Dear Worshippers,
As I was preparing for our Thanksgiving Eve service last week, I watched again a video that will use to set the tone for the service. One of my most vivid memories in worship at our church came during one of these services a couple of years ago when Jack Clise gave this brief testimony, “I’m thankful that I’m six feet up instead of sic feet under.” Now that’s perspective.
It’s that kind of perspective that our opening video and time of quiet reflection will seek to cultivate. 2008 has been a very interesting year for most people. Frankly, it’s been a year where our gratitude levels might be low. But is there something beyond our circumstances to be grateful for? Of course there is. Watch how this video puts it. [This link takes you to a page that has a small-scale full-length preview (2.31) of the video on the site where I purchased it.]
Thanksgiving 08
Though you have seen the video, I hope you will come and worship with us tomorrow night.
The service is at 6:30. I hope you can join us as the elders lead us through a time of praise, thanksgiving and prayer. My prayer is that it will cultivate an “attitude of gratitude” within the hearts of everyone present.
As the video says, gratitude changes everything. If you can look at your current circumstance with gratitude, not because of it, but because God is right there with you in the middle of it, your countenance changes. Even if you can not see God, and do not feel that He is there, but believe that He is, gratitude can blossom. It brings to mind I Thessalonians 5:18 “Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I know you want to be in God’s will. Then give thanks…in everything, not because of everything. Little word, big difference.
Come and experience that difference with us Wednesday night. Share the video with someone who can’t be there. Exercise gratitude, this Thursday and beyond, and watch everything change, as you do.
In Christ,
Pastor Scott
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Giving Thanks
Dear Worshippers,
I began to explore the idea of talents and gifts last week. I talked about how if we call certain things we have an aptitude for or are good at gifts, this implies there is a giver. I encouraged you to think of your abilities as talents, and told you this week we would begin to consider how we identify our talents.
As I reflected on this it occurred to me that Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I am planning services now that will highlight this response to God is this most Christian of seasons. The world has not been able to crack the code on how to commercialize this one yet. Praise the Lord for that!
As you think about what talents you have been blessed with, one easy way to begin to identify them is to think about what you are most thankful to God for, and what others seem to thank God for about you. For example, I was talking with someone today who has the gift of encouragement. This person also has the ability or talent of listening well. This is a good match for someone with encouraging gifts. This person was listening to me and encouraging me as I shared some things with them. As the conversation wound down, I affirmed his encouragement as a gift from the Lord, and his use of it a blessing to me and a delight to the Lord.
It was not the first time I had told this person thanks for using that gift and talent, but they seemed surprised that I identified it. Actually, he has each time. I think it is genuine humility at work here, but I was surprised that this person seemed taken aback by my acknowledgement of their use of God’s gifting in them. I think many people are unaware of their gifting and talent.
Think about yourself for a minute. What are you thankful about when you evaluate your life? Are you thankful that you enjoy helping others? That you seem to have a knack for organizing? That people really enjoy being with you? That you are always thinking about how to include more people in what you are doing? Or any other number of talents.
Identifying your talent is the first step toward making it into a strength. Once you identify your talent, then you can begin to make investments in it and allow the Lord to make it into a strength. If you don’t, you are not being a good steward.
Often times we focus on what we are not good at, and work on these areas. There is profit in that discipline. But we might gain a higher return on our investment if we start with something that we are already good at or really enjoy doing.
Think on that these days and determine as you approach Thanksgiving what talent you are going to thank God for…and invest in through the end of the year.
In Christ,
Pastor Scott
I began to explore the idea of talents and gifts last week. I talked about how if we call certain things we have an aptitude for or are good at gifts, this implies there is a giver. I encouraged you to think of your abilities as talents, and told you this week we would begin to consider how we identify our talents.
As I reflected on this it occurred to me that Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I am planning services now that will highlight this response to God is this most Christian of seasons. The world has not been able to crack the code on how to commercialize this one yet. Praise the Lord for that!
As you think about what talents you have been blessed with, one easy way to begin to identify them is to think about what you are most thankful to God for, and what others seem to thank God for about you. For example, I was talking with someone today who has the gift of encouragement. This person also has the ability or talent of listening well. This is a good match for someone with encouraging gifts. This person was listening to me and encouraging me as I shared some things with them. As the conversation wound down, I affirmed his encouragement as a gift from the Lord, and his use of it a blessing to me and a delight to the Lord.
