Monday, July 31, 2006

How to Be a Blessing!

God got it right when He gave us specific principles for interacting with each other. 1 Corinthians 12-14 is a is an awesome "how to do it" manual for service within the church. Chapter 12 describes the organizational make-up of the church. The church is not an organization but rather a living organism with a variety of diverse parts each uniquely and intentionally placed within the Body by God Himself. Chapter 13 describes the manner in which the church operates--through sacrificial love. Chapter 14 then is a detailed summary of how this living organism known as the Church can function in unity in spite of its diversity.

How can you be a blessing to those with whom you relate? 1 Corinthians 14 can be broken down in the folowing outline:

B-uild (v1-5) We are a blessing when we build up other people!
L-anguage (v6-12) We are a blessing when we speak in such a way as to be heard!
E-quip (v13-19) We are a blessing when we allow others to participate!
S-eek (v20-25) We are a blessing when we draw the lost to Christ!
S-elf Control (v26-33) We are a blessing when we can humbly restrain our service!
I-mpropriety...avoid it! (v34-36) We are a blessing when we are not an embarrassment!
N-otice Truth (v37-38) We are a blessing when we can recognize true authority!
G-it-er-done (v39-40) We are a blessing when we allow God to work through us!

Over the next several weeks...we will focus on each one of these ingredients of "Blessing" taken from 1 Corinthians 14.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave, you are so good at making up memory puzzles! Thanks for the encouragement! I need it. Steve, Hayley and I just bought our tickets to go to Romania. Please pray for us and anyone else who reads this we could use all the prayers. We don't like flying and there is a lot involved in this trip.
I wanted to tell you that while I was helping with a preschool class last fall we were studying the 10 commandments and I was trying to remember your finger play of which I think I got most of them right but my teacher friend ask me if I could get that written down, so if you could write it down somehow I could use it.
In Christ, Mary in Texas

Dave Samples said...

Mary,

I'll write the 10 commandments as a blog in the very near future so that you can have it. I got it off of a placemat somewhere...

Do well in Romania...our church has taken several mission trips there. Where are you going to be in Romania?

--Dave

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the notes on the commandments. It's amazing what you can learn from a placemat! We will be going to Arad. Is that anywhere close to where you group went?

Dave Samples said...

Mary,

I'm not sure where Arad is. I'll check with some of our Romanian folds and find out anything that I can.