Investing talents - gifts-

 The Bible refers to the church as the Body of Christ with Christ as its Head (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 5:23). Just as your body has many specialized parts, each with its own function, so the church is composed of many individuals, each with his own special function to perform - and contribution to make - to the rest of the Body. I encourage you to identify your talents, and ask God to show you how to use them for His glory.

Every Christian possesses both natural talents and spiritual gifts. Our natural abilities come to us at physical birth and are developed through life. Our spiritual gifts are imparted by the Holy Spirit, enabling us to minister to others in behalf of Christ.

---

Natural Gifts

1. What talents and natural abilities do you have? How did you acquire them , or improve upon them?
2. According to I Corinthians 4:6-7 and Exodus 4:11, what should you attitude be about them?
3. How would you apply Colossians 3:17 to the stewardship of your natural gifts?

Spiritual Gifts

1. Major passages on spiritual gifts in the Bible are: Romans 12:3-8, I Corinthians 12:1-31, Ephesians 4:4-8,11-16, I Peter 4:10-11. From these passages make a complete list of spiritual gifts (combine any two that might be identical). Give your brief description of the gift. (You may wish to consult a Bible dictionary if you have one.)
2. What are some reasons God has given gifted people to the church (Ephesians 4:11-16)?
3. Why will two people not exercise the same gift in the same manner? (I Corinthians 12:4-6)
4. Though some spiritual gifts seem to be of greater value than others (I Corinthians 12:28-31), what ideas does Paul stress to keep Christians from personal pride because of those they may possess? (Romans 12:4-5, I Corinthians 12:12-16, I Corinthians 13, Ephesians 4:11-16)
5. List several principles that describe what your attitude and responsibilities should be toward your spiritual gifts. (Romans 12:3-8)

Life Application

Follow these steps to more fully understand your part in the Body of Christ:

• Realize that you have at least one spiritual gift, probably more (Romans)
• Pray that God will make your gifts know to you
• Determine which of your activities the Lord seems to bless and inquire of other mature Christians who know you well what your spiritual gifts might be.
• List here what you believe your spiritual gifts are:

Seek to develop your gifts in the power of the Holy Spirit. Realize that you may have other gifts of which you are not presently aware, so excercise various gifts. Be aware that you are accountable to God for stewardship of your spiritual gifts.

Believers guard the faith by treasuring it.

Job 23:12 says, “I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my allotted portion.” The reason most Christians don’t read or study the Word of God is simply because they don’t treasure it. They treasure other things over the Word of God—entertainment, social media, education, work, friends, etc. If we are going to guard something, we must first treasure it.

Fundamentally, stewardship is about exercising our God-given dominion over His creation, reflecting the image of our creator God in His care, responsibility, maintenance, protection, and beautification of His creation.” 

In other words, how we use our resources is the subject of economics, and in a biblical sense it is the chief concern of stewardship. Consider the verbal link between stewardship and economics. The English word economics and economy come from the Greek word oikonomia, which is made up of two parts: oikos, the word for “house” or “household,” and nomos, the word for “law.” So, oikos and nomostogether literally mean "house law."

Oikonomia is transliterated into English as “economy.” The English word that translates—rather than transliterates—the word oikonomia is the English word stewardship. So, stewardship and economics are closely related concepts, and in fact, to a New Testament Christian, there was no distinction between them.

A steward in the ancient world was a person who was given the responsibility and authority to rule over the affairs of the household. For example, the patriarch Joseph became a steward over Potiphar's household: he managed everything in the household and was given the authority to rule over the house (Gen. 39:1–6a). In that role, he was responsible to manage the household well; he was not to waste the resources of the family but to make wise decisions.

Yet, the role of the steward was not something that just happened to emerge in the Greek system of management, nor was it something invented by the Egyptians in the time of Joseph. The steward’s role derives from the principle of stewardship, which is rooted in the creation of mankind.

Look at the foundations for stewardship found in the early chapters of Genesis. In Genesis 1:26–28, we read:

Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

On the very first page of the Bible, we see the creation of human beings—made in the image of God, who revealed Himself initially as the Creator of all things—and the subsequent call of His image bearers to imitate Him in a certain way: by being productive. Human beings were commanded to be fruitful and multiply. This was a command for productivity, which has stewardship implications. Thus, the concern for stewardship is rooted in creation.

Sometimes we think that the New Testament is not concerned with labor, industry, or productivity, but it is concerned only that we love each other and live by grace and not by works. But if we examine the parables and language of Jesus, we see an emphasis on the call to fruitfulness. Jesus calls His people to be fruitful not only in the multiplication of the species through propagation, but for the kingdom's sake. This is an expansion of the creation ordinance that His people are to be productive.

The second command given to Adam and Eve was to have dominion over the earth. God installed Adam and Eve as His vice-regents, those who were to rule in His stead over all of creation. It's not that God granted independent ownership of the planet to humankind. It remains His possession. But God called Adam and Eve to exercise authority over the animals, plants, seas, rivers, sky, and the environment. They were not to exercise authority like a reckless tyrant who has carte blanche to do anything he wants, for God didn't make Adam and Eve owners of the earth. He made them stewards of the earth, who were to act in His name and for His glory.

Immediately after giving this mandate, God created a lush and gorgeous garden and placed Adam and Eve in it (Gen. 2:15). He commanded them “to work it and keep it.” This command to work and keep is key to understanding the responsibility that is given to human beings, which goes with the privileged status of being made in God's image and being given dominion over the earth.

At creation, the mandate that God gave to humanity was for people to reflect and mirror God's stewardship over this sphere of creation. This involves far more than religious enterprises or the church. It has to do with how we engage in scientific endeavors, how we do business, how we treat each other, how we treat animals, and how we treat the environment. That dominion over the earth is not a license to exploit, pillage, consume, or destroy the earth; it is a responsibility to exercise stewardship over our home by working and keeping it. Working and keeping one’s home means preventing it from falling apart, keeping it orderly, maintaining it, preserving it, and making it beautiful. The whole science of ecology is rooted and grounded in this principle. God didn't say, “From now on, all of your food will fall to you out of heaven.” He said, “You are to work with Me in being productive: dressing, tilling, planting, replenishing, and so on.”

The next commandment that was given to Adam and Eve in the garden was to name the animals (Gen. 2:19). In its most elementary sense, this was the birth of science: learning to distinguish among species, kinds, and forms, and discerning reality as we examine it. This is also part of our stewardship—learning about the place where we live and caring about it. These principles are not simply for one's own house but for the entire planet.

Some are old enough to remember the astonishing achievement of twentieth-century Americans when the first astronauts were sent to the moon. Inevitably, part of that memory includes astronaut Neil Armstrong’s first footsteps on the moon and when he spoke of a giant step for mankind. One could look at that human achievement simply in terms of human arrogance—or we could see it as a fulfillment of the mandate that God gave us to have dominion over creation.

Fundamentally, stewardship is about exercising our God-given dominion over His creation, reflecting the image of our creator God in His care, responsibility, maintenance, protection, and beautification of His creation.