Spiritual Gifts: Their Meanings and Structures

Here are some snippets from my book.  If you would like more, let me know.  If you want the whole thing feel free to follow this link to Amazon:  Spiritual Gifts: Their Meanings and Structure.  If you do not have an Amazon account, please leave comment (which will not be published) and I can send you a copy at the same price, $9, no shipping costs.  I have limited supply.

• From Introduction chapter:  Why do a study on the spiritual gifts? Because the gifts are something that the church was supposed to be using and I feel that we are falling short of what was expected. Without the gifts being used the church is not fulfilling all of its potential. We wonder why we are not reaching all the lost souls in this world, yet we are not doing all we need to do be doing. We are not doing the one thing that each of us has been called to do.
• From Cessationism vs Continuationism chapter: One major problem with understanding the gifts is that we have to know if the gifts are still available or not.  Some believe that the gifts have died out when the Apostolic Age ended.... When did Scripture end?  Was it perfected in 70 A.D. with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple like Preterism claims?  The Futurists think that Revelation, the last book in the Bible was written about 85 to 90 A.D.
• From the main part of the book:Why did the early church need apostles? They needed someone to carry on the miracles and message of Christ. The message of Christ was new to everyone. The whole world did not know what following Christ meant since He ascended into heaven. The apostle (lower cased) had to be the deliverer of the word and to take care of people who wanted to follow Christ. They chose local leaders to carry on the functions and leadership of congregations while they were away. They started churches and watched over them. They handled problems of doctrines and teachings. They gave authenticity to others. With this in mind let us define in detail the gift of apostle..... Greek-“apo” plus “stellos”. Apo means “from somewhere”. Stellos means “send out”. The word means someone who was sent from somewhere.  Hebrew- “shaliah”.  It means emissary or one sent on a mission, such as a missionary.  Clarification and meaning of this gift: One chosen by God to be sent out with a unique mission. A specific mission might be starting a church, acting and speaking on His behalf.

Each chapter is dedicated to a different gift and follows the same pattern; why did the early church have it, why does the church still have it, what are the types of this gift, what personalities and issues happen with this gift, the etymology, clarification, and some misconceptions.  Loaded with a full inventory at the end.  Great for class studies or personal growth.

For more here on my blogs:  Spiritual Gifts Overview and Gift of gifts

CXVII. The difference between knowledge and wisdom

There is a huge problem in this world today and the reason has finally come to light.  There is a difference between what we know as knowledge and wisdom.  But the world doesn't know the difference and worse yet, it fuses them as one and use them interchangeably.   When the world does this they lose out on the meanings of life and feel they are more superior than they actually are.

First of all what are these things?  Knowledge is just simply gathering of information and collecting details to understand a topic.  Wisdom is the practice of using the knowledge gained and finding ways to succeed with that information.  Most knowledge can be gained by books and studying. Wisdom can be gained by experience and observations.  Knowledge is intellect.  Wisdom is instinct. Knowledge is information.  Wisdom is common sense.

Someone can be very knowledgeable and very wise.  One does not take away from the other.  However, they also can both be lacking in an individual.  An example of this can be seen here:  Knowledge is knowing that electric currents have both positive and negative charged particles.  Wisdom is knowing not to put your finger in a light socket.  To have both of these is best.  To have neither of these will kill you.  To have the knowledge only takes you so far.  To have the wisdom even without the knowledge is a gift.

As dumb as that example was believe it or not there are people in this world that will not understand the difference.  Many people today (especially Millennials) do no have common sense.  That is society's fault.  We have been pushing math and science, which in and of themselves are great, onto our children without teaching them common sense along side these topics.  This age group gets all the information.  They have all the knowledge and think they know everything but when it comes to common sense they lack it all.

Our society doesn't value common sense anymore.  We teach gun laws.  We teach "love".  We teach using computers.  We teach history.  We teach physics.  But we do not teach common sense that is needed with these.  Such as we can pass any kind of gun law we want but if someone still doesn't understand why guns are here and when you should use them then it doesn't matter.  We can teach about love and what it means to people but if we don't teach common sense about what to do in relationships then it doesn't matter.  We can teach with computers but if we don't teach common sense about when you should use them (such as don't use them for every conversation) then it doesn't matter.

