For a long time, whenever I was reading a list of spiritual gifts, the spiritual gift of martyrdom – the divine enablement to undergo suffering for the faith even to death – puzzled me. Of course, even then I knew a multitude of Christians have been martyred ever since the early church and persecution is still a factor around the world. I’ve always admired the martyrs and thought they’ve possessed something I don’t have. Where I did go wrong was…
Are you on God’s team? Good for you. How does that affect your everyday life? How’s teamwork part of your life? Are you pulling for the team God? Are you doing your part as a team member? I hope so. You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly…
Brokenness is something we often despise. But it brings more blessings than we can imagine. We tend to think brokenness means uselessness. But in God’s kingdom it is exactly the opposite. Brokenness is a blessing. With the words of Philip Yancey “Imperfection is the prerequisite for grace. Light only gets in through the cracks.” Through our brokenness we realize our need for Christ. Through our brokenness God can fill us with his grace. Through our brokenness we become useful in God’s…
The writing prompt today from Five Minutes Friday was ‘together’. My immediate association was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s wonderful but challenging book Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community. Bonhoeffer teaches us how to be church together, how to live out faith the original way. Faith is not just an individual affair, no matter how much we would like to be independent. Faith is not just a communal affair, no matter how much we would like to keep it social….
Do you know your own spiritual gifts? Are you using them for the best of the body of Christ? There are a lot of ways we can be in His Majestic Service, God’s own special agents in this cold world. If you are interested in finding out your own spiritual gifts, there are a lot online assessment tools and books available. Discover your spiritual abilities and then build up the body of Christ! We have many parts in one…
