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God as Gift-Giver: Operating Your Spiritual Gifts
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:4) Natural talents are gifts that are born with us. They include such things as artistic, musical and mathematical talents, or talents for public speaking, dancing, construction, or athletics. Skills such as these will always come more naturally to those who are talented, though they are possible for people who lack inborn talent in a certain area to develop some basic skills in that area. Spiritual gifts are sets of supernatural skills that God gives Christians for the sake of witnessing in the world, and strengthening each other and the church as the Body of Christ. Natural talents…
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The Doctoral Journey Continues
I have rarely shared personal details of my journey to ministry in this blog. I’m pretty much an open book, so none of it is secret — just ask the ladies in my Tuesday Bible study class, who know all the details whether they like it or not! I’m going to start sharing here along with my teaching and study. Who knows — I might pick up a willing dissertation research guinea pig or two along the way! I earned my Masters of Theology from Fuller Seminary approximately a million years ago. OK, 20 years ago. I have been an active lay teacher since then but have also been called…
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At Play in the Fields of the Lord
I ran across this great passage in the summer newsletter from St. Andrews Abbey. The essay was written by Brother Ben Harrison of the Missionaries of Charity. Though I agree whole-heartedly that we must do our part, there is much more at (in?) play than we humans can understand or control. An unlimited number of variables seems to be in operation. God is working flamboyantly and with gusto, as he always has, building, demolishing, planting, and uprooting. Often we prefer not to blame God for the violent and cataclysmic shifts and shudders of geologic or human history, but both Old and New Testaments show him working both his wonders and…