A Unique Gifting

This weekend I had to miss church, so once again I spent time listening to Rob Bell from the Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids.

During the message, titled The Flames of Heaven Rob said:

"You have by God been gifted in some unique way and you have a divine responsibility to do something with that for the common good. In essence, the rest of us suffer when you aren't true to how God made you."

I love that quote especially because I think too often we believe that unless we serve God in a certain way, we aren't fulfilling our mission. But in reality everyone's way of serving God is as unique as our personality is.

So my way of serving God may look differently than your way of serving Him, but in the end we're all fulfilling our purpose in the body of Christ.

The danger though, as Rob pointed out, comes when we aren't true to how God made us and in the sermon he went on to say that if there's an unfilled need in the body of Christ: "somebody, somewhere, buried somthing." Challenging words, but true nonetheless.

"Now there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving. There are different ways God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work through all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church." (1 Cor. 12:4-7)