What we have done over the years is deny that common sense is of any value.  But common sense is something the human race has always needed to survive.  Where does wisdom come from?  It is supposed to come from our older generations.  This is why the Bible says in Job 12:12 that wisdom belongs to the aged.  And Proverbs 20:29 says the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old.  But we disrespect our older generations.  Those who are "the greatest generation", the baby builders, are now the silent generation.  They are now pushing 80 at the least.  We shun them aside.  We make fun of their dementia and wheelchairs.  They have wisdom to pass on.

But the problem started with the baby boomers.  And baby boomers are the largest group of liberlas there are.  They threw away the wisdom their parents had and started down this road of knowledge only.  The technological age had begun.  They started to rely upon their own intellect and disregarded any wisdom, especially spiritual wisdom.  Liberalism stresses intellect or "knowledge".  They come into complete opposition of people of religion that stresses wisdom.  Granted some of the wisdom is misguided.  But the baby boomers became friends to their children instead of parents; allowing their children to "make up their own minds" for fear of interfering with their individuality or for fear of allowing spirituality coming into any conversation.  The Generation Xers are lost and have been skipped over to the generation that is so filled with "information" it consumes them.  The Millennials are eaten alive by their phones and social media.

Texting, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube...information, information information.  Knowledge (or what they think is knowledge) is all around them.  They soak it all in but they have no idea how to use that knowledge.  They think just because they have access to this information that they know it all.  One day their knowledge won't matter.  Maybe this why the Bible says that one day knowledge will cease in 1 Corinthians 13:8.  They will gain so much knowledge that it won't matter anymore.  In Daniel 12:4 it says that knowledge will increase in the end times.  But even with Bible scripture some know what it says but do not understand the wisdom behind it.

This is the last generation.  This generation has no clue about wisdom.  They don't want to hear it.  They think they know everything.

CXVI. Why do School shootings happen?

School shootings are not the problem.  They are a result of something bigger.

As with every new school shooting the two sides of the 2nd Amendment argument start to rear their ugly heads.  And it's the same argument each time.  One side says that guns should be regulated and we wouldn't have these issues if guns were off the streets.  The other side says that these things will still happen even if no one had guns and guns are the only things that stop the criminals.  Both sides are correct and both sides are idiotic.

These things will keep going on because we don't understand the problem.  Most are blaming the wrong things.   We fail to recognize that we are only treating the symptoms without addressing the disease.  Most don't even know the difference.  To every disease there are a few things we need to know about it.  There is a direct cause for the disease.  The disease shows symptoms.  Other factors come into play that affect the way the disease spreads. And then we have to deal with the results.  But just like any disease it could have been prevented if we know the cause.  Like most diseases it can be treated.  Like some diseases we can control the factors.  But once it gets this far, like no disease it can be stopped.

Here are the steps of the disease, in reverse order.

• The results---Death.  We have mass carnage that we have to deal with.  We have families that are torn apart.  We have children who are traumatized for life.  We have schools who feel unsafe and fear grips us.  Others get angry and start to blame the factors or symptoms.  We offer prayers.  We grieve.  And then we move on until it happens again.
• The factors---Blame.  We tend to blame these and feel as though dealing with these is the answer.  This is not to say that we should not be dealing with these because we should, but this will not solve the whole problem.  We shouldn't just blame these and feel justified.  Mental illness is a factor.  We live in a world that has fallen and mental illness is a result of that.  Bullying is a factor.  We live in a world where the stronger feel that they can control others through intimidation  Worshiping the famous is a factor.  We uplift those who are famous and want to be like them.  When others get attention it causes some to desire that infamy.  People get famous for the news they make.  Some even do it on social media and get paid millions of dollars for posting videos of how stupid they are.  That brings in the fact that social media is a factor.  It just adds into the infamy, bullying and worshiping that has already been mentioned.  And perhaps that biggest factor is how lazy we have become with parenting.  Adults who have children are no longer in the lives of their children.  They don't get  involved.  They don't ask.  They don't share in their feelings.  And they don't know what is going no in their lives.  Children have no guidance.  But all of these are results of the symptoms.
• The symptoms---Selfishness.  Guns are a symptom.  But it's not what you think.  The argument of "guns don't kill people, people kill people" and "yes, but if the person didn't have a gun then the gun wouldn't be a problem" is always brought up.  Look, both have good valid points.  If there were less guns then there would be less gun violence, period.  And yes, the gun in and of itself sitting there will not kill anyone. All should know about gun safety.  Blah, blah, blah.  Overall the gun is not the issue.  Freedom to own a gun is not the issue.  The issue about guns and what makes it a symptom is the fact that some feel the need to have a gun.  Guns have been around for 600 years.  It's only the last 50 years that the problem has been around and has escalated in the last 20 years.  The feeling we need to have a gun is the issue and a symptom.  The entitlement attitude is a symptom.  Some feel they need to have things and that they deserve things and the should have it now.  This causes self and instant gratification.  We become disrespectful of traditions, order, wisdom, and authority.  The main symptom is our selfishness.  But this selfishness is caused by the disease.
• The disease---Our culture.  We live in a world that has lost its purpose.  This disease has a cause.
• The cause---We lack love.  But even more we don't know what love is.  We have masked love as tolerance and acceptance.  We say that we love our partners, spouses, significant others, but too many times it's only lust.  We have so many distorted ideas of love that we feel love is only temporal.  Love is conditional.  We treat love as though it is okay to be apathetic.

