Tag: glory

Gifts > Talents

Posted on by Dorci

“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.” Romans 12:4-8

If you knew me very well you might think it funny that I have a strong desire to encourage people.  I don’t feel encouraged a lot of the time.  I feel a lot of other things like exhausted, frustrated, distressed and sometimes depressed.

But through all that haze of human struggle God has given me a gift of encouragement. That, to me, is amazing.

God delights to show Himself strong where we are weak.

And because it’s very obviously not my nature, but God’s, He gets all the glory.

Once the Holy Spirit placed that gift in my heart, it was up to me to yield myself to Him and allow Him to shine that light of encouragement through me.  And yet sometimes all I have to do is walk through a check-out line.

I was doing just that once years ago when I was a fairly new believer.  The store was crazy busy, all the lines were long, and I stood in one of them holding my new pair of shoes.

I finally…finally…finally reached the front of the line, and the poor cashier looked frazzled.  Her head was down, finishing up from the last customer. As she looked up and into my eyes, she stopped, smiled, chuckled a bit and said, “I felt better when I saw your face.”

Now, it was not me and it certainly was not my face, per se.  There were plenty of other perfectly nice faces that had gone through that line, and there was nothing about mine in particular that would comfort this overworked girl, except that it was the face of someone who was in love with Jesus and had been given the gift of encouragement.

It was the Holy Spirit, graciously and mercifully using that gift to shine His light of comfort from one of His children to, quite possibly, another.

That’s what spiritual gifts are for: the building up of the Body.

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He distributes them to each one, just as He determines.” 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

So, lest any of us think we have no spiritual gifts, God’s Word tells us that if we are part of the body of Christ – if He is our Lord – then the Spirit has given each of us at least one gift for the benefit of the body. It’s not to keep for ourselves and it’s not to hide, but to share.

The Church is weakened when all its members are not fully using their God-given gifts for the benefit of one another.

 

One issue is that many times talents and gifts are misunderstood, and human talents are being used rather than spiritual gifts. Gifts of the Spirit are being minimized in favor of works of the flesh; pride is trumping humility and submissiveness to the Spirit of God.  And when that happens, the church becomes nothing more than a sing-a-long, but not true praise; nothing more than an inspirational teaching, though not Spirit-inspired; nothing more than a religious duty, but not actual worship. And we all suffer for it.

Human talents rely on our own personal knowledge, practice, understanding, strength and power.

Spiritual gifts are given and used strictly by the power of the Holy Spirit and our yieldedness to Him.  

God can give gifts to complement the talents He’s given us, but His gifts still work solely in the power of the Spirit.  

Gifts are given to us, not because of who we are, but in spite of it.

The Church needs our gifts.  We are each a brick in the Church of God with Christ as its Cornerstone.  Remove just one and though the foundation stands, the building falters.

If you don’t know what your gift or gifts are, I encourage you to pray and ask the Lord to show you. There are some tools that, with prayer, can help you find your spiritual gifts.  This is one: http://www.spiritualgiftstest.com/

And once you find your gift(s), ask the Lord to show you how He would have you use it for the building up of the body.  Beside our personal relationship with Christ, being used by the Lord and fulfilling His plan for us is perhaps the most rewarding blessing on this earth.

And may I add – let’s encourage each other in our gifts and allow ourselves to be built up by one another. We need each other right now, and we need the gifts God’s given to all of us.  There may be darker days coming for believers than we’ve seen in recent headlines and we need every spiritual gift to prepare and empower us and spur us on to victory.

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”  1 Thessalonians 5:11

Grace and Peace,

Holy Garments

Posted on by Dorci

The Lord reigns, He is robed in majesty;
the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength;
indeed, the world is established, firm and secure.
Your throne was established long ago;
you are from all eternity.
The seas have lifted up, Lord,
the seas have lifted up their voice;
the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.
Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea—
the Lord on high is mighty.
Your statutes, Lord, stand firm;
holiness adorns your house
for endless days.  

