What principles here could help you free the church for a wider mission?

Read Luke 9:10-17

If you could have a day off right now, how would you spend it?

As you think of the needs in your own life and the needs in the world around you, how do you feel?

What is it going to take to get you off your duff?

How would you cope if God gave you a new challenge?

Jesus welcomed the people and ministered to their needs.  How do you see people who interrupt your schedule - as nuisances, or as the reason for your life and ministry?

Do you think God would ask you to do something that you and he together couldn't handle?  Don't let your lack of resources blind you to seeing God's power.

Jesus does not ignore needs.  He is concerned with every aspect of our lives - the physical as well as the spiritual.  As we work to bring wholeness to people's lives, we must never ignore the fact that all of us have both physical and spiritual needs.  It is impossible to minister effectively to one type of need without considering the other.

Lead In

Why do you do what  you do?

This is an important question.  It is especially important that all of us ask this question of ourselves as Christians who seek ways to share God's love and concern in this world.  This lesson - module will help us to explore how we answer this vital "why" question.  This in turn should give us a better understanding of how God enables us to be Christian leaders and how solidly we are grounded on God for his motivation and help.

Why Help Lead?

Professional Christian Leaders often press clients to delve into their motivation - to explore in depth what beliefs, attitudes, or philosophy of life causes them to act inn a certain way.  When they are similarly pressed to consider their own motivations, the results can be enlightening.

People in therapy, frequently begin by dealing with more or less purely psychological or psychiatric issues, but eventually move into the realm of the religious or spiritual.  This echoes the observation made by Carl Jung in Modern Men in Search of a Soul:

"Among all the patients in the second half of life that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.  It is safe to safe to say that everyone of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given to their followers.  And none of them has been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook."

You can Help People

"You may never have even thought of yourself as someone who could significantly help anyone else, yet as soon as you say, 'Ah, well, here's what I think...'  you are giving counsel.  God has opened a door for you to help someone, perhaps working through you as a channel of divine guidance, using you in a way that you had never considered possible.

"I is only natural that we seek the advice and counsel of those who know us and are closest to us.  After all, we are comfortable with our peers and can easily relate to them.  We are not embarrassed to talk with them about intimate and personal needs, especially when we are relatively sure that they already have some idea of what we are facing.  With friends we are not intimidated by the stigma that is often attached to making appointments and going to an office for help.

"I am convinced that you do not have to be a psychologist or a clinically trained psychoanalyst to help people.  You do not have to be able to interpret dreams or read inkblots or recognize profound psychological insights.  Most of the counseling dispensed today is given out by people who have had little training, if any, when it comes to counseling" (Coffee Cup Counseling - Harold Sala).

You have a Mandate to Help People

Writing to the Galatians, Paul instructed, "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently" (Gal. 6:1).  The word Paul used for sin, paraptoma, means "false step, transgression, sin."  In the context of life today it means a wrong decision, a poor choice, a relationship which is bound to end in disharmony and suffering.  It's a strong word.  But the action required to help save a person from his fate is gentle but firm, and only those who really care are willing to take the risks of engaging in the process of helping another.

Long ago the psalmist wrote, "The godly man is a good counselor because he is just and fair and knows right from wrong" (Ps. 37: 30, 31).

You are a child of God who has his feet planted on the Rock, Christ Jesus!  You don't have to be Mother Teresa or a Billy Graham. If you have a clear vision to see what your friend cannot see because your judgment isn't clouded by emotional entanglement, you are one through whom God can work.

As part of the family of God, we have a responsibility to each other.  A family is a series of interlocking relationships, and it is the quality of the relationships that affects the quality of family living.

The Bible stresses that we have a responsibility to help brothers and sisters make good decisions.  At least fifty-eight times we find "one another" phrases in the new Testament, all expressing some kind of obligation or responsibility we have to each other in the body of Christ.  Among the many, you will see we are to:

helping people through leadership is part of what Paul urged the Galatians to do in bearing each other's burdens and thus fulfilling the great law of love (see Gal. 6:1-5).  It is time to begin assuming our responsibility for each other.

As G. K. Chesterton once said, "Christianity has not been tried and found lacking; it has been tried and found difficult."

