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The Bible tells us not to ignore our spiritual gifts, but rather to use them. However, are we aware that it is possible for us to misuse our spiritual gifts in ways that can bring hurt to others, and even to the entire church? While there are many benefits and blessings that are sure to come as we allow the Holy Spirit to use our spiritual gifts, we must be careful never to use them in ways that are harmful. As you find your place in the Body of Christ, keep these cautions in mind.
When the members of an orchestra fail to play in harmony with each other, it makes a terrible sound! But when all the different instruments are played in tune, following the same conductor, it creates a beautiful symphony. So it is in the Body of Christ. We all have unique roles to play, but when we each do our part and function in harmony with each other, we will become a beautiful representation of Christ to those around us. Are you playing your part in this great symphony?
When you consider the odds that were stacked against the mission of the early church, it is literally nothing short of miraculous that it ever succeeded at all. Jesus sent a handful of trembling followers into a hostile world to proclaim an unbelievable story to people who hated them. On their own, these weak, broken followers had no chance whatsoever of accomplishing this task. How, then, were they able to carry out this mission with such astonishing power, and what must we learn from them?
What a tragedy it would be to reach the end of your life and still not know the purpose of it all; to live for 70 or 80 years and have nothing of eternal value to show for it! For the most part, we spend our lives pursuing temporary achievements and storing up temporary things, never realizing that one day they will all slip through our fingers like sand. We get so preoccupied with the present that we lose sight of eternity. We must pray that God will reveal to us the brevity of life and the seriousness of eternity, so that we will learn how to live a life of purpose.
In moments of raw honesty, it is startling to discover the negative words people often use to describe how they see themselves: ugly, fat, unloveable, stupid, worthless. Still others use words like depressed, lonely, unwanted, fearful, addict, hopeless, etc. And the sad reality is, these are actual terms used, not just by unsaved people to describe themselves, but by Christians! It’s time for the church to expose the lies Satan is telling us and discover the truth about who the Bible says we really are in Christ!
Imagine yourself being chained in a dark, gloomy dungeon, kept as a slave by a cruel master, with no hope at all of ever being set free. That is exactly the condition we were all in before Christ! We were slaves of Satan and bound by the chains of sin, with absolutely no way to buy our own freedom. But God loved us so much that He paid the price for our ransom by sacrificing His Son on the cross. Christ paid for us with His own precious blood, and because of this, we have been redeemed!
As followers of Christ, we have been entrusted with the greatest mission on earth, but do we know what that mission is, and do we understand our role in it? Being a Christian is more than just saying a prayer and then waiting for heaven when we die. It means being an active part of the Body of Christ and allowing the good news of the gospel to live out through our lives each day.
Have you ever known someone who seemed to have it all, and yet it wasn’t enough? On the other hand, have you ever known someone who had very little, and they were bitter and resentful because others had more than they did? But the real question is, how content are you? Once you learn the secret of contentment, God’s power will be alive in you, and your life will be a blessing and an inspiration to others.
In Luke 17 Jesus heals ten lepers but only one returns to gives thanks. Though Jesus did not command them to return and give thanks, he was surprised that only one did; and that he was a foreigner. What can we learn about being thankful from this? Was this man simply being respectful, or was there more? Why should we be thankful, and what does that mean?
Being born again is about a new life with a new nature. It’s about dying to your old nature and living life with a new nature; the nature of Jesus Christ. Scripture describes the reality of this change, and it also tells us a key component to true transformation. It’s known as renewing the mind. It is through our mind that sin and the enemy are able to deceive us and lead us astray. What controls our mind will ultimately direct our path. Our mind must be renewed by the source of our new life, which is Jesus Christ. Listen as we teach the necessity of dying to our old nature and putting on our new nature by the renewing of our mind.
The war that killed more American soldiers than any other war in history was the Civil War. More lives were destroyed by fighting among ourselves than by fighting an outside enemy. The same is true in the church. If Satan can get us to turn our swords on each other, the gospel will never advance, and the name of Christ will be tarnished in the eyes of a watching world once again. Are you contributing to the unity or disunity of your church?
Philippians 1:27 urges us to live lives worthy of the gospel of Christ. This literally means that our lives should give equal weight and value to the sacrifice that Christ made by giving His life for us. If His death was placed on one side of an old-fashioned scale and our life was placed on the other side, would it reveal that we are living in a way that measures up to what He did for us? Are our lives an appropriate reflection of the gospel?
