Life is short. When I was 10, a summer day felt like an eternity. With nothing to claim my time but fun, laughter, and bike rides with cousins on a dirt road in small town Texas. Time moved at a different pace than it does now. Time now races by and days blur into weeks until another Christmas and New Year’s seems to appear out of nowhere. In the midst of this, things can get lost. As we try to keep up, people can get lost.
When Margie and I moved back to Texas 5 months ago God provided the perfect little place for us, one side of a duplex. On the other side was Miss Virginia, a very young 93 year old widow living by herself. What a beautiful person. A believer and follower of our precious Jesus, active in her church and played dominoes with her friends at her home every Wednesday night. We helped out Miss Virginia in every way we could, pulling in her trash cans, trimming her shrubs, and cooking a little extra dinner at nights to share with her. I had something I was going to tell her this week but last night she went to be with the Lord. Life is short.
Sometimes it seems like we’ll be here forever. It seems like this life is the plan. But life is fleeting, we are not long for this world. God places us here for a brief period to praise Him through loving and serving others. On the other side of this life is eternity. For those that have called upon Jesus Christ as their Savior, eternity will be a glorious thing. A glorious thing indeed. Miss Virginia’s last breath on this planet will be her first in the presence of Jesus. The message? Life is indeed short no matter our perception, don’t always assume you can tell someone you love them tomorrow. Tell that person you love them today, time is precious. Make amends with that person today, tomorrow might not come. Reach out and call that person today that’s on your heart, don’t risk a regret tomorrow. Show someone the love of Christ today, they might not have a tomorrow. Life is short, embrace today.
Today we are in 1 Corinthians 12 and what a beautiful chapter it is, the spiritual gifts bestowed upon believers and believers as the body of Christ. Let’s look at the spiritual gifts first.
There’ a couple of important clarifiers when we look at spiritual gifts. First, spiritual gifts are given to those who have called upon Jesus as Savior. Everyone has ‘gifts’ but the spiritual gifts mentioned here are specific to Christians. Second, the purpose and reasoning for spiritual gifts. They are simply to serve the body of Christ, the local body of believers. You see how this sets up. Believers receive a spiritual gift from God and they are to use it within the local body of believers to serve others. It’s a simple and elegant design.
Now let's explore the gifts. It’s very important to note here that there is a BIG difference between a spiritual gift and talent. What? You might be saying ‘aren’t they the same?’ God gave me this talent to do whatever so isn’t that what I should share with the body? Not necessarily. Lets look at singing. Many people have beautiful voices and they assume that because of this God wants them to sing on stage every Sunday morning. Well, signing is not specifically a spiritual gift. I have seen this play out disastrously many times. People without humility hop up on stage and deliver a beautiful but uninspired song. You see Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson both had great talent at singing but it was not a spiritual gift from God and it was not used in a local body of believers to glorify God.
Another important thing to note is that EVERY believer has a spiritual gift. It may be a gift of service and you end up sweeping floors, cleaning toilets or cooking a meal. That’s a gift. It may be a gift of teaching and you are teaching 25 screaming 5 year olds every Sunday morning. That’s definitely a gift! You may have the gift of faith and you minister to others that are struggling through tough times in life. That’s a much needed gift. You may have the gift to prophesy, that is to preach the Word of God. That is direly needed today. Every believer receives a gift and the sole purpose of that gift is to serve others within the body of Christ.
Great segway. Now Paul speaks about the local church as a body. “For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.” (1 Cor. 12:12) This is a beautiful analogy Paul makes here with the human body. Our body has over 600 muscles, 206 bones, 10,000 taste buds, 22 sq ft of skin and over 7 octillion atoms, (yes octillion, that's a number with 27 zeros behind it!) Yet it all works together to do something as simple as take a single step. What a beautiful picture. The body of Christ is just as intricate and as in the human body, God has made all the parts to function perfectly together.
This Sunday as you head off to church do this. As soon as you pull onto the property start taking notes of all the people you encounter and what they’re doing. You’ll see parking attendants, greeters, ushers, video operators, singers, musicians, receptionists, teachers, janitors, coffee makers, audio engineers, pastors, custodians, deacons, hospitality and elders. The list could go on and on. God spiritually gifts each of these people and then calls them to operate in those gifts to serve the local body. All of this happens every Sunday in every ‘body’ all over the world in order to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You might be saying, ‘but Dan I am a believer but I don’t have a spiritual gift to offer.’ With all due respect, not true. God’s Word is true and He has equipped EVERY one of His followers with a gift that the local body needs. You might have to search and be steeped in some prayer to find it but it's there. Our church just recently administered a test that you could take that would help you discern your spiritual gift. Check with your church or check online for this great resource. OR, seek out your pastor at church that organizes the service opportunities and take them to coffee. See what all the needs are at your church and see if one sounds interesting to you. If it does, go and try it out! It may not be a good fit but even if it isn’t you ‘ll be well on your way, because sometimes the best way to find what you love is to eliminate what you don’t love!
I pray that you are serving in some capacity at your local church and you are being blessed by God as you work in the gift that He has blessed you with. I also pray that your personal time in God’s Word today speaks to your heart and inspires you not to just read, but to act on His Words.
Blessings for your walk.
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