Gifting: Blessing or Curse

We often get trapped by our gifts I think. Churches are often rolling out 'gifting appraisal' courses amongst their members to find out what gifts the congregation has. We are always told that if we figure out what we are good at then that is probably what God will get us to do. There is truth in this but it is vital to realise that God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Look at Paul and Peter. Galatians 2:7 shows us that Paul's ministry was to preach to the Gentiles whilst Peter went to the Jews, but to my limited wordly vision and understanding this doesn't make sense. Paul was a zealous Jew. He knew all the teachings and history, he understood the culture of the day and would know therefore how best to minister to the Jews. If anyone was best qualified to preach to the Jews it would have been Paul! Instead God sent him to the Gentiles and gave Peter (a simple fishermen who, because of Jewish culture, was essentially a school drop out!) the task of speaking to the Jews.

To God's mind though...

It doesn't matter what we are called to. It doesn't matter what we are good at or where we think we will be called because of that. Romans 12:3 expands this a little bit.

"As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you"

The only qualification we need to do something for God is FAITH! That's it. It's not our training or upbringing, it's not how sensitive we are to the Spirit and it is not our Gifting. It is not the size of our church, or even the size of our calling. It's the size of our faith.

What is Maturity? - Part 2

I heard someone once describe maturity as 'Living life as we are now, whilst looking to ahead to what we will become.' There has to be a distinction between our present and our future. There are parallels in the Bible. (Eph 4:13; Phil 3:12-15)

1 John 3:2 says 'Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is.' Put simply although we are not like Christ now, we shall be when he returns. But what does this mean for us now? What are we supposed to do until then?

Philippians 2 shows us that Jesus was able to separate the present from the future. He lived life on earth as a man yet He knew He would be seated in heavenly places at the right hand of God. He had a choice between claiming himself as equal with God, sitting on His laurels and soaking in the praise; or to put aside His future life and humbly serving, swapping the laurels for thorns.

Our journey through maturity presents us with the same choice. Can we live with our feet in the present, with our choices, hearts, words and actions firmly rooted in who we are now, whilst also realising that the best is yet to come?

In Philippians Paul writes about us as citizens of Heaven (Philippians 3:20), that our future is not the same as our present here on earth (vs 21). Yet how can we live as a citizen of Heaven? Paul writes that we can expect three things to continue past this Earth, three things we will find in Heaven: Faith Hope and Love. So to my mind to live as a citizen of Heaven means living with these things in our lives even now here on Earth. We have Faith for the Now, Hope for the Future and Love, the greatest of all that covers the past present and future of both ourselves and of everyone around us.

What is Maturity?

Yesterday's post about quiet confidence got me thinking about maturity. Ive always been fairly mature for my age, and I remember people always commenting on how I looked and acted older than I was. I picked up quite quickly that maturity was one of these 'journey' things, just like everything else in life (so much so its becoming a bit of a cliche...).

Probably the first time I started to understand this was around 15 years old when my youth leader gave me a book, sat me down in a corner and said "Read! And don't look up 'til you've finished!" The book was called Wild at Heart by John Eldredge (great book - If you have read it then I urge you to also read 'Is God Wild at Heart? by Randy Stinson available online at www.cbmw.org/resources/reviews/eldredge_wah_review.php).

Reading this book gave me permission to live my life, permission to be a man at a time in my life when I thought there was no chance of that ever happening. It helped me to understand that maturity isn't about being sensible all the time, being boring. (This was my view of adulthood when I was a kid). Maturity also isn't about putting other people first, or about taking responsibility for your actions. It isn't about the choices we make but its about the very climate we create for our lives to play out in. Its about our focus. (Eph 4:14).

I remember my very first day of sixth-form college. The speech given by the head of college to all the new sixth-formers told the incredible story of 'The Magic Door'.

