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Post by michelle on Feb 6, 2007 16:26:50 GMT -8
10/05:
I love the fact that everybody is born with different spiritual gifts and it feels fantastic to be reminded of it. I've always thought of people as a sliver of God. We all have characteristics of Him, but nobody by themselves can be all of Him. But I think that everybody in the world put together (without the inherent evil of course) add up to God. And the more people that come together, the more complete version of Him we are. God has made us all different parts so that we can have a part of Him without fully being Him. It makes me think what a generous Lord we have. I so love verses 22-23, "On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor." I love the thought that God views even those who are at the most infantile stage of their walk as indispensable. How generous that any of us could be labeled as "indispensable."
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hume
Advanced Member
Posts: 136
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Post by hume on Feb 7, 2007 19:05:28 GMT -8
10/05:
"I've always thought of people as a sliver of God" Beautiful.
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Post by Josh on May 26, 2009 15:54:49 GMT -8
This week we'll be studying the gift of 'prophecy' in particular.... next week we'll look at 'tongues'.
Any questions or thoughts about the "gift of prophecy" to help generate discussion?
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Post by Josh on May 26, 2009 16:26:22 GMT -8
As to the "gift of prophecy", I've always found it helpful to see it as having two components, neatly summarized by the phrases "foretelling" and "forthtelling".
The Foretelling aspect of "prophecy", of course, would entail some kind of prediction of the future. Examples would include the Old Testament prophets when they spoke of God's judgments and the coming of the Messiah (such as Isaiah 53), or in the New Testament, the prophecy that Agabus made about a coming famine (Acts 11:28)
The Forthtelling aspect of "prophecy", the most common, would entail the speaking/sharing of God's wisdom, insight, values, or perspective in the "here and now". This would include much that is found in the epistles in the New Testament, and much of what is found in the OT prophets when they focus on God's interest in justice, for instance.
I can't even remember the source of this way of defining the gift, but I've found it helpful over the years. Anyone else share this perspective?
On another note, a question on the bolded parts of this passage from 1 Cor. 12:
8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
I tend to see the "messages of wisdom and knowledge" as subsets of "prophecy"- with perhaps wisdom being more like "forthtelling" and "knowledge" more like "foretelling" though not necessarily rigidly distinquishable.
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Post by Josh on May 27, 2009 14:02:51 GMT -8
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