by Ron Fast
Spiritual Gifts
Part 1
Are You a Minister-Type Peeples?
Ron Fast
[email protected]
Copyright 2002 by Ron Fast
Intro
If you are like most peeples who are born human (uh. . . like. . . all of us), you’ve probably struggled with your self-image: how you feel about yourself. Let me ask you a question . . . When you get up in the morning, do you like what you see? Okay, I know what you’re thinking, “who” likes to look at himself first thing in the morning? I got eye crispies in the corner of my eyes and drool crusty stuff down by the corner of my mouth and my hair. . . What’s up with that? Where was I going with this?. . . . I’m thinking. Just give me a minute . . . I’m still thinking. . . . I got it. I think that most people think of themselves the way they see themselves in the mirror. Not too happy with the way they look or the way they feel about who they are. Basically they don't like who they are. There are some of us who really don’t like themselves. There are so many things that I don’t like about myself. A lot of the time I catch myself calling myself “stupid”. I say dumb things a lot, which embarrasses me and those around me. I really don’t like the way I look. I could go on and on. Because I really don’t like myself, I can’t imagine that God likes me. Most of the time I don’t think God even looks at me and smiles. Yeah, I know you are probably thinking, “why is this dude even writing about Christian stuff when he doesn’t believe that God smiles at him?” I know. I’m working on it. One of the things that helps me feel better about myself is this idea that God has given each and every believer one or more Spiritual Gifts. Actually it’s not just the fact that God has given me some sort of Spiritual Gift, it’s the reason behind them. Way back in pre-hysterical times, before the earth was made, before the stars and the galaxies or suns or black holes (How can you have a hole in space? Isn't space just a big hole? I don’t get it. I guess I’ll have to ask God about it when I get to heaven. My dad is in Heaven now. I think he probably knows this stuff now.), God was in His design room designing you and me. Back then He already had a plan for us (Ephesians 2:10). He designed us for good works. In order for us to do good works, He needed to give each of us Spiritual Gifts. That means that God actually thought about me, just me. WOW!!!!!! That’s soooo cool!!
As you can guess, this series is about Spiritual Gifts. All believers are given gifts (not those boxes with cool wrapping paper that sit under the Christmas tree waiting to be opened). These gifts come from the Great Gift Giver in the sky, the Holy Spirit. All Christians, no matter who they are, get these gifts from the Holy Spirit the instant we become “followers of Christ”. Okay, I’ll stop babbling now and let’s get on with this study.
Imagine yourself on an archeological expedition to Mexico. You are to go to those ancient Aztec temple ruins and find the mummy of an Aztec king named "Hooba-hooba-snarfblat-foo-foo head" or "Hooba" for short, buried deep within the ruins of the Aztec temple named "No enter this-ol' temple unless you want a gazillion fire-breathing ants crawling into your nostrils and eating your brain" or "Oog" for short.
King Hooba had a slight problem naming things with long names. That's why he was nuked by his people. They just got tired of trying to remember all of the long names and they revolted. To get rid of him, they fed him oatmeal until he exploded. Then they sucked out his brain and buried him deep in a secret chamber in temple Oog.
You had packed all of the stuff that you needed in order to find his burial chamber. The most important part of your gear was the notebook that contained all of the secrets of the temple. Without that notebook, you would get lost in the temple and never find your way back out. You had spent over 20 years researching the secrets of the temple and wrote your findings in the book.
So you set out on this long expedition to find King Hooba. When you reached Mexico, a guide (it should be spelled "gide", Oh well!!) met you whose name was Chichi. His job was to guide you to the ruins.
It was a four-day trek into the dark jungles of central Mexico. Chichi skillfully guided you through trailless jungles over raging rivers using only a rope bridge to cross. He was sure to avoid those areas that were invested with the dreaded Tsetse flies. If one of these flies were to bite you, your brain would liquefy and run out your nose. If you blew your nose, you could literally blow your brains out. He led you through these mountains that were too steep and dangerous to traverse. In order to get past the mountains, Chichi took you through tunnels. There was a maze of tunnels in these mountains. They were hundreds of miles long. Some tunnels led to other tunnels while others led you nowhere. Still others led you into deep crevasses that meant certain death. He skillfully led you through the maze to the other side. The floors of the tunnels were littered with bones of those who dared venture into its depths without a guide. Just imagine, sinking deeper and deeper into this abyss of tunnels never to see the light of day again.
Finally you emerged from the tunnels on the other side of the mountain. Below you was this enormous lush valley. It was covered by a carpet of grass. Trees dotted the valley. It was the most beautiful thing you had ever seen. There was a mist that blanketed most of the valley. Off in the distance you could hear exotic birds sounding off as if to warn trespassers to keep out. There was an eerie air about the valley. You couldn't quite pin it down but you could feel that something was dangerous about this valley. Even your guide was slightly nervous, but you had come to your final leg of the journey to the temple. You weren't about to turn around now.
