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A More Excellent Way!
Rod Shimabukuro1 Corinthians 12:31Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.
What a powerful chapter! As a Christian, birthed into a charismatic spiritual family, I believe in the “gifts of the Spirit” and the power of the body of Christ. What is describe in 1 Cor. 12 has become the central focus and teaching of charismatic Christians. Paul is inclusive, acknowledging the gifts of the Spirit and a spiritual family should live and act. Then he writes, I believe, a powerful and pivotal sentence - And yet, I will show you a MORE EXCELLENT WAY!
I’m convicted this Easter Sunday, to live the more excellent way.
I know about love, teach about love and desire to live in God’s love. Yet I slip into focusing maybe too much on the gifts, and not the Giver. Too much on people, building teams, doing church, the how to’s of interacting as the body of Christ…YET, I slip in the more excellent way of living out the love of God towards people.
I too, slip into the traps of “The How Many’s.” How many came to church? How many received Christ? Even the “How did the ‘SERVICE’ go? Not bad or evil questions - but maybe the wrong ones. Maybe one of the questions I should ask my heart is - How was my & our love for God and people?
Have mercy on me O God…again! I do thank You for Your supernatural grace and love for me. That you don’t pick on my performance and the “how to’s and how many’s” of “my ministry!” I know there’s an accountability I have to You in all of these things…but please, always help me to choose the more excellent way of love…for You, in You, through You - to people!