Why do I do what I do?

Anyone involved in training needs to ask "Why do I do what I do?"  For Christian trainers, the answer to this question is quite a distinctive one.  God the Father, in His attempt to show His understanding of His human children, set his son into the world to live and breathe, to suffer and love, to minister and care - and finally to die.

Through his church Jesus continues to extend his ministry of love and training.  Christian training then is keyed on not only in what we do, but why we do it.  As the message of God's love grips Christians, we are filled by the Holy Spirit, who moves anxious Christians to use our God - given gifts for others.  He makes cared-for Christians into caring Christians.

While it is important for you to see clearly your basic Christian motivation, it is not always necessary to share this with the person whom you are training.  Youu must gain the right to share your faith, with another - by your perception of the other's needs, by the depth of your relationship with the other person, or by the other person asking you.

In Dylan Thomas's play, Under the Milk Wood, Eli Jenkins blesses his small Welsh town every morning as it wakes up and every evening as it settles into sleep.  His voice is their voice; he is their advocate.  His personal psalm over his home town is a song of praise that gives voice to the faith and hope of its citizens.  It is a faith that is sometimes joyous, sometimes desperate, a hope that can be as innocent as children and yet grounded in the stony reality of daily work.

Paul gives advice to his friend Timothy, to keep alive the flame of the Spirit.  This gift is one of courage, strength, love, and wisdom.  he is to guard the "deposit of faith," and take Paul himself as a model for sound teaching.

The call to being a "Trainer" is a call from God, and a call from the community.  It is a summons to be the community's voice in the shaping of its longings toward joining with it's God.  It is a call to service, to be the community's leader and guide in the things of God.

The community looks to its trainer as a person who has heard the Word of God, dwelt upon it, and elected to take the risk of following it like Timothy.

The courage of Timothy is the courage to take the journey inward where the human spirit meets God to face oneself in God's love, and return to help others along parallel paths.

The wisdom of Timothy is the knowledge of self and of life itself that comes from listening closely to the Word of God in our experiences, in the community in the Scriptures.  It is a wisdom of the depths, one that grows out of love.

And this love that Timothy knows?  It is God's - God's love for all creatures, especially that human Child of God family that is seeking him.  It ministers to God's children.

Sharing Your Motivation

To help you determine when it would be appropriate necessary, and desirable to share the ultimate reason for your training, I offer these basic guidelines: 

Your ultimate motivation for training is your membership in God's family.  He provides purpose and power so that your training relationships are transformed by his love.  Knowing this will affect your identity, attitude, confidence, and perspective as a trainer.

The Training Process

When you set out on a journey by automobile and you are unsure of your way, you take a road map, something which can guide you toward your destination.  In a very real sense, God has given us a road map for our lives.

When a person has gotten off the right road, and you know the geography, you say, "You can't get where you want to go from here.  You need to go back and take another road."  When you are familiar with Scripture and can look at a trainee's problem objectively, You have some idea of what the person needs to get back on the right track.

Four objectives serve as goals, and though progress never takes a straight line, you move toward them as you would geographic landmarks in the distance.  You can observe progress in getting back to the right road as you pass through these phases of the helping process.  The following may help you see what I'll be discussing in the rest of the lesson.

The Four Goals of Training

1. Identify the problems

2. Analyze the available options and the consequences of accepting or rejecting each one.

3. Help your trainee discover and choose the will and program of God for his/her life

4. help the trainee to stay with the program (discussed in other lessons)

The training process is like a time-line through which a person must pass if a problem is to be effectively resolved.

As you work through problems with someone, You will find that these four phases of the training process are not marked by specific boundaries any more than the passing from youth to middle age.  But the process involves a transition which is necessary to resolve the problem.

Phase 1 - Exploration

During this period you listen, evaluate, question, ponder.  Like a physician who examines a patient for the first time, you are trying to get the picture clearly.  You understand that initially the person who comes to you for training is deciding if you can be trusted.  At the same time, his or her feelings may be all mixed up.  Life doesn't come to us in neat little packages, and you may get the story in bits and pieces.