It was not the first time I had told this person thanks for using that gift and talent, but they seemed surprised that I identified it. Actually, he has each time. I think it is genuine humility at work here, but I was surprised that this person seemed taken aback by my acknowledgement of their use of God’s gifting in them. I think many people are unaware of their gifting and talent.
Think about yourself for a minute. What are you thankful about when you evaluate your life? Are you thankful that you enjoy helping others? That you seem to have a knack for organizing? That people really enjoy being with you? That you are always thinking about how to include more people in what you are doing? Or any other number of talents.
Identifying your talent is the first step toward making it into a strength. Once you identify your talent, then you can begin to make investments in it and allow the Lord to make it into a strength. If you don’t, you are not being a good steward.
Often times we focus on what we are not good at, and work on these areas. There is profit in that discipline. But we might gain a higher return on our investment if we start with something that we are already good at or really enjoy doing.
Think on that these days and determine as you approach Thanksgiving what talent you are going to thank God for…and invest in through the end of the year.
In Christ,
Pastor Scott
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Talents
Dear Worshippers,
One of the comments that most commonly comes out of people’s mouths when someone shares something musically at church is “She is so gifted.” The musical ability displayed is rightly attributed to the musician as a gift, which obviously implies there is a giver. For those of us who know Him, that would be Giver.
This terminology has bothered me for some time because I believe there is a more accurate way to describe the ability. I have also just recently realized another layer of meaning that causes me to be comfortable with a different terminology. I have said to some that I might just do my doctoral work in this area of understanding “gifting”, but I will try to limit my thoughts here to a few paragraphs.
First, I like to think of these abilities as talents. [This changes the comment to “She is so talented.”] I think the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) gives credence to this way of thinking because it so clearly shows several people being given something for a particular purpose, to put that talent to work. Though the same could be said for the spiritual gifts, I prefer to think of these as being imparted with the Spirit at redemption, whereas talents I believe are given by God to all.
Second, a talent undeveloped is as good as one never possessed. In the parable we see that the master takes it away from the one who did not put it to good use. How many people have undeveloped talent? The Lord has given them ability for His glory, but they do not use it accordingly.
I believe this helps differentiate between talent and gift in the minds of even the unbeliever. It is understood that a gift is meant to be enjoyed by the recipient. A talent on the other hand is meant to be employed.
With regard to the spiritual gifts, I believe you could employ your talent to exercise your gift. Do you follow me? I could use my musical talent to exercise the gift of leadership, or for my own purposes.
All this to say, we all have been given talent. Yours may not be as much musical as it is something else, like building or solving difficult problems or helping to include people in activities, or any other number of things. Here is why I am thinking about it these days?
I want to be exceptional in my gifting and deeply satisfied in my calling. [I want the same for each of you.] This will require that I know my gifts and my talents. I will employ them in both endeavors. If I do not know my talents, I can not invest in them and make them my strengths. More on that next week.
Until then…ask the Lord what your talents are and how you can begin to develop them for His glory.
In Christ,
Pastor Scott
One of the comments that most commonly comes out of people’s mouths when someone shares something musically at church is “She is so gifted.” The musical ability displayed is rightly attributed to the musician as a gift, which obviously implies there is a giver. For those of us who know Him, that would be Giver.
This terminology has bothered me for some time because I believe there is a more accurate way to describe the ability. I have also just recently realized another layer of meaning that causes me to be comfortable with a different terminology. I have said to some that I might just do my doctoral work in this area of understanding “gifting”, but I will try to limit my thoughts here to a few paragraphs.
First, I like to think of these abilities as talents. [This changes the comment to “She is so talented.”] I think the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) gives credence to this way of thinking because it so clearly shows several people being given something for a particular purpose, to put that talent to work. Though the same could be said for the spiritual gifts, I prefer to think of these as being imparted with the Spirit at redemption, whereas talents I believe are given by God to all.
Second, a talent undeveloped is as good as one never possessed. In the parable we see that the master takes it away from the one who did not put it to good use. How many people have undeveloped talent? The Lord has given them ability for His glory, but they do not use it accordingly.