Psalm 93

Amen and amen! The Lord bless you all this week with His power, His strength and His glory to love Him and do His will.

Grace and Peace,

That’s My King

Posted on by Dorci

“On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of kings and Lord of lords.” Revelation 19:16

May our Lord and King bless you today as you seek Him with your whole heart and as you worship the Mighty One in Spirit and in Truth. If you’ve never heard these Holy Spirit-inspired words from Dr. S.M. Lockridge who was pastor of Calvary Bible Church during the 2nd half of the 20th century, you are in for a treat. He praises the Name of King Jesus like no other. And if you have, well, it just never gets old. I pray it moves your spirit to worship Him afresh.

Less of Me, More of Him

Posted on by Dorci

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” 1 Peter 2:16

Something isn’t a sin just because God says so. It’s a sin because it opposes the very nature and character of God. The more we allow the Spirit of God to live in and through us, the more we will exhibit His nature and give in less to ours.

Stumbling Block

Posted on by Dorci

“‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.” 1 Corinthians 10:23-24

As we grow up in Christ, we learn to put away our so-called rights. We learn that just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. It doesn’t mean it is good for our walk, good for the building up of our brothers and sisters in Christ, good for our witness to the unsaved world, and good for glorifying our Father.

As our love grows, so does our desire to put aside those things that would keep us from shining as brightly as we can in this dark and aging world. More than the “thing”, we desire to magnify the Name of Christ and to be about our Father’s business, not our own.

If you had one week to live, what would you put away for the good of Christ and to make the most of the time you had left for Him? People are dying around us, if not physically, then spiritually. If we have a chance to be Christ for them, so to speak, to be the embodiment of the Spirit, which we certainly are, and to show them there is a different way, a holy way, a godly way, is the “thing” worth it?

People may not say it, but they are looking for something different. Something other than what the world offers, because what it offers is sin and disillusionment and destruction and death. They are looking for a way through, an answer, a peace in the middle of the storm, a purpose.

They don’t know it, but they are looking for Christ. Is the “thing” you would give up a stumbling block, for yourself or for them? Is it worth it? Life is short and we have one purpose: to glorify our Creator. To know Him and make Him known. Is it time to kick the stumbling block out of the way?

In Christ we have the freedom to do, but even greater is the freedom we have to give it up.

In His great grace,

Streams in the Desert – Singing in the Fire

Posted on by Dorci

I wanted to share today’s Streams in the Desert devotion with you. If you aren’t familiar with Streams in the Desert, it is a wonderfully insightful devotional that was put together by Lettie Cowman (L.B. Cowman), wife of Rev. Charles Cowman, an evangelist and missionary, and first published in 1925. The devotions are compilations of various teachings and poetry she read that had inspired her.

The devotional is just what it sounds like: a refreshing encouragement for anyone going through a spiritual desert. It reminds us that our suffering is not in vain. In Christ it has purpose, both for now and for eternity. And it reminds us that we are not alone. We join the millions of followers of Christ (and even Christ Himself) who, over the centuries, have suffered in the process of walking with Jesus. God has used it in my own life many times to help pick me back up and set me on the road again. The devotional is available on Amazon, and you can also read it online, a new one each day, at http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/desert/.
God bless you!
Dorci

They sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: “Great and astounding are your deeds, Lord God, the All-Powerful! Just and true are your ways, King over the nations! (Rev 15:3)

The following incident is related by Mrs. Charles Spurgeon, who was a great sufferer for more than a quarter of a century:

“At the close of a dark and gloomy day, I lay resting on my couch as the deeper night drew on; and though all was bright within my cozy room, some of the external darkness seemed to have entered into my soul and obscured its spiritual vision. Vainly I tried to see the Hand which I knew held mine, and guided my fog-enveloped feet along a steep and slippery path of suffering. In sorrow of heart I asked,

“’Why does my Lord thus deal with His child? Why does He so often send sharp and bitter pain to visit me? Why does He permit lingering weakness to hinder the sweet service I long to render to His poor servants?’

