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serving, giving, loving

1 Peter 4:10-11 (NLT) --- God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

Each of us have talents and have gifts.  Our lives are blessed.  Those blessings are always measured by dollars and possessions.  Much of the time it can be measured by our ability.  It can also be seen in our heart, our passion and where we thrive.

God has gifted us for one reason.  He gave us ability and gifts so that we can serve others.  How can we use what we have to serve our family, or our church, or even people we have never met.

Case study: JESUS.  He came to serve and not be served.  One song that we sing says Jesus came to die and to give His life.  That is serving.  John 3:17 says that we know Jesus' prime purpose is to spread the love of God by giving His life for others.  He didn't come as judge.  He came as a giver.

Once again I ask you an important question: are you a giver or a taker?  And another question: do you look more like Jesus or less like Jesus in the way you deal with others?  Last question: do you hold what you have with a closed hand trying to keep it or with an open hand giving what God leads you to give?

So many days I sit back and look at the needs around us.  I see hurting people.  I listen to people who have little or no hope.  And my prayer as well as my desire is to give them a glimpse into the fact that God loves them.  

I'm sure of this ... when we give and when we serve, we show people the love of God.  That is what I chose to do.  That is what I am going to lead others to do as well.

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