The first phase of training may take an hour or two, or several weeks.  After all, you may be the first person that your friend has ever talked this problem over with, and as you listen, you may only gradually begin to see the picture develop.  You have to see the problem clearly before you can help your friend look for solutions.  The first phase of training relates very closely to goal 1 - Identifying the problem.  This is such a critical part of the training process that we will talk about how to accomplish this in this lesson and the one to follow.

Phase 2 - Encounter

Once the problem is clearly identified in your mind, you want to help your friend to see the options  and the consequences of accepting or rejecting each one.  it is in this phase that both of you really come to grips with the issue.  This leads to the next leg of the journey.

Phrase 3 - Decision

At the beginning of this phase, the person you are helping makes a decision.  From the options, he accepts the fact that God does have direction for him or her and that this is the path that needs to be taken regardless of how easy or difficult it may be.

Phase 4 - Reconstruction

Here your big task is to provide loving support and help your trainee follow the one who has come for help is strong enough and mature enough to handle the problem alone, you have worked yourself out of a job.

Now let's go deeper in considering how to help the person who has turned to you for training.

The first goal of training: Identify the problem

You may be thinking, "Isn't the problem really obvious?"  What may be totally obvious to you may not be obvious at all to the person you are trying to help.  And what may be obvious to him may not be at all clear to his wife or girlfriend.  long ago the wise man who penned Proverbs 16:2 recognized this as he wrote, "All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes..."  The word translated "pure" in the New King James Version also means, "upright" or "just."

Quite often we tend to magnify the faults of others and minimize our own: when a problem occurs we tend to see ourselves in a different light than others do.  Actually, there are three perspectives which confront the person you are training - how he sees himself, how his mate or the other person sees him, how God see him.

Until the person who has come for training gains these three perspectives, he will not see the necessity of moving into the second phase of training.

How is this accomplished?

Through penetrating questions!

How does God view what has taken place?

i should point out that what the Bible says is in conflict with some theories which are embraced in secular counseling disciplines.  Before I describe the four major secular counseling models, let's make sure we understand what God does say about responsibility.

The Bible stresses individual, personal responsibility.  From the very beginning of time, mankind has sought to blame someone else, or circumstances over which he has no control, for his failures.  Remember that Adam evade responsibility for taking the fruit by blaming Eve.  "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate" (Gen. 3:12).

Adam was saying, "Look, God, it's partly Your fault because You put her here in the garden with me, and she took the fruit.  All I did was innocently eat it."  His reply to God's question about eating the fruit was a far cry from the truth, "Yes, I took the fruit of my own volition, and I am completely responsible for my actions!"

A passage which is often used to establish personal responsibility is Ezekiel 18:20-23:

"The soul who sins shall die.  The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.  The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself.

"But is a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live: he shall not die.  None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him...  Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live."

When it comes to infidelity in marriage, several Scripture passages speak clearly.  You need to know where these are and be able to turn them.  Note the following passages: "It is God's will that you should be holy: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen..." (1 Thess. 4:3-5).

Jesus denounced adultery saying that if a man even lusted after a woman, he had committed adultery with her in his heart.  (Also see mark 10:1-12 and Luke 16:18 for parallel renderings.)

People often blame their physical chemistry.  They blame the environment or society.  They explain away their conduct, excusing themselves because of social pressures.  But God says you are responsible for what you do!

Another passage which is often helpfu to establish moral responsibility is the story of David and Bathsheba.  God sent the prophet Nathan to David to confront him with the enormity of his sin.  Nathan told a story about two men, a rich man who had flocks and herds, and a poor man who had only one little ewe lamb, which was his children's pet.  The rich man seized the poor man's lamb, killed it, and prepared a meal for a traveler who had come to him.  David burned with anger and vowed that the man who did this must surely  die.  "Then Nathan said to David, 'You are the man!'" (2 Sam. 12:7).

Establish responsibility by asking questions.  Yes, you can tell someone how wrong they are or what a stupid thing they have done and generate a considerable amount of guilt (or anger), but what you want to do is help the person accept the full responsibility of his actions.

Undoubtedly, David had pondered the circumstances surrounding his affair, but he had tried to keep it quiet.  God (through Nathan) said, "You 'did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun," (2 Sam. 12:12).  Once David had taken the step of passion, there was no turning back.  He didn't intend for the nation to know that he had engineered the death of a faithful and honorable man so he could take that man's wife to bed.

