Sunday, February 26, 2006
Carpenter's Class
We've spent the last two weeks talking about Spiritual Gifts. We read Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Timothy 4:14, and 2 Timothy 1:6, and we discussed the Greek words doron, doma, and charisma.
Consider Eugene Peterson's transliteration of Romans 12:1.
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Here's a little experiment: As you go about your activities this week, think about how you find yourself serving God in surprising ways. Then come back here and share them!
Here are my initial thoughts:
So often we expect to use our spiritual gifts to serve God through some Church activity or some open evangelistic effort. Of course, there is nothing wrong with serving God in these ways! But if we only expect to serve God through the institutional church or through direct evangelism, we are certainly limiting our opportunities to serve God. No doubt, He can use us without our knowledge, but then we may not know the full joy of serving Him.
What would it look like to truly become living sacrifices?
How can we honor God with our ordinary, everyday lives?
Consider Eugene Peterson's transliteration of Romans 12:1.
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Here's a little experiment: As you go about your activities this week, think about how you find yourself serving God in surprising ways. Then come back here and share them!
Here are my initial thoughts:
So often we expect to use our spiritual gifts to serve God through some Church activity or some open evangelistic effort. Of course, there is nothing wrong with serving God in these ways! But if we only expect to serve God through the institutional church or through direct evangelism, we are certainly limiting our opportunities to serve God. No doubt, He can use us without our knowledge, but then we may not know the full joy of serving Him.
What would it look like to truly become living sacrifices?
How can we honor God with our ordinary, everyday lives?
Comments:
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Does agreeing to help Brian with the 8th graders count? It certainly was a surprise to me! Then I heard a story of a girl in the group that my heart is already praying for. Maybe it is the prayerfulness that is the "ordinary" way I am serving God.
J
J
Comment posted by 
: 8:57 AM
: 8:57 AM
Helping the 8th graders at church definitely counts, but I am thinking even bigger than that. It is easy to think of church work as service to God.
But what about my non-church work? I mean, can I serve God just by being a good editor? Do I have to link everything I do to an institutional church before it becomes service to God?
Jessi, you are an educator. Can you serve God just by being a good educator? Do you have to slip in a little Jesus talk every now and then? Or can you just teach well? Just care for your co-workers and the students you interact with?
But what about my non-church work? I mean, can I serve God just by being a good editor? Do I have to link everything I do to an institutional church before it becomes service to God?
Jessi, you are an educator. Can you serve God just by being a good educator? Do you have to slip in a little Jesus talk every now and then? Or can you just teach well? Just care for your co-workers and the students you interact with?
Our "church work" type Christian service is the least important Christian service we can perform! Being in the Choir, helping with Sunday School, visitng the home bound or assisting with youth group all come with pre-set "rules", or a pre-set understanding or required behavior. This makes it difficult to know if someone is a real Christina or a good actor.
However, how we live our lives in the business world and work place really tells the story about our faith.
To paraphrase one of the saints of old, "Preach Jesus every day ... and use words if you have to"
However, how we live our lives in the business world and work place really tells the story about our faith.
To paraphrase one of the saints of old, "Preach Jesus every day ... and use words if you have to"
Comment posted by : 8:54 AM
: 8:54 AM Post a Comment | Add to del.icio.us | << Home