I believe this helps differentiate between talent and gift in the minds of even the unbeliever. It is understood that a gift is meant to be enjoyed by the recipient. A talent on the other hand is meant to be employed.
With regard to the spiritual gifts, I believe you could employ your talent to exercise your gift. Do you follow me? I could use my musical talent to exercise the gift of leadership, or for my own purposes.
All this to say, we all have been given talent. Yours may not be as much musical as it is something else, like building or solving difficult problems or helping to include people in activities, or any other number of things. Here is why I am thinking about it these days?
I want to be exceptional in my gifting and deeply satisfied in my calling. [I want the same for each of you.] This will require that I know my gifts and my talents. I will employ them in both endeavors. If I do not know my talents, I can not invest in them and make them my strengths. More on that next week.
Until then…ask the Lord what your talents are and how you can begin to develop them for His glory.
In Christ,
Pastor Scott
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Objectivity
Dear Worshippers,
I mentioned last week that I wanted to spend a little time thinking about talents and investments and strengths over the next few weeks. As we do, I think it is important to remember that this is a very important day in the history of our nation. If you have not already done so, take a few moments to pray for the outcome of today’s election that will most honor the Lord and bring people to [and back to] Him…
We have heard a lot about strengths and weaknesses over the last few weeks from our presidential candidates. So much so that most of us are pretty sick of it by now. I heard a very interesting poll last week. [I have heard my share of them as well.] This CNN poll asked viewers how they felt about this statement with regard to the elections: The media has lost all objectivity. The results were a little surprising to me. It indicated that 84% of the respondents agreed with that statement.
I was surprised at first because I expected people to be fairly generous and say that the media still had a little objectivity. But this result coincided with something I learned last week about objectivity. The reality is we tend to be more generous when we are considering our own ability to be objective than we are of others ability. That is, most of us view ourselves as more objective than others, or more capable of seeing things clearly. Think about that for a minute
Objectivity is hard to come by, but essential when trying to examine talents. This examination is critical when making choices about investments that will be made into those talents so they can be built into strengths. I am talking about how you spend your time in your desire to answer God’s call on your life.
How objective are you?
I have been spending a fair amount of time over the last few weeks trying to look objectively at myself and my call. It’s not easy, but it is essential. I want to be excellent in my gifting and deeply satisfied in my calling so I am doing some evaluation of my life and it’s activity. If you do not know what your talents are, how can you elect to invest in them for future development?
Make an investment in the future today. Go vote. And start asking the Lord for the ability to see yourself clearly, objectively.
In Christ,
Pastor Scott
I mentioned last week that I wanted to spend a little time thinking about talents and investments and strengths over the next few weeks. As we do, I think it is important to remember that this is a very important day in the history of our nation. If you have not already done so, take a few moments to pray for the outcome of today’s election that will most honor the Lord and bring people to [and back to] Him…
We have heard a lot about strengths and weaknesses over the last few weeks from our presidential candidates. So much so that most of us are pretty sick of it by now. I heard a very interesting poll last week. [I have heard my share of them as well.] This CNN poll asked viewers how they felt about this statement with regard to the elections: The media has lost all objectivity. The results were a little surprising to me. It indicated that 84% of the respondents agreed with that statement.
I was surprised at first because I expected people to be fairly generous and say that the media still had a little objectivity. But this result coincided with something I learned last week about objectivity. The reality is we tend to be more generous when we are considering our own ability to be objective than we are of others ability. That is, most of us view ourselves as more objective than others, or more capable of seeing things clearly. Think about that for a minute
Objectivity is hard to come by, but essential when trying to examine talents. This examination is critical when making choices about investments that will be made into those talents so they can be built into strengths. I am talking about how you spend your time in your desire to answer God’s call on your life.
How objective are you?
I have been spending a fair amount of time over the last few weeks trying to look objectively at myself and my call. It’s not easy, but it is essential. I want to be excellent in my gifting and deeply satisfied in my calling so I am doing some evaluation of my life and it’s activity. If you do not know what your talents are, how can you elect to invest in them for future development?
Make an investment in the future today. Go vote. And start asking the Lord for the ability to see yourself clearly, objectively.
In Christ,
Pastor Scott
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