Monday, 20 April 2009
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Are Your Spiritual Gifts Beautiful or Loathsome?
Long, glistening, waving curls.
Polished, manicured nails.
Rugged, masculine facial hair.
Smooth, soft, blemish-free skin.Have those images in your mind? Well then... now picture these:
Hair twisting about the grate on your shower drain.
Nail clippings on the carpet and coffee table.
Stiff, thick hairs stuck in the toothpaste spittle in your bathroom sink.
Telltale, white flakes on the brown pillowcase.Disgusting, aren't these? Any normal human being would be drawn to gaze at the first category and yet completely disgusted at the second. Yet both categories are really of the exact same things except for whether the body parts are attached to the body or not. Even when it comes to our own hair, nails, and skin are completely reviling once removed from our living being.
From a Kingdom standpoint, these natural sloughings of bodily growth will appear just as repugnant. And as no one...not God, ourselves, or those who might happen to be around us...want to look at them once removed from the greater Body, we must be aware of what we're doing.
What happens when Jesus-based principles such as grace, love, compassion, forgiveness, judgment, sacrifice, Holy Spirit-endowed gifts and so on fall off the Christian person? When we forget that because Jesus extended grace to us, we are able to extend grace to others? Without Jesus, that grace becomes a crutch to beat the other person with.
Or when love and forgiveness, separate from Jesus, become contingent upon the other person's works? Compassion that extends only as far as strict, legalistic "Biblical foundations" allow. Judgment which ceases to operate within Paul's edifying directives and becomes the "plank" Jesus spoke of. Sacrifice that becomes legalistic. Divine talents and gifts that become demonically purposed or controlled.
Isn't it said that communication is 90% nonverbal? So what are we verbalizing to the world? When our beautiful, natural, good body parts start to slough off, don't doubt for an instant that they suddenly become nauseating, abhorred in the eyes of all around...including God's.
To whom can I give warning? Who will listen when I speak? Their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. They scorn the word of the Lord. They don't want to listen at all. ... [Says the Lord,] "They offer superficial treatments for my people's mortal wound. They give assurance of peace when all is war. Are they ashamed when they do these digusting thins? No, not at all--they don't even blush!" - Jeremiah 6:10-11, 14-15, NLT
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Comments (10)
love the comparisons in this!
Interesting.
Oh, how true...
But it also seemed like you were saying non-Christians (like me, perhaps) cannot have "grace, love, compassion, forgiveness, judgment, sacrifice..."
Haven't all great religious leaders preached the same thing?
very interesting. I like the way you compared the two.
good post.
I've never thought about it in those terms. That really makes you stop and think.
Good post, interesting!
@Faerie_In_Combat_Boots@xanga - I'm sure many non-Christian leaders have preached this because any mature person, regardless of faith or belief-system, recognizes that they might be better off if they rid themselves of certain undesirable habits/attributes.
As for your questioning whether I'm directing this to non-Believers however...not at all. My personal blog seems to speak more to Believers and, as such, I rarely end up speaking to non-Believers. So in no way did I intend for this particular post to be directed to anyone but those people who profess to follow Jesus.
You probably well-know that a lot of people who claim Jesus as their Lord lack the attributes I listed in my post and which you quoted; these people (which very much includes me) are those to whom this is directed. Unfortunately, I've seen more of those attributes from without Christianity then within, so I certainly don't believe non-Christians do not have the ability to have those qualities.
This is long-winded and repetitive; I did try editing...but thank you for bringing this point up. While all my blog's readers are Christians, I recognize not all of Revelife's are. --Miss Goldenrod
@Miss_Goldenrod - Ah, I see...well, no worries at the most. ^^
This is my GEM OF THE WEEK!!
I hope everyone who makes it here from my Revelife Week in Review (4-24-09) who enjoys thoughtful, Bible-based, devotional posts will make at least a short comment to encourage more of the same.
Humblewalk directed me here - this is a wonderful descriptive post that really makes one stop and think. Thank you.