Faith Fellowship Church

This is my power point for Sunday’s message “Ministry Gifts”. It is third in a series entitled, The Kiss of Grace. If you have missed any service over the past three weeks, you may go to our web site and listen to the pod casts to update you on the series. You don’t want to miss any of these teachings, especially if you want to know what your gift is.

Pastor T

 The Kiss of Grace: Download

It is said that…

Women who never have children enjoy the equivalent of an extra three months a year in leisure time, or so says Susan Lang the author of Women Without Children. If that figure seems high, remember that the average mother spends 3.5 more hours a week doing housework than would a woman without children, plus 11 hours a week on child-related activities. This adds up to an additional 754 hours of work every year–the equivalent of three months of 12-hour, 5-day work weeks. Signs of the Times, May, 1992, p. 6.Several years ago, I am told, a national newspaper carried a cartoon showing a psychologist talking to his patient: “Let’s see,” he said, “You spend 50 percent of your energy on housework, 50 percent on your husband, and 50 percent on your children. I think I see your problem.” Source Unknown.

Essentially there are three beliefs regarding divine healing.

The first belief is that healing is not in the atonement. That is not to say that proponents of this view believe that physical healing doesn’t occur. But, they believe it is in no way guaranteed by the work of Christ. When healing does occur, it is an “uncovenanted mercy” – God has not promised us that it would occur and he is not obligated to heal. He simply has mercy, for reasons we don’t understand, and sometimes heals someone. One of the assumptions behind this view is that human persons are divided into components: spiritual, physical, emotional, et cetera. The atonement is thus seen as having significance and saving power for only our spiritual component (by forgiveness of sins), which has already taken place through faith. http://www.theropps.com/papers/Winter1998/HealingInTheAtonement.htm

C. S. Lewis once said, “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” 

Is your joy full? If not, maybe it’s because you “desire” too little. Consider King David.  He wrote in the 23 Psalm that his cup was running over. Running over with what? With joy.  He also wrote these words in Psalm 37:4, “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Whereas other men of his time were trying to suppress their emotions, David reveled in his emotions. He danced before the Lord. He expressed his love for Jonathan with laughter and tears. He poured out his emotions in lyric, poetry, and music. David was a man of passion, desire, and animated emotions.  

During his reign, King Frederick William III of Prussia found himself in trouble. Wars had been costly, and in trying to build the nation, he was seriously short of finances. He couldn’t disappoint his people, and to capitulate to the enemy was unthinkable. After careful reflection, he decided to ask the women of Prussia to bring their jewelry of gold and silver to be melted down for their country. For each ornament received, he determined to exchange a decoration of bronze or iron as a symbol of his gratitude. Each decoration would be inscribed, “I gave gold for iron, 18l3.” The response was overwhelming. Even more important, these women prized their gifts from the king more highly than their former jewelry. The reason, of course, is clear. The decorations were proof that they had sacrificed for their king. Indeed, it became unfashionable to wear jewelry, and thus was established the Order of the Iron Cross. Members wore no ornaments except a cross of iron for all to see. Lynn Jost.