1 Peter 4:8-11

1 Peter 4:8-11   Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen (NIV).

   May we always remember the reason that Jesus chose to die as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of people was because He loves people. Offering forgiveness is an aspect of love.

   Regarding gifts, each one of us should be using her or his spiritual gifts. As a new Christian, I became involved in a singles group called Salt and Light, which was a ministry of The Falls Church in northern Virginia.  (There are two churches with that name now; one is "Episcopal" and one is "Anglican," both of which are a part of the Church of England.  I have left that denomination for doctrinal reasons, which I explained earlier, but I still have friends in the Church of England.)  Though it dissolved in the summer of 1995, Salt and Light consisted of a special group of people, and a strength of the group was the willingness of the leaders to have individual members using his or her spiritual gifts to contribute within the group. The one year I was on the Leadership Team, every Sunday morning we would have one person from the group give a conversion testimony. Of all the active folks in the group, only one person chose not to give a testimony in front of the group. Everyone else did. Every person had an opportunity to share; to speak; to witness. Some were not big on public speaking, and many had never done anything of the sort, yet the sharing throughout that ten months was incredible. John, The Falls Church minister who led the group, wanted us singles in our twenties and thirties using our spiritual gifts. For one meeting, he even gave us a “spiritual gift test.” I do not think that test was strongly accurate in accessing spiritual gifts. However, it got me thinking about spiritual gifts.

   Seek a community or communities where you have the opportunity to have your spiritual gifts nurtured or utilized. Unfortunately, a weakness of some church communities is their practice of having a few people doing everything all of the time. The result is that the congregation gets in a passive mode, and the workers get in a burnout mode sooner or later. Often this is because the leaders are not as selfless as our leader was, rather they like being the ones at the top, and they do not want anyone else on their turf. This is not a Biblical model. All children of God need opportunities to use their gifts. A healthy church involves teamwork.

   Now individuals should not be carrying out work without being prepared. Take the most gifted athlete you know, and that person still needs to practice to get ready for game day. No athletes perform without practicing. Likewise, all Christians still need to be educated and nurtured. Discovering your spiritual gifts and passions are a necessary beginning, and then there is a need for training. For example, before a person gave a testimony in our singles group, they had some basic instruction on giving a testimony from the person on the Leadership Team who was facilitating the testimonies. A healthy church offers training to members of the congregation for even the most basic responsibilities. A healthy church should be consistently helping people to learn so that they can use their gifts in their workplace or in their home. A growing church gives financial support for Christian education. God wants you being prepared, or using your spiritual gifts. It is a long process. And make sure you do periodical evaluations to make sure your gifts are being used to serve Jesus. Before I was a Christian, I did all kinds of good deeds and service projects, but none of them were for Jesus. They were not works which led to the furthering of Christ’s Kingdom.

   On the flip side, be cautious about overdoing it. God never wants this, because the result is burnout or someone getting hurt. Once I was in a thrift store, and I saw an old paperback book entitled, I Was An Overcommitted Christian by Nyla Jane Witmore. I considered some struggles a friend of mine was having at the time, so I bought the book with the intention of giving it to her. When I got home, I gained a realization that God wanted me to read the book! I was the one who needed to learn not to overdo it, which is my natural tendency.

   This Scripture speaks of going on God’s strength, and not human strength. I need God’s strength to enable me to pace myself as well as to make it through the long haul. I look back on my four and a half years at CCU, and I think of a time when I was working on a presentation for a class. I overdid it. Thus it ended up losing some of its strength, and I had to rush to fit it in the time limit. Though I overdid it more than once at CCU, I would not have succeeded as I did had I not been consistently going by God’s guidance and encouragement. In retrospect, I am grateful for some hard times when I realized I could not make it on my own strength. I was willing to submit to God, and allow Him to strengthen me. He did.

   I will close this piece by doing what Peter said to do. I praise God, the One who enabled me to flourish at CCU as I relyed on Him.

   +: To You Holy God, I give the praise, and I say thank You!

Hunter Irvine