Hello friends, welcome to In Bolden. I'm Chris Shatter, an ordinary Christian living with and learning about an extraordinary God. In the book of Jude we read about the grumblers and the fault-finders following their own evil desires and boasting about themselves. I find the best way not to be a grumbler and a fault-finder which I struggle with is instead to look for ways to be thankful and grateful.
That's why on The In Bolden Podcast we're doing 30 Days of Thankfulness. Please join me. Today's thankful verse comes from 1 Corinthians 12, 4 through 5. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them.
There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. A friend of mine and her husband recently participated in a church workshop which helped them identify the various gifts and strengths. While doing her homework for the workshop she reached out and asked me and a few friends to help her identify three values she's passionate about and three abilities she has. I think it surprised her when all three of us identified the exact same qualities.
What was interesting was that she herself was struggling to do the same. 1 Corinthians 12 goes on to say, 4 to 1 is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit. To another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. I think so often as Christians we can get caught up in this list of gifts from 1 Corinthians and forget what else this chapter says.
We're all given the Holy Spirit and we're all given gifts to assist the body of the church. So when our friends tell us one of our gifts is being trustworthy or loyal or even diligent or empathetic, we might not see those as important as one of the big nine in the list, and therefore not as worthy. And yet I will tell you having a person managing the church funds whose gifts are trustworthy and diligent is incredibly important. I'm so thankful that God gave me the gifts of being organized, able to multitask, a love of writing and teaching.
I can't interpret tongues, but thankfully none of the jobs I've had both volunteered and paid required that. I would love to stand on my church stage and be able to see you a beautiful hymn, but folks that's just not going to happen. What I can do however is thank God not only for the gifts he has bestowed on me, but the ones he has given others. Together we make up a talented body of Christ.
Have a thankful day. I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Abolden Podcast. Be sure to follow along so you don't miss any episode and check out my blog at embolden.net.