Opened your Christmas gift yet?

I have to tell you that I got the coolest gift for Christmas this year!

I was thinking of asking Santa for one of the new color e-readers from one of the two major booksellers in our country. After doing some research, I discovered that the two top contenders were really just small tablet computers running the Android operating system. So I opted for asking Santa for a tablet computer and he brought me a Vizio Vtab 8-inch tablet. I know, some of you are still wondering what that is and why anybody would want one.

Well let me tell you what it can do!

By downloading the reading applications (apps) from both of the two booksellers, I now have the equivalent of both a Nook and a Kindle in one device. I have the Bible, Matthew Henry’s Commentary, A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God and many more titles.

But it’s more than a library! I can send and receive email, video chat by Skype with people all around the world, organize and edit my photographs, check my calendar, record and send a voice message, play Solitaire, update my Facebook status (meh, who cares?), surf the internet and….well, there seems to be no end to what I can do with this device.

Now why in the world would I want to write all of this about a Christmas gift? To make you jealous or wish you had one? To sell tablet computers? No, none of the above. I hope you have followed me up until now so that you catch my very important point.

What if I had not opened that particular Christmas present and begun to use it? What if I had allowed it to continue to lie beneath the Christmas tree unwrapped? What difference would it have made? It would have been of no value to me whatsoever. It would have been a major waste of money and resources had I not picked it up and begun to use the device.

And yet each one of you reading this article has received something of much greater value that you could be in danger of leaving unwrapped beneath your spiritual Christmas tree.  I am talking about the spiritual gifts that God has given you.

You see, each Christian is given a special gift or gifts by God.

Jesus hints at the giving of gifts in the parable of the talents, with three laborers each receiving a different quantity of talents. Paul delves further into the issue of gifts in three separate passages in his writings.

In 1 Cor. 12, the Holy Spirit leads Paul to observe that there are different kinds of gifts, all given by the same Spirit.  In 1 Cor. 12:11, Paul writes that God “distributes them to each one, just as he determines.” Every believer, then, is given one or more gifts, just as God determines.

“God has given you a unique combination of spiritual gifts to accomplish a unique purpose that will lead to unique results, but you must be willing to use your gifts to glorify God,” writes Elmer Towns in his little book What Every Sunday School Teacher Should Know. Towns lists the following gifts:

Evangelism (see Eph. 4:11)

Prophecy (see Rom 12:6)

Teaching (see Rom. 12:7)

Exhortation (see Rom. 12:8)

Shepherding (see Eph. 4:11)

Mercy (see Rom. 12:8)

Ministry (see Rom. 12:7, 1 Cor. 12:28)

Giving (see Rom. 12:8)

Administration (see Rom 12:8, 1 Cor. 12:28)

“God’s goal in giving us gifts is not just to help us develop labels for ministry but also to help us find ways to be effective in ministry,” writes Towns. “When you know your gift, begin thinking about how you can use that gift as a Sunday School teacher.”

Towns says that in order to be an effective teacher, you must discover and identify your unique spiritual gifts.

I would take that a step forward and say that to be an effective teacher, you must also help your learners discover their unique spiritual gifts. After all, a Sunday School class is not simply a group of people grouped together to study and learn more about the Bible. We are also the church, grouped together into small ministry teams, equipped to do the work that God is calling us to do. And what is that work? To reach the lost, to disciple them and minister to their needs.

As we are able to help our learners discover and use their individual gifts, they are able to function as individual parts of the body and allow the entire church to do its job effectively and efficiently.

If I had never opened and begun to use my Christmas gift, the tremendous potential of that device would have gone to waste. The same can be said for any teacher or learner who fails to “open” their spiritual gift and begin to learn how to use it.

I hope you will remind yourself of the importance of spiritual gifts and lead your class to do the same. What a difference it would make if each of us knew our spiritual gifts and understood the importance of using them.

Do what is right, and tell people

Arkansas' Freedom of Information Act went first went into the books back in 1967, a short three years before this aspiring journalist landed his first newspaper. Elected officials were still getting into the habit of complying with the law, namely that of making public records and public meetings open to the, er, well, public. Sounds simple, but it took a while for officials to get used to giving the mandatory notifications of special called meetings of public bodies.


From the enactment of that law, mayors could no longer gather around the table with a few alderman to make decisions affecting the public without the public having the right to look over their shoulders. A number of attempts were made to bring the "Sunshine Law" a little more into the shade, but by and large it has remained unchanged. I'm glad for that, too. 


In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul explained that Titus would be accompanying him as he delivered a sizable offering intended to help the suffering poor in Jerusalem. Not only was Titus accompanying Paul, he had been chosen for that task by the churches, not by Paul. There could be no charge of cronyism leveled against Paul.


Paul had learned the lesson or knew instinctively that openness in such matters would effectively eliminate criticism. As he put it in 2 Cor. 8:20-21:

We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift.  For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.