After two days of fighting off mosquitoes as big as birds and leeches the size of sausages, you made it to the other side of the valley.
Chichi took you around several smaller hills and as you rounded the last hill, you saw it. There stood the temple. It was larger than life. You had imagined that it would be large but not like this size.
Your guide was clearly nervous. Big beads of sweat ran down his face. His eyes kept darting back and forth surveying the landscape as if he expected to see something come out of the surrounding jungle. He said that he couldn't take you any further and that you would have to proceed on your own. He told you that he would wait outside the temple for three days and then would start back without you. He set up camp and then sat down to wait.
You hoisted your pack higher onto your shoulders as if to tell Chichi that nothing could stop you from completing your mission. Searching for some kind of doorway or opening into the temple, you stumbled onto some words scrawled on the side of the temple. These words read, "He who dares enter this temple, take heed that you mark your trail well. Those who don't will never return."
After searching for almost half the day, you finally spotted an entrance. It was located about 20 feet from the top of the temple. There were steps, kind of, that led up the side of the temple to the entrance. You began climbing. The sun was hot and humidity was high but you kept climbing. After one hour and 300 steps, you finally made it to the entrance. You turned on the light that was on your hat and entered the temple. The air was musty. There was a hallway ahead of you that went for about 100 feet into the temple. At the end of the hallway there was a doorway.
Slowly you walked down the hallway, brushing the giant cobwebs that hung like nets from the ceiling. It was obvious that this hallway had been built with great care and was once a beautiful place. There were hints of intricate carvings on the walls and ceiling. There were holes in the walls where you could tell large jewels were once there.
Finally you made your way through the great hallway and reached the door. The latch on the d
oor was very large and was covered with decades of rust. "There's no way that I'm getting past this door. I'm not strong enough to turn it with all of that rust on it," you thought to yourself. But you tried anyway, just in the off-chance that the rust would just fall off. You couldn't even budge it. You looked around the room for something, anything that you could use as leverage. Clear on the other side of the room, you noticed what looked to be like some old armor. You walked over to it hoping there was a sword among the armor. To your surprise, you found a spear instead. Unfortunately, it had a wooden shaft. But there wasn't much to choose from. So you picked it up and headed back to the door. When you reached the door, you put the spear through the latch and began to pry at the door. "WHAM!" The spear snapped, sending you sprawling across the floor. You were afraid of that. The shaft was just too old to have any strength to it. But you were determined to get the door open. You knew that what you came for was behind that door. Getting back up, you jammed the tip of the spear between the door and the door jam and began prying again. You reefed on the spear with everything you had. You thought sure that you were going to pop a blood vessel in your head. Suddenly the door moved just a little. So you stuck the spearhead deeper into the crack you had just created and began pulling on the spear shaft that remained. With a loud "creak", the door opened. It was like opening something that had been vacuum-sealed. You heard a "whoosh" and felt warm air hit your face. It almost took your breath away. The door had to be at least a foot thick. The door was now open enough for you to stick your hands on it and open it, which you did.
The room behind the door was as black as some caves you had been in on your other expeditions. You had a light on your forehead but the batteries were low and you wanted to preserve the rest of the battery power, just in case. You looked around the room again and saw an old torch hanging on the wall. Remembering that you had brought matches, you reached into your pack, pulled them out and lit the torch. The torch was covered with oils so it lit very easily and soon had a mondo flame on it.
Holding the torch ahead of you, you entered the dark room. The light from the torch lit up the entire room. You gasped when you saw the room. It was hugeungous. In the center of the room was a giant six or seven point star painted onto the floor. At each of the points of the star were large circles and stone pillars about four feet tall in the center of each circle. Each pillar had intricate carvings on its face. On the top of each pillar was a circle cut out. It looked as if it was a pillar inside the larger pillar.
Around the sides of the room were archways covering the walls completely, all the way to the ceiling. Behind each layer of archways was a hallway that wrapped around the room.
Around the outsides of the archways spiraling upward to the ceiling was something that looked like a track. When the track reached the floor, it disappeared into the floor but the trough continued around the room and ran in front of the door stopping just past the opening.
The trough had round edges but a flat bottom. It looked as though something had repeatedly been rolled down it. The sides were well-worn. You walked further into the mondo room. It was a magnificent room. You began to imagine it filled with hundreds of people performing some sort of ritual. Maybe they worshipped fruit or something.
You were about 10 yards from the door when you heard a click. The floor just beneath your right foot depressed slightly as your foot touched it. "Uh oh, what did I just get myself into?" You were scared. All of your senses were on high alert. Your heart was pounding so hard you could swear that it was going to pound right out of your chest. Your palms were sweaty and the hairs on the back of your neck were standing at attention.