“These fretful questions were quickly answered, and through a strange language; no interpreter was needed save the conscious whisper of my heart.

“For a while silence reigned in the little room, broken only by the crackling of the oak log burning in the fireplace. Suddenly I heard a sweet, soft sound, a little, clear, musical note, like the tender trill of a robin beneath my window.

“’What can it be? surely no bird can be singing out there at this time of the year and night.’

“Again came the faint, plaintive notes, so sweet, so melodious, yet mysterious enough to provoke our wonder. My friend exclaimed,

“’It comes from the log on the fire!’ The fire was letting loose the imprisoned music from the old oak’s inmost heart!

“Perchance he had garnered up this song in the days when all was well with him, when birds twittered merrily on his branches, and the soft sunlight flecked his tender leaves with gold. But he had grown old since then, and hardened; ring after ring of knotty growth had sealed up the long-forgotten melody, until the fierce tongues of the flames came to consume his callousness, and the vehement heart of the fire wrung from him at once a song and a sacrifice. ’Ah,’ thought I, ’when the fire of affliction draws songs of praise from us, then indeed we are purified, and our God is glorified!’

“Perhaps some of us are like this old oak log, cold, hard, insensible; we should give forth no melodious sounds, were it not for the fire which kindles around us, and releases notes of trust in Him, and cheerful compliance with His will.

“’As I mused the fire burned,’ and my soul found sweet comfort in the parable so strangely set forth before me.

“Singing in the fire! Yes, God helping us, if that is the only way to get harmony out of these hard apathetic hearts, let the furnace be heated seven times hotter than before.”

Thankful Thursday – Forgiven

Posted on by Dorci

“When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.’

Jesus answered him, ‘Simon, I have something to tell you.’

‘Tell me, teacher,’ he said.

‘Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?’

Simon replied, ‘I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.’

‘You have judged correctly,’ Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.’

Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.'” Luke 7:36-48

Nothing gets by Jesus, right? The Pharisee thought he was talking to himself, but Jesus knew what was in his heart: judgement. Legalism never leaves room for love.

He knew what was in the woman’s heart, too: repentance. She came face to face with the Son of God. His glory and grace, in contrast to her sins, brought her to her knees in repentance and humility so much that it spilled out into her actions without a care what people thought. She worshipped Him with all she had.

I’ve been forgiven for much, too. I’ve been called a fanatic for my faith, and by someone who called himself a Christian. But I don’t care. Christ was fanatical about His love for me as He allowed Himself to be arrested, “tried”, and crucified, all for my sins. My only argument with my critic is that I’m not fanatical enough. Christ gave me His life. Is my all too much to give in return?  Never.

In His Grace,

The Power of the Spoken Word

Posted on by Dorci

 “And God said, ‘Let there be light…'” Genesis 1:3

Not one other person existed when God created the world so there was no one else to hear Him, and yet He spoke it into existence.  He didn’t just think it, He said it.  Why?  Because there is power in the spoken word.

And there are no other words more powerful than those written in scripture, no other author more sovereign than the one who spoke the world into existence.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”    2 Timothy 3:16-17

Today is World Read Aloud Day (which I personally think is fantastic).  And what better words to read out loud than God’s Word?  Can you imagine if believers all around the world today opened their Bibles and breathed aloud God’s eternal truth? If we drowned out the hateful words that fill the air with God’s exceedingly more powerful word of love? If we spoke the light within us into the darkness; if we stormed the gates of hell with the pillars of life, if we filled the heavens with the ancient way of the Almighty God in the face of the enemy who seeks to threaten the very lives of believers in some parts of the world and increasingly hardens hearts and minds toward believers everywhere?

Ask the Lord to put on your heart a portion of scripture to read aloud today and then make it a prayer. It might not feel effective (and I’m sure the enemy will tell you that very thing), but remember, God began the universe with four words.

The Name

Posted on by Dorci

“Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very natureof a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:6-11