Four gifts as Christians we should be able to give...

Hey guys,

Sorry for the infrequency of posts, but I'm currently rocking it out at Get Smart: Worship 07 in Christchurch. It's one of the largest youth conferences in New Zealand, and definitely one of the most challenging.

It's just been a phenomenal time so far, with some of the greatest Christian communicators in the world, including Pastor Phil Pringle from C3 Church in Australia, and Jurgen Matthesius, currently hailing from San Diego.

Here is a hastily scrawled summary from Andrew Kubala, one of the speakers, and founder of the Get Smart conferences.

Andrew Kubala - Four gifts as Christians we should be able to give...

Andy as always was passionate in his presentation, and he presented four gifts that as Christians we should be able and willing to give.

Matthew 17:24

We can only give what we have to give away...

1. Resource
- See Mark 12:41
- It doesn't really matter the amount in which we give, but rather the attitude with which we bring our resources.
- Worship is also a resource to give. In order to honour God, worship is simply encountering God and giving our best.

2. Gift of the Holy Spirit
- See Acts 1:8
- The Holy Spirit gives us the power to be useful to God
- It can be seriously under-utilised.
- We need to make sure we are involving God in our decisions. By doing so, we are asking him to get involved.
- We can spend our whole lives doing life without the right tools (Andy used the example of using a knife to tighten a screw, all to save 30 seconds to go and get a screwdriver).

3. Gift of Time
- Psalm 90:12
- What we spend our time doing shows what we value.
- Eternal things need to be lifted up, and before worldly things.
- We have an opportunity to serve and use our time mightily for God.

4. Gift of Salvation
- John 3:16
- So often as Christians, we actually deny people the opportunity to recieve this gift.

In all of these, we are only able to give as we have recieved.

----------------------------------------------------------
So, yeah, there has been some really useful and challenging messages. I'll add some more with some of my own thoughts once I've processed it.

If there's something there you don't agree with or have a different opinion about, then great! Let's start a dialogue. Otherwise, eat the meat and spit out the bones :).

I love challenging messages, and I think the preachers I've always got the most out of are the ones I completely disagreed with. It meant that I was able to test the boundaries of my own beliefs and opinions. I look forward to hearing what you think.