From far up by the ceiling, you heard something like a huge door sliding open. It stopped. You waited, straining your ears for other sounds that would clue you in about what's coming next. It was too dark to see anything. You didn't dare move, figuring that if you lifted your foot off of the trigger, you were in deep bird doo-doo. Suddenly from the top of the room you heard a noise. You couldn’t quite figure out what it sounded like. But it was moving, very slowly at first, but it continued to pick up momentum.
"This is some scary stuff coming down," you said out loud, as if talking to someone else in the room.
The noise continued to grow louder and seemed to come closer to you. You didn't know whether to run or to stay put. Either way, you figured you were hosed.
Straining your eyes for any clue on what was making the noise, you finally caught a glimpse of something moving down the track that spiraled down the sides of the room. It was large. You figured it had to be at least 10 feet tall. "Well, at least it's not going to smoosh me," you thought to yourself and for the first time since you heard that door open, you began to relax ever so slightly.
The object continued to build up momentum as it continued its descent down the track. You continued to watch, hoping to be able to figure out what it was. Then suddenly it was close enough for you to figure out that it was a giant stone wheel. It had to be at least several tons. You watched it roll closer and closer to the floor of the room. Suddenly you felt a lump in your throat. Your heart started pounding again. It was beginning to dawn on you where the final resting place of this big, mondo, huge, hugeungus stone wheel was going to be. It was going to roll in front of the door and stop. You'd be trapped in this room forever. You finally lifted your foot off the trigger on the floor and began to run towards the door. The wheel was about 10 yards from the door when you realized that you weren't going to beat it to the door. You almost panicked until you noticed that there wasn't anything to stop the wheel when it rolled in front of the door. Sighing with relief, you relaxed. Just as you relaxed, a large wooden post came out of the wall just on the other side of the door. The wheel rolled in front of the door, hit the wooden post and stopped dead in its tracks, blocking the entrance to the room.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.” You were trapped. There's no way in a gazillion years that you'd be able to move that wheel. Your life flashed before your eyes. You imagined all of the things you were going to miss. "I'm too young to die," you screamed as loud as you could, knowing that no one could possibly hear you. Turning around, you walked towards the center of the room. This was like a dream or a bad nightmare. It seemed unreal. You were beginning to wish you had never heard of “King Hooba”.
When you finally came to your senses, you began to move around the room as if to find some ancient clue that could get you out of this room. You began studying the walls. You walked around the pillars and then walked to the center of the star.
You had plenty of time on your hands so you sat down, rested your elbows on your lap and your head in your palms. You were so exhausted that you soon fell asleep. After a couple of hours, you woke up. As you lifted your head up off of your palms, you noticed something on the floor right below the stone pillar that was directly in front of you. You got up and walked over to it. It was another one of those triggers that you had stumbled onto earlier that got you into this situation.
You looked at it for a long time trying to decide what you were going to do next. Finally, you figured you didn't have anything to lose, so you stepped on it. To your relief, a little door at the base of the pillar slid open. You stooped down to look inside of it. There was an ancient book inside. You reached inside and pulled it out. You began leafing through the pages, hoping to find a clue on how to get out of this room.
The writing in the book was an ancient manuscript. Fortunately you had studied all of the ancient Mexican and Spanish languages that you could. The letters were faded but you could make them out. You had to translate them one letter at a time.
"T O R E L E A S E T H E S T O N E F R O M I T S R E S T I N G P L A C E Y O U M U S T F I N D F I V E O B J E C T S A N D P L A C E O N E O N T O P O F E A C H O F T H E F I V E S T O N E P I L L A R S. T O F I N D T H E F I V E O B J E C T
S Y O U M U S T F I N D T H E D R A G O N ‘ S M O U T H. T H E O B J E C T S A R E I N S I D E T H E M O U T H.”
(to be continued)
During this series we will learn about spiritual gifts: what are they, when does a person get them, are all Christians given gifts, etc.
But before we dive into what they are, we need to figure out who gets them, and why God gives them to Christians. That is what we are going to do in this first G-TRAX. (Uh-Oh!! I feel another tangent coming on. Have you ever said a word so many times in a row that it doesn't sound like a real word anymore? Besides the words that have those dumb silent letters that bug me, you can pretty much make any word sound stupid by saying it over and over again. Try it sometime.) OK, let's get going on this G-TRAX before winter sets in.
Monday
Brain Stormin’
Let's see what you know or believe about spiritual gifts.
Do you believe every Christian has a spiritual gift?
Do believe that Christians can have more than one spiritual gift?
If every Christian has at least one spiritual gift, at what point in his or her life do they get them?
List some examples of spiritual gifts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Do you think you have a spiritual gift? If so what do you think it is?