I took one class in public relations in college and one fact from that semester stuck with me: Public relations can be defined as doing what is right and telling people about it.  Who knows what the definition of PR is today, but in my college days it was not trying to throw a load of whitewash over a pile of manure.  It meant not creating the pile of manure in the first place, and taking pains to explain that to folks.


Paul emphasized this principle, pointing out that "we are taking pains to do what is right..." He had not secret plans or ulterior motives. He hadn't been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He was doing what was right.


And he was telling people about it. In his letter to the church at Corinth, he publicly outlined how the money was to be delivered, how it was to be safeguarded and what would become of it.  He wanted to do what was right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but in the eyes of the people who had contributed.


Those in leadership positions today should take a page from Paul's playbook. Let people know what you are up to, especially when it comes to the handling of money. Take pains to do what is right, not only in the eys of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.

Worse yet....

What would make a man tear his clothing and pull hair from his head and beard? For Ezra, it was hearing the news that his people left behind in Israel--including some of the priests and Levites--had intermarried with the neighboring peoples, and even adopted their religious practices. But the topper to this bad news if found at the end of Ezra 9:2:

Worse yet, the leaders and officials have led the way in this outrage.

Worse yet! It was bad enough that the people had done this bad deed. It was bad that some of the priests and Levites were guilty. But it was "worse yet" that the leaders had led the people down the wrong path.


Leadership is a weighty responsibility.  


James warned his readers that not many should presume to teach, because those who did would be judged more strictly (James 3:1).  


Paul warned the church at Rome that those who taught the Word should live by it:

...you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?  You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? (Romans 2:21-22)

He told Timothy that the overseer "must be above reproach" (1 Timothy 3:1).


Jesus put it this way in Luke 17:1-3

Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.  It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves.

Those in leadership will be held to a higher standard. Why? Because they hold influence over God's people. We must guard this great responsibility with great care. We must guard ourselves, our doctrine and our practices.


How? By cherishing and protecting our relationship with Jesus Christ. By allowing His Holy Spirit to reign in our hearts, convicting us of our sins and leading us to live in such a way that we do not lead others to stumble. What an awesome responsibility!

Keeping guard over your heart

Why do good people fall away from following and serving God? Not only are the headlines full of accounts of leaders who went bad, the Bible also records such stories. Take the case of Solomon, son of the "man after God's own heart."


He had prayed and asked God for wisdom in order to lead the Jewish people, but eventually he turned away from God. Here's what 1 Kings 11 says:

The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.  Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command.  So the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. (1 Kings 11:9-11)

The same chapter records in greater detail how Solomon had taken wives of the nations that had once been sworn enemies. His wives and concubines did eventually entice him to turn away and follow other gods.


There's an interesting article on the Business Insider website entitled Why Talented Leaders are Driven to Bad Behavior.  After looking at several recent cases of moral failure in leadership, this secular article sums up the problem like this:

Leaders who lose their way are not necessarily bad people; rather, they lose their moral bearings, often yielding to seductions in their paths. Very few people go into leadership roles to cheat or do evil, yet we all have the capacity for actions we deeply regret unless we stay grounded.

Solomon lost his moral bearings, and it was a process. No doubt his many wives influenced him away from the one path that he knew to be correct--the path that God had shown him in His Word. He allowed his heart to be swayed away from what he knew to be truth. Small wonder that Prov. 4:23 offers this advice:

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Prov. 4:23)

We need a true north in our lives as leaders. God's Word points us in the direction we should go. But Solomon had God's Word to tell him which way to go. He simply chose not to follow it.  Paul talked about the importance of how we run our race, and shared his secret in 1 Cor. 9:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.  No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Cor. 9:24-27)

Father, help me to follow after you with my whole heart. Do not let me turn away or allow my heart to be
corrupted. Teach me to guard it while I listen to you. Amen!

Encouragement

In the midst of David moving around from place to place trying to find a secure location against the murderous threats of Saul, David gets a bit of an encouragement:

Jonathan went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God. 1 Samuel 23:16

Doing what is right will cause people to hate you. Simple as that. Jesus put it this way:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

If that wasn't enough, he also put it this way:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.  Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. John 15:18-21

Paul put it like this:

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted... 2 Tim. 3:12

So, we know that we as Christians will be persecuted, we will face trouble. Shouldn't we as Christians be like Jonathan and find those godly men and women who are being persecuted and encourage them to stay strong in their faith?


You can begin to make your own list. It might include those Christians in Egypt who have been killed in recent days. You might visit a website such as http://www.persecution.com/ to learn of others. Or you may know of someone personally who is under pressure or attack because of their faith.


Father, help me to be a Jonathan, and not a Saul! Help me to lift up those who are discouraged, for the sake of Jesus! Amen.