Blessed God of all journeys, travel safely with those who travel today; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our text for today comes from 1 Corinthians 12: 1 What I want to talk about now is the various ways God's Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. 2 Remember how you were when you didn't know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It's different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. 3 For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say "Jesus be damned!" Nor would anyone be inclined to say "Jesus is Master!" without the insight of the Holy Spirit. 4 God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. 5 God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. 6 God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. 7 Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! 8 The variety is wonderful: wise counsel clear understanding 9 simple trust healing the sick 10 miraculous acts proclamation distinguishing between spirits tongues interpretation of tongues. 11 All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when. 12 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts - limbs, organs, cells - but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. 13 By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain - his Spirit - where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves - labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free - are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive. (The Message)
CBS Sunday Morning featured a touching story about a dad who made a commitment to his daughter when she was 11. The mother had walked out on them and the dad feared that being a single dad he would lose connection with his daughter quickly, so he and she agreed that every night at 9:30 p.m., they would read together. It was a commitment they never broke. The daughter was asked how it was in high school life to live this different way? She laughed and said she definitely was not "like all the other kids," she would go to friends' parties but at 9 o'clock, someone would have to drive her home and at 10 someone would pick her up and take her back to the party. When dad dropped her off at college they read in the stairwell of her dorm at Rutgers University. She graduated top of her class and the story ends with her reading to her dad from her own book; one she wrote about the reading life she and her dad had together.
To live as a Spirit-filled and Spirit-led Christian is to live a different life from "the others." It won't be the easy life nor will it be the popular one, but it will be the one that is noticed for getting results that bless God and God's people. The Holy Spirit has given to you and to me a unique gift of service. Once we discover it, we should use it and grow it so that more and more of God's people can be blessed and can be invited to follow the lead of those who ask for and receive the Holy Spirit for God's glory.
PRAYER: Loving God of power and might, fill me with Your Holy Spirit again today. May I be guided to faithfulness and service for Your honor and glory. May I also be faithful in serving You is my prayer. I pray this in Christ Jesus' precious name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
