Are you a babe an adolescent or an adult in Jesus Christ as a member of your church?
The Book of James tells us that faith without works is dead (useless). Yet Paul tells us that it is by faith that we are saved and without faith we can not please God. Which great writer is correct? THEY BOTH ARE.
Paul by grace of God was allowed to articulate the maintenance activity necessary to "work out your salvation". He through the unction of the Holy Spirit tells of Spiritual Gifts and Fruit.. He gives us a MODEL of how it should go in identifying member parts neither of which are more important than the other. He in fact states that their should not be two tongues operating their gift at the same time and that tongues should not be heard unless there is an interpreter to give meaning to the tongue speaking in order for new members to not think the church is crazy. He goes on to tell us that the member (appendage ) of the member should not be utilized in sin. The word member is functional and important to Paul. He who began a good work in you shall be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. The gifts of God are without repentance.
Did this mean that one needs to work with their members for salvation ? No. but like all 10 virgins slept, not all 10 had a desire or worked with their members to fill their lamps IN FAITH awaiting the return of the groom. Paul by grace of God was allowed to live long enough to be under house arrest and later actual imprisonment while he wrote about Spiritual gifts, and fruit ( the greatest of all is LOVE.We still do not know all until Jesus returns from the books lost like the actual II Corinthians. We are given a peek in how it should go for "members" of the local and universal church. The book of Revelations tells us that the minority of churches were doing the right thing to keep their lampstands. Yet some by being lukewarm were worthy of being spit out, or who were called to repentance due to losing their first love. This is obviously the unwise virgin. Is this you being pulled from your adolescence into the adulthood of pride, lust of the flesh or eye by the magnet of the world?
Those who are inactive and sometimes irascible looking for "their" seat on the pew, and who lack altruism even if they have been "in" the church for 50 years, could possibly be lacking something. Few of the model Christian leadership led protestant churches and none of the Catholic churches whose "services" we model have a ministry to develop the "member " to do service with their members within the local body. I came from a church spending 25 plus years not realizing this principle . We should be looking forward to doing this more intensely for the children women and men who are not as active and no under small group ministries AS WELL AS THE WEBSITE AND TRICASTER. Remember a mother and father;s first ministry is to the children in the home, Websites under the direction of your local Pastor have the great potential to allow this "Extra Church Curricula " to come to fruit, within the home INSTEAD OF TELEVISION.
The average person when he or she joins other especially large churches is given a number to be able to donate. Their service is in giving monetarily and not "bodily". In most churches there are opportunities as deacons and Sunday School teachers but very few opportunities to identify Spiritual gifts unless the person knew what it was along the lines of their vocation.or hobby. Most of the nonactive babes in Christ do not have a desire to give of themselves in Spirit and truth unless they prioritize their time with the goal in mind to save souls and edify the saints ALONG THE LINES OF ACTIVATING THEIR SPIRITUAL GIFT AND ACTUALIZING IT ALONG THE LINES OF A MINISTRY AS A MEMBER OF THE BODY. Even then Marilyn Hickey tells of of the offending older member who chases away spiritual gifts with their tongue .
So giving works within a ministry is not complicated. It is a process. Ultimately this is the anointed work or lack thereof respectively that James in Chapter 2 speaks of. SIMILAR TO BUILDING AN APARTMENT COMPLEX IT IS A PROCESS FORM THE BASEMENT UP. It should not be done out of anything but Spirit Truth and FAITH in Jesus' death, resurrection for our sins, and also His return. This is the point of salvation. He will save us from God's wrath . The ministry of development of gifts must be provided with the help of prayer and discernment as early as the time of joining. The good thing is that we are provided a model with BODY PARTS, and not a commandment by the Holy Spirit to follow in order to identify, and then assist the member to actualize it as adolescents then adults in Christ from babes.
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