Learning about spiritual gifts…

So, we have weekly topics for each class, and last week the morning class was on spiritual gifts, mostly based out of Romans 8:6-8.  These are what some call the “motivational gifts”- referring to the belief that the Lord puts certain motivations in our hearts that determine how we function in the Body of Christ.  These were the giftings and motivations that we studied:

Prophecy- this person desires to proclaim the truth of God

Teaching- desires to clarify the truth of God

Serving- desires to meet people’s practical needs

Mercy- desires to meet emotional needs

Exhorting- desires to get at the root of sin and encourage people to live in freedom from sin

Giving- desires to entrust assets and invest financially in others (These people are usually blessed by the Lord financially, but live modestly so to maximize their investments in the Body.)

Organizing- desires to coordinate the effort and resources of people to reach a comon goal.

All of these gifts are supernaturally empowered, and given at the point of salvation (choosing to turn from sin and love and follow Jesus with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength).  It took me a couple days to figure out mine, which is mercy, but after that revelation, I felt a new sense of purpose in the church, and a better understanding of myself. 

The past year or so the Lord opened my eyes to how important our hearts and emotions are to Him, how He created us just to be in fellowship with Him.  We often think He’s some righteous disciplinarian who is just watching to make sure we don’t screw up and make Him look bad, when that couldn’t be further from the truth.  He has the heart of a PERFECT Father, who is so quick to rejoice in just our thoughts of Him.  He is after our hearts, and we obey Him to show that we love and trust Him, not to earn His love.  (Sorry, rabbit trail!)  So the Lord showed me His emotional heart of a lover and a father, I think, to grow me in my motivational gift of mercy- to make me more sensitive and comprehending of the emotional needs of others.  It was just a really sweet couple days of figuring out who I was in Christ and why He’s taught me the things He has, and made me think and work the way I do. 

So I just want to encourage my fellow brothers and sisters to do the same thing- ask the Lord how He desires you to work in His Body.  Cuz its really tight to realize who well He puts us together and to better understand some of His purposes in doing the things He does with us.

So this week we do love languages and personalities.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

So, my first real blog…

So this is my Boot Camp blog, started significantly after Boot Camp itself started, but it could just serve to testify how incredibly busy we are, and how ridiculously fast it has gone by.  I’ve learned TONS- about me, about Jesus, missions, the Body of Jesus (the church), my heart towards missions, my heart towards the church, and lots more.  I cant really start to explain to you all that I’ve learned right now, otherwise I’ll never finish this post, but I can at least start with what I do everyday:

M-F my schedule goes:

630-7am “Family Devotionals” (us campers get together to pray or meditate on scripture or whatever the Lord leads)

705-8 Physical Training (it kinda kicks my butt)

8-10am breakfast, shower and JESUS time!

10-12 class (this class is generally more about cross cultural things, theology of missions, prayer, spiritual warfare, spiritual giftings, etc.)

12-1pm lunch

1-2pm chores (I clean the guest room and bathroom)

2-3pm free time (except mondays- then my team goes out for outreach projects)

3-5 class again (this one is more about intimacy w/ Jesus, learning to hear His voice, worship, journaling, etc)

5-6 practicum for the things we learn in this class

630pm dinner

Then we’re free for the night.  Most of us hang out and read (we’re usually assigned a book a week for the topics we’re discussing in class), then hit the sack about 1030 or 11.

Saturday and Sunday are much more relaxed.  Saturday morning we have a group meeting and discuss what we’ve been learning the past week, then sometimes a class in the morning.  We have leftovers for lunch, then we’re free pretty much until Monday morning starts the craziness again.

I’ve been going to a very small Baptist church down here with a few other people from Boot Camp.  It’s really cute, with lots of old people, but the pastor is young, and seems to be a really gifted evangelist.  We were all looking for a good place to serve when the Lord gave us this church, and I think it’s been really refreshing for both us the younger kids, and the other members of the church.

So I’l post this one, and start a hopefully shorter post about what the Lord has just taught me this past week/ couple days.