It hit him with a tremendous impact!

"I have sinned against the Lord, " cries David.  His repentance and deep sorrow for what he had done were sincere.  David tells of his remorse and anguish in Psalm 51.  He cries, "I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight..." (v. 3, 4).  At this point David saw himself as God saw him, as he really was, and as others saw him.  Only then was he prepared to face the implications of what he had done and experience the reconstruction process that followed.

Identifying the problem leads to accepting the responsibility

Dr. Frank Pittman is a psychiatrist who specializes in why people become involved in relationships outside marriage.  In his book Private Lies: Infidelity and the Betrayal of Intimacy, Pittman tells of interviewing 100 couples who describe in detail why they got involved with someone else.  "It was not sex but a lack of intimacy that had compelled them to have an affair," says Pittman.

Marriage is a husband and wife's commitment to try to meet each other's needs, and those needs go far beyond sexual needs.  While most men think only in terms of environmental needs (food, shelter, and clothing), a woman's needs are far more complex.

A man who accepts responsibility for his family must also make provision for the needs of his wife just as she must meet those same needs in her husband.  Paul had strong words for husbands who give little thought to the needs of their wives: "If anyone does not provide for his own... he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Tim. 5:8).

When needs are not met, our sexual lives are first to be negatively affected, and when a reluctant or insecure partner does not meet the sexual needs of a mate, a vacuum is created that another person may satisfy.

When you sense that this situation may exist, you may ask, "Could you have been partly responsible for your mate's actions by your indifference?  By failing to meet his or her sexual needs?  By a lack of interest in his or her world?"  Or, "Have you attempted to view this situation from your husband's or wife's perspective?  Tell me honestly - what would you have done if you had been in his or her shoes?"

meeting each other's needs is vital.  A few years ago a young man named William Glasser was in medical school preparing to become a psychiatrist.  He began to reject many of the premises of modern psychiatry, especially Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis.  By the time Glasser finished his evolution of thought, he had pioneered a new approach to meeting the needs of people which he called "reality therapy" (his book bears this title).

Glasser believes that every person - whether a gray haired grandmother or a tiny baby - has tow basic needs:  the need to love and be loved, and the need to feel worthwhile to one's self and to other people.  When these needs are met, believes Glasser, people act in a responsible fashion.

Glasser doesn't attempt to correlate what he believes with what the Bible teaches, yet those two needs - love and fulfillment - are definitely within the broad framework wof what the Bible says about our lives.  The Bible, however, goes beyond these in asserting that every person has a third need - the need for security, which is met through a vertical relationship with God.

Along with Glasser many other psychiatrists today are also saying what the Word of God has been saying for centuries: "You are responsible, and you can change." though most of them do not accept the biblical concepts of sin and redemption.

The Bible lays down very clear moral guidelines, and God has commanded us to serve others, not ourselves.

The second goal of training: Analyze the available options and the consequences of accepting or rejecting each one.

During the first phase of training you are trying to get the picture, but seeing the picture clearly doesn't change anything.  You have to move into the second phase: encounter.

here you want to explore the available courses of action.  You must confront your trainee whit the consequences of his or her action, as hard as it may be to face them.  The past ceases to be important.  The future is everything, and the present decides what the future will be.

The big question with which you must confront your trainee is this: "Where do we go from here?  What plan do you have?"

The question is usually greeted with a response of, "I don't know!"

Then you should ask, "What options do you see?  Let's start making a list of the options, and then, once we have the list, let's consider what would happen with each choice."

You can usually come up with the options yourself but don't do it.  You want your trainee to face the options him - or herself, and, even more importantly, to recognize what is going to happen as the result of his choice.

What are the consequences of these options?

The third Goal of training: Help the trainee to discover and choose the will of God for his life.

In the second phase of the training process, the issue of wrongdoing must be faced.  Glossing over sin, or excusing it on the basis of our human weakness, offers no hope for removing it and overcoming it.  But acknowledging it - calling it what it really is - opens up the path of restoration, which is the third phase of the training process.

