11/22/08
Today Jose came by to borrow an extension cord in order to vacuum out his car. Then he headed to the church to wash it up and add a finishing touch, a University of Texas sticker. As with most gifts they come with responsibility with a need for maintenance for no matter how pristine it starts out when given it will need to be; well, maintained. I’m not sure why in the spiritual realm we think that the gifts of the Spirit mean we just allow Him to give the gifts and to monitor them and ultimately be the fall guy if anything goes wrong with our use of them. It is a grave mistake for us to ask for, accept, and then neglect the gifts given to us. The Scripture says to covet the best gifts so it is appropriate for us to ‘want’ the gifts offered by Ruach, however it also says, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? We could of course look at the parable of the talents which is a good lesson in responsibility. How many of us accept a talent/gift and then for fear of using it correctly which means taking responsibility for its maintenance, go out and bury it? Use requires maintenance which when done often keeps the maintenance from becoming onerous. I would even posit that watching my son working on his gift that the maintenance can actually be enjoyable. I can say from experience that using the spiritual gifts which I’ve been given does sometimes seem to be a grave responsibility which could seem to be overwhelming but then I know that the breach or gap left from non-use would be even more untenable. Ruach’s gifts not only bring great joy to the one using them but blessing to the body a blessing which the church can’t afford to do without.
So get out there and do the maintenance necessary to ensure your relationship with Abba is well oiled by Ruach’s direction and do the works of Yeshua.
k