The problem is that we think we can change the result if we find a cure.  But our cure to all of this is with anger and loud voices.  We can protest, write letters, run for office or whatever all we want.  We blame the factors by making wild claims and forget the other side.  We treat the symptoms by passing laws.  We get paralyzed by the results and settle for non-action.  We need to address the disease by acknowledging the cause.

The cure is true love.  True love is patient, kind, doesn't envy, doesn't boast, and isn't proud.  It's doesn't disrespect, or is self-seeking.  It is not easily angered.  It forgives.  It doesn't like evil but it rejoices in the truth.  It protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.  True love lays down its life for its friends.

Until we know this kind of love, the disease spreads.

CXV. Millennial Preaching

As a follow up to Millennial Christianity;

Although the Millennials are being ruined by liberalism, we have to start to ask ourselves how they got this way.  It is highly understandable that the world has influenced this latest generation.  We see it everywhere.  But what makes it worse is that the liberal tables of lies is now sitting in most of our churches and being served by the pulpit.  Church even though is supposed to be non-political (by "legal" matters) has been highly influenced by the liberal side of politics.  But of course the world doesn't mind that part of church.  The church services we have today are not about God anymore.  They are now focused on us.  Sure, that sounds like a good idea and people should be helped.  But when we lose the focus of worshiping God then we lose the focus of the purpose of the church.  This is just an example of what is being said here: Modern Church Worship.

The world drives our pastors'/ministers' words when it should be Spirit-driven.  The church is now more of a self-help clinic and the Bible becomes more of a self-help book.  We might as well bring in Tony Robbins to do the delivering of the Word or sign up for YouTube ministries.  That is not to say that Tony Robbins is not welcomed or that one should not deliver the message of God on YouTube.  But the point is that it's not how we deliver the message but how we deliver the message.

For the past few years what has been noticed is basically this*:  About half of the service is spent on what people can do to live a better life.  "4 steps to a better relationship", "Learn how to deal with life",  "Answering Life's Questions", "40 days to be a better Disciple".  Yes, these are all good lessons and people should know them but these are not what the church needs.  And of course these are all done in a series--to keep people coming back to hear the next step to be a success.  One third of the service is about worship time (the actual most important part of church) but as the link above shows this is what we get out of it.  The other part of church service is spent on rituals that people don't understand such as communion and tithing.  Only one small part of the service is spent of reading the word of God, mentioning what Jesus did for us, or finding out what God wants us to know.  We talk about life, filled with stories about people and how they deal with things and then throw in some scripture.  That is opposite of what it should be.  We should spend most of the time in the actual word and then figure out what it means to us.  God speaks to us that way.  The service is now watered-down to fit the "needs" of the generation---one that can't focus for more than 10 minutes at a time, one that can't do anything without their phone, and one that doesn't know what God wants them to know because we are too busy trying to feel good about who we are instead of changing who we are.

How can we put all the blame on Millennials when the church watered it all down for them?  Either way, this generation is being taught wrong, and they do not know the truth.

*Based on personal observation from a few churches, either in attendance or viewed in television.