As you analyze the consequences of the options, you then have to bring the one you are helping to a phase of confrontation with the will of God for a person to continue in any sinful relationship or situation.

The concept behind the Greek word hamartia, usually translated "sin" in the New Testament, is that of missing the mark, of falling short of the target.  Acts of wrongdoing have taken your trainee outside of God's will and plan.  To right the wrong requires positive action, which means breaking habits that have become comfortable and perhaps enjoyable.

At this point the relationship you have with your trainee is tremendously important.  Sometimes simply being there - encouraging, loving, and reinforcing with out condemnation - is the additional strength that a person needs to do the right thing, especially when your trainee know's what is right but lacks the courage to take the first step toward the will of God.  many Christians whose marriage fail fall into this category, and the input of a trainer could make the difference in helping to restore a troubled marriage.

What is necessary to bring healing to a broken relationship?

The process of reconciliation can be thus illustrated:

Confession of sin before God and the one who has been hurt is necessary, but a recital or cataloging of transgressions before the offended party is not necessary.  I do not believe that every morbid detail has to be reviewed in the presence of a mate.  God knows already, and the husband or wife knows that he or she has been betrayed.

Once the sin has been confessed, it is necessary for the offending spouse to ask forgiveness of the one he or she has hurt.  It is always a joy to pray with someone who confesses his wrongdoing before the Father and then does the same before his mate.  And for healing to take place it is essential for the one who has been hurt likewise to extend complete forgiveness.

It is never enough for the offending person to say, "I have done (whatever) and I am sorry that I have hurt you."  He or she must also ask, "Will you forgive me for what I have done to you?"  the transaction is not complete until the one who has been hurt says, "Yes, I will forgive you."

I repeat: it is necessary for the offending person to ask for forgiveness and just as important for the offended person to extend forgiveness.

Repentance must also be met with reconciliation, or restoration.  No matter how repentant the offending person may be, if the offended party will not really extend restoration to that person, genuine healing cannot take place: the wound continues to fester and will eventually destroy a relationship.

It is very  easy for the offended person to remind his or her mate of the wrongdoing.  Yes, I understand that once the wall of trust has been broken down, rebuilding it is a long and painful process.  But it must be undertaken.

Writing to the Ephesians about the importance of forgiveness.  Paul used the analogy of God's forgiving us as a pattern which we must follow in forgiving each other.  "Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you" (Eph. 4:32).

Jesus said, "For if you forgive men when  they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matt. 6:14, 15).  Surely the answer must be the high cost which He sustained in giving His son to be crucified at Calvary, providing a means for Him to forgive us.

Maintaining a "Holier than thou" attitude destroys the restoration process, and often results in further infidelity.

Before we move on and begin a new lesson, I'd like to close on a positive note.  Though, as Jack Pittman has observed, "Infidelity is the primary disrupter of families, the most dreaded and devastating experience in a marriage, and the most universally accepted justification for divorce," unfaithfulness doesn't have to end in divorce.  When people will forgive each other, seek God's healing power, and rebuild the bridges of communication, a broken marriage can be helped.

Homework

1.  The thing I appreciate about you is?

2.  The gift that the class gives me in sharing was?

3.  How can we help you in prayer?

4.  You are going to do some brainstorming.  The key to brainstorming is that you throw ideas out as quickly as possible, without evaluating them at all.  In fact, discussing or criticizing ideas is not allowed during the brainstorming session.  You need to enter them in on the discussion page, every idea you come up with.

Come up with a list of every motivation you can think of for helping another person, brainstorm any and all reasons you can think of why anybody might want to help somebody else.  Remember, don't discuss or evaluate now.  Just get as many as possible down.  Take about five minutes for this.

Now go over your list and mark each idea you have with one of three symbols.

S = Mostly selfish
U = Mostly unselfish
B = Both selfish and unselfish

If a motive seems to be mostly selfish, mark it with an S.  Write the letter S.  If the motive seems mostly unselfish or altruistic, write a letter U next to the motive.  If it seems to have elements of both selfishness and unselfishness, mark it with a B.  If you can't agree on a marking, skip it.  We only want to take about five minutes for this so keep moving.

Go throughthe same list of motives and make a second mark.