The Magic Door is a door that exists only in time, standing guard as the only passage between two opposing Worlds. Its power is unrivelled, it is always right and once someone goes through the door they can never go back. It is the door that separates the Land of Childhood from the Land of Adulthood. However the most important thing to understand about the Magic Door is that it doesn't exist...

We will never one day magically transform into the person we always wanted to be: into an adult. There is no door that washes away our naivity, our fears, our past as we walk through, leaving us to continue on in a new life, free from everything that conditioned us in our upbringing.

The apostle Paul understands this well:

'I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself. Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above. All of us who are spiritually mature should have this same attitude.' (Philippians 3:12-15)

So what is maturity in the face of tough times? To me it comes down to simple choice. I either seek to 'get through' them, or I seek to 'grow through' them.

Quiet Confidence

Ive been reading Isaiah at the moment. So much in the book has spoken to me and often reminds me of some pretty major parts of my life. As a kid growing up I wasn't the most popular. (My current friends will probably say that nothing has changed...) I was never in any one group of friends but just seemed to hang on the fringes of every group in the school. I could talk to the cool kids or the some of the geeky kids, but was never really excepted by either. I hung out with the sporty guys and the music guys, the science guys and the computer guys. I had friends in most year groups in the school but never had a group of friends I could call my own.

The first 3 years of my secondary school life were not great. I felt alone and nervous, I had issues at home and issues in myself (mostly related to girls...) and my way of coping was just to keep quiet and get on with it. I knew I had strength in me but never figured out how to get it out. Part of me always just assumed that in order be confident I had to be loud, extrovert and the centre of everything.

Isaiah shows us that this really isn't the case. Isaiah 30:15 says 'For thus said the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.' Its odd that Isaiah put these 2 words in the same sentence, because as I said I always thought that quietness and confidence were total opposites.

It wasn't until I was around 14 or 15 that I started to realise that I had something to offer to the people around me and I didn't have to be on the fringes of everybody else's lives. At the time I was taken on by a few key young men from my church back in Somerset. They took me under their wings when I most needed some strong male guidance and allowed me to see that I was capable, that I mattered and that I had something worthwhile to offer. All of these are key messages for a young lad.

I grew in confidence but was still fairly quiet. I still am today sometimes and I still have a tendancy to hang on the fringes of many groups, but I have a quiet confidence, knowing that God loves me, knowing that people that I love and care for feel the same way and knowing that my life matters.

Ups and downs

So often in life things get a little hard. In fact as an Englishman I have become so good at moaning that Life often has way more downs than ups. Especially in churches we have this bizarre tendancy that when things get a little hard, we stop coming. Even if it's only for a week... Odd.

Here are my thoughts on that:-

When times are good, praise hard. When times are bad, Praise Harder!
When times are good, pray hard. When times are bad, Pray Harder!
When times are good, have faith, based on hope. When times are bad, step up that faith, just focusing on the hope we have in God!
When times are good, love each other with all we have. When things go a little sour, take that love to another level, with generosity and forgiveness.

Inspiring Churches

One thing I love most of all about my church in Leeds (Hope City Church - www.yourelookinggreat.co.uk) is the leadership. They inspire and challenge me, not through their words, or their lifestyle, but the fact that they are always growing. The worship leaders get better from month to month, the youth pastors are constantly coming up with more and more creative ideas and the young pastors are growing and getting better every time.

What I like most is that I can see where they have come from. Not one of them is there because of there calling, but simply because of their capacity. Dave Gilpin (my senior pastor) often talks about the difference between our calling and our capacity. The size of my calling has no bearing at all on what I can do for God's Kingdom, partly because we almost all have the same calling (Matthew 28:19). It is not the size of my calling but the size of me that will dictate what I can do for the Kingdom.

Romans 12:3 says 'As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.' This passage was a revelation to me as it spoke to me about the qualifications we need to do great things for God. Faith!! Thats it..

