that the Fall still causes those good relationships to be less than what they should be. And when the final redemption comes, they will be totally restored and oh how we all long for that day. Married or single.

Spurgeon On Open Air Preaching

"A great deal of sermonizing may be defined as saying nothing at extreme length; but out of doors verbosity is not admired. You must say something and have done with it and go on to say something more."`

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

from Charles Spurgeon, “Lectures to My Students: Second Series” Baker: 1978. 89.