Put an H for Humanitarian if the motive would most likely be characteristic of a humanitarian who did not believe in God.  Put a C for Christian if you think the motive would probably be purely Christian.  Put an E for Either if the motive would as likely be true of either.  Okay, begin.  We'll take five minutes.

Now, during the last part of this exercise, see if you can agree on the most important thing you learned from this exercise.  When you agree on that one most important thing, enter it in.

5.  God with Us

Time 10 minutes

Use your imagination.  Close your eyes and relax.  Breath deeply for a few seconds; get yourself calm and collected in any way that works for you.

now think back to the last time you tried to provide training, t provide some sort of significant help to another.  let your mind go back to  that time.  What was happening?  Think now of that period of time right before you made the decision to help, when you realized that the need for help was there, but before you had definitely decided what to do about it.  Think back to your decision to provide the training.  Try to remember what you were feeling, what you were thinking.  We are going to cover some motives most of us have, at least in part, when we decide to help another.  Pause after each one.  Examine yourself to see how the motive mentioned might have played a part in your decision.

How about self-importance?  To what extent did you help in order to puff yourself up/  It sounds bad, but it is a very common motive.  How true is it for you?

How about that deeper personal satisfaction a person gets when one helps another?  How much of a motive was this?

Sometimes we involve ourselves in helping others in order to avoid dealing with our own problems.  How much of this motivation do you see in yourself?

Sometimes we help out of compassion, because we feel sorry for those in need.  Was this partly your motive?

How about specifically and distinctively Christian motivation?  To what extent did your willingness to train another stem from your realization of God's love for you?  Does what God has done for you in Jesus Christ have something to do with your willingness and your ability to pass Christ's love on to your trainee?

Now, picture Jesus inside of you.  Try to feel his presence.

You may want to thank the Lord for what he has done for you.  In your mind, respond to him in any way that seems appropriate.

Take a few moments to share what God is saying to you?

A Variety of Gifts

Read 1 Cor. 12:7-27

All Christians have faith.  Some however, have the spiritual gift of faith, which is an unusual measure of trust in the Holy Spirit's power.

"Prophecy" is not just a prediction about the future; it can also mean preaching God's word with power.  "Distinguishing between Spirits" means the ability to discern whether a person who claims to speak for God is actually doing so, or is speaking by  an evil spirit.  No matter what gift(s) a person has, each gift is given by  the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit decides which gifts each one of us should have.  We are responsible to use and sharpen our gifts, but we can take no credit for what God has freely given us.

Paul compares the body of Christ to a human body.  Each part has a specific function that is necessary to the body as a whole  The parts are different for a purpose, and in their differences they work together.  Christians must avoid two common errors: (1) being too proud of their abilities, or (2) thinking they have nothing to give the body of believers.  Instead of comparing ourselves to one another, we should use our different gifts, together, to spread the Good News of salvation.

T he church is composed of many types of people from a variety of backgrounds with a multitude of gifts and abilities.  It is easy for these differences to divide people, as was the case in Corinth.  But despite the differences, all believers have one thing in common - faith in Christ.  On this essential truth the church finds unity.  All believers are baptized by one Holy Spirit in to one body of believers, the church.  We don't lose our individual identities, but we have overriding oneness in Christ.  When a person becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit takes up residence, and he or she is born into God's family.  "We were all given the one Spirit to drink" means that the same Holy Spirit completely fills our innermost beings.  As members of God's family, we may have different interests and gifts, but we have a common goal.

If a seemingly important part is taken away, the whole body becomes less effective.  Thinking that your gift is more important than someone else's is an expression of spiritual pride.  We should not look down on those who seem unimportant and we should not be jealous of others who have impressive gifts.  Instead, we should use the gifts we have been given and encourage others to use theirs.  If we don't the body of believers will be less effective.

We are called to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.  To often, unfortunately, we are jealous of those who rejoice and apathetic toward those who weep.  Believers are in the world together - there is no such thing as private or individualistic Christianity.  We shouldn't stop with enjoying only our own relationship with God; we need to get involved in the lives of others.

6,  how is the diversity of the gifts related to the unity of the Father, Son, and Spirit?

7.  Which gifts would you like more information?

8.  Of the gifts listed here, do any have your name on it?