We need qualifications to work, to drive, to achieve... but not with God! Its is not the size of our calling, not our interpersonal skills, not our upbringing, not our past, not our vision and not our experience that dictates the heights we can reach in God.

We build up our faith and capacity by walking with God, which is probably why I labelled this section the way I did... This is why I'm so inspired by the leaders in my church. They walk with God everyday and you can see it. Its almost as if the growth and leadership I see in their lives just comes as by-product of their relationship with God.

Day by day this is becoming something that I want my life to be. I've realised that if I want to build up my capacity then I need to walk with God. Get up and walk with God, work and study as I walk with God, hang with friends and walk with God, go home to my family and walk with God. Thats it. Thats all the qualification I need to bring God's Kingdom to earth. I want the love and hope and joy and peace and strength and life that I have in God to just flow out of me as a by-product of my walk with God. Same for my leadership, wisdom, speech and priorities.

Thats what I love about my Leaders. Every day they walk with God and as a result He adds new strings to their bows. God is awesome!!

Living God's life (Studying Galatians)

We often talk about Giving our whole lives over to God. We sing about, preach it, we constantly jabber on about 'Living for Jesus'. Yet we back it with a life style, with actions, that suggest otherwise. This isn't a call for us all to invade the nearest monastry, claiming selibacy and vowing to silence, poverty and other extreme measures. Religious fervour never led to intimacy with God. This isn't a call either for us to have no zeal or hunger at all in our lives (Galatians 4:18).

If I am honest I'm getting a little fed up of singing such cliched lines as 'I live for You' or 'I'm on fire for You' etc. Paul writes in Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." I think it's time to take 'I' out the equation completely so its no longer

'I Live for Christ'

but better

'Lord live out Your Life through me'.

However as I mentioned in the previous post (Inspiring Churches), this is not about forcing ourselves into changing our entire behaviour because someone said we should. We have to realise that Christ came so we could have freedom (Galatians 5:1). In church we often take this to mean we have freedom from sin and shame, that we can walk free from nasty situations. Yes the freedom we have in Christ does give us these great things, but it goes so much deeper.

We have freedom to be ourselves, we have freedom to be God's chosen people, we are free from religion (Galatians 5:4), so much so that this should change the whole way we see church. I really want people to get this! We have freedom in church. Simple. Therefore if we are walking in freedom we don't have any feelings of obligation, duty, commitment or otherwise to the church. My love for my church is simply a by-product of my relationship with God. It naturally flows out so therefore I never feel pressured to grow in church. I want to grow. This is freedom. No pressure, no condemnation, no jumping through hoops I don't agree with.

New wine skins

This sunday we listened to Dave Gilpin speak. Dave is one of these speakers that can say just one throw-away sentence that suddenly open up new revelation. His message was about being predictably unpredictable, about unlocking the creative genius inside all of us. God is a creative God and we are made in His image so therefore we all have creativity within us. I know because I couldn't draw to save a life. Or paint...

Through out the Old Testament we see God encouraging people to use their creativity. Moses asked for authority, God gave him a stick. Gideon asked for a mighty army, God gave him clay jars and torches. Sampson needed a weapon and found the bones from a donkeys face. Time and again in my life I have asked God for things only to be given the bare bones of what I need. Its what I do with those bare, dry bones that will bring God glory.

However it was one throw away sentence from Dave, one little insight into another of his many revelations that sparked my interest. If I'm honest I never really understood the passage about new wine being poured into new wine skins. It seems flimsy an irrelevant, even as a metaphor. Yet when Dave starting talking about renewal, about creating something new in our lives, something clicked. The Holy Spirit is always looking to do something new, he is pouring out new oil, annointing, wine, whatever you want to call it, but if we want to take part in the new move of God, then we must become a new wine skin. If I want to be a used by God to bring salvation to this city, to this nation; if I am seeking God to come and move in my finances, in my relationships; if I want to see God's Spirit poured out on all the nations then I must become like a new wine skin.