Gigi's Blog

Oh, I love it

visioncgbc | January 18, 2008 06:24

Did you get one of "those gifts" this past Christmas. You know, the kind where you say "Oh, I love it." but you meant "Oh, I HATE it." When we get one of those kinds of presents we usually stuff them in a drawer, and hope the giver never again thinks of the fact they've never seen us wearing that hideous sweater.

Have you shoved your spiritual gift(s) in the drawer of your heart? Have you hoped God has forgotten what He gave you, 'cause you don't like it?

I Corinthians 12: 1-3 What I want to talk about now is the various ways God's Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often mis-understood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn't know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It's different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say "Jesus be damned!" Nor would anyone be inclined to say "Jesus is Master!" without the insight of the Holy Spirit. 4-11God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:

wise counsel

clear understanding

simple trust

healing the sick

miraculous acts

proclamation

distinguishing between spirits

tongues

interpretation of tongues.

   All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.  12-13You 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 the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.  14-18I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.  19-24But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?  25-26The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.  27-31You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. You're familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his "body":

   apostles
   prophets
   teachers
   miracle workers
   healers
   helpers
   organizers
   those who pray in tongues.
But it's obvious by now, isn't it, that Christ's church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It's not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called "important" parts.    But now I want to lay out a far better way for you

The make-up of who God created you and I to be is a done deal. The gifts he has given us are for a reason. My personality type is creative. There are wonderful and good things about that, that I should embrace. But I often think, "Oh, I would be a much better person if I was, say, an organizer. That would fit society better." You see a creative person, is usually late for everything, and sometimes not organized, and dramatic, and alot of other things that you already know if you know me. I'm already stressing because Emory (Sunday School Director) sent and e-mail to all the teachers. It was an encouraging and uplifting note, that also served as a request that teachers arrive by 9:30. on Sunday mornings. I have probably only arrived at 9:30 at church...........well, I don't think I've ever arrived at 9:30! But, I'm not suggesting to embrace not doing what you're supposed to do. I'm saying the temptation is to say, "God, change who You created me to be. It's not working out." I'm reading the book Holly gave me "Discovering God's Purpose for Your Life." There is one (Purpsose for Your Life), and when we live like there's not one, life stinks. When we try to live someone else's purpse, life stinks. 'Cause you can't live someone else's calling. There's for them, and your's is for you, and mine is for me.

I've struggled with a part of the book. Beth says that God has called you to something. She says that you have a purpose and you need to find it. A purpose (1), not more than one. I don't think that means that you can't do more than one thing, but it does mean it matters if you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing.

Proverbs 18:16 A gift gets attention;
it buys the attention of eminent people.

Your gift will get attention if it gets used. By attention I don't mean the kind that puffs you up with pride, I mean glory to God.

So, with a right attitude, and right motivation, pull your spiritual gift out of your drawer, thank God for it, and USE it.