stuff I think about – Page 2

The gospel according to Acts

I’m writing this from a children’s home in Mexico, where I’m with a group of men who are constructing a multi-purpose building for the children. It’s very rewarding and will bless the kids, but that’s not what I’m thinking about tonight.

Instead, I keep thinking about a song the kids sang for us. It’s in Spanish, and you can find it online if you search on the first few words. I’ll provide the Spanish words, and then an English translation.

Dios me ama
Y he pecado
Y Christo murió por mí
Si yo le recibo seré su hijo
Y es su plan para mí

In English, it’s:

God loves me
And I have sinned
And Christ died for me
If I receive him, I will be his child
And this is his plan for me

It reminds me of the “Four Spiritual Laws” which I heard a lot as a high school student in youth group. They go something like this:

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
Humanity is tainted by sin and is therefore separated from God.
Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for sin.
We must place our faith in Jesus Christ as savior in order to receive the gift of salvation.

It seems to me that while everything in the song and in the laws is true, it’s NOT what the apostles preached when they evangelized.

Rethinking Spiritual Gifts

I’ve been thinking about spiritual gifts recently. I have been through several spiritual gifts courses and listened to a lot of teachings on it, and now I’m beginning to wonder about what I’ve been taught.

I have two questions which haven’t been answered:

Some “spiritual gifts” are present in those who are not Christians, ex. teaching. Are we to say that a Christian has the spiritual gift of teaching, and a non-christian has….what? also a spiritual gift? Or some other kind of gift? Or maybe the non-christian is just good at teaching. Does that mean the Christian wasn’t good at teaching, but only became good when he or she converted? How is it that this is a spiritual gift for Christians, but just a skill or talent for non-Christians?
Some “spiritual gifts” are (or should be) present in all Christians, ex. faith. The teaching I’ve received is that Christians with the “spiritual gift of faith” have what amounts to a lot of faith; they can trust God for big things. So is a spiritual gift just more of what we should all have? At what point does it morph from a characteristic of a mature Christian (see Gal 5.22) and become a gift?

Ok, that’s way more than two questions.

The power of sanctification

If you have already read my first post on sanctification, you’ll know that I think the term has been unfortunately misdefined as a process in which we become more like Jesus. It’s not that I don’t think we should become more like Jesus; far from it. It’s just that we are missing out on so much more.