Precious.  Thank you.

LOVE IN HIM,

purple mari



At 02:38 PM 3/21/2007, you wrote:
>Do you know your spiritual gifts, that is, concerning serving the Lord?  Do
>you know if you have been called, or otherwise, assigned to a ministry?  I
>personally have believed for 30 years or more that everyone has a gift in
>the body of Christ, if not more, and that the job of every pastor, if he
>truly is one called of God to the office of a pastor, is to assist others in
>seeing their gift, or gifts, and assisting them in learning how to use their
>gift in the church.  I am not referring to any talents or gifts that come
>naturally or with which you are born.  Shoot, come to think of it, I don't
>have a single one of those and wish I did.  What I mean is, just because you
>can play the juice harp, doesn't mean that is your gift to bring glory to
>God in bring strength to the Body of Christ.  It will help and should be
>recognize by a pastor in order that it could be used in the church but it
>doesn't mean that is your spiritual gift.  Shoot, when I pastored a
>different church here in Denver, we had a truck driver who played the kazoo.
>Isn't that what they call a piece of cellophane or wax paper stuck between a
>couple of pieces of cardboard or something?  You know what I'm talking about
>I think.  Anyhow, he had no talents but he asked me before church one Sunday
>if he could talk with me.  He told me this was the only instrument he could
>play but he wanted to worship the Lord with it.  He showed it too me.  It
>was a miniature cardboard trumpet and when you blew through it, you hummed
>through  it to get that goofy weird sound.  Some other people were standing
>around, a couple of elders, and I said, "Bob, if that is the way you worship
>and you are sincere, you can blow that thing until you have no air left as
>far as I am concerned."  Bob said, "Well, I'll play it respectfully, Pastor,
>and I won't play it at any weird times or nothing; just when we are
>singing."  I said, "Blow away, Brother."  You know why I said ok to his
>request?  Because, I knew Bob's heart and how much He loved Jesus.  I knew,
>when I heard his little horn, of sorts, that Jesus would be listening, too,
>because Jesus loved Bob as much as anyone else.  As we sang that morning,
>Bob blew away on his make shift horn and it was more beautiful than any
>angel's horn, I guarantee you that.  So, where are you?  What do you feel?
>Does your pastor know your gift yet?
>
>Phil.