1corinthians

Chapter 12 is telling us about the various gifts that God has given us. Yet often we hard pressed to recognize what we have. Now we may acknowledge the nice car or house or even if in poverty we our thankful for our family and friends.

If you know Jesus then he the Holy Spirit is within you because it is only through the spirit that one can acknowledge him. With the Holy Spirit comes a personal gift. Not personal in the sense that it is for your own personal use. Personal meaning its something special God gave you as your part to make up the body of the church. Its your little piece of the puzzle. The puzzle being all the members of the church who when linked together properly all fitting where they should make one very pretty picture bringing joy to all that witness it.

If you have ever had the pleasure of working on a jig saw puzzle you know it can afford many hours of fun but has its frustrating moments. Sometimes a piece we expect to fit won't, or we can't find that one piece we are missing to fill in a section so we can go onto the next section.

The body of the church is much like a puzzle. Each piece is needed to complete the other. Lets use an example. Lets say that a church member lay in the hospital gravely ill. One of the members who has the gift of strength is not available to call on. The other members who may have a gift of compassion, the other the ability to comfort are there but without the strength that is needed at this time all that could be offered is incomplete and makes the other two attributes ineffectual.

Its like the jig saw puzzle the strength is in the corner pieces and although the picture of the puzzle may be seen if the corner piece is missing what is going to hold it together. The moral of this little story is the church is meant to be a body all having a part to make up the complete body. When one piece is missing then it affects all the people.

So it doesn't matter if you are that corner piece or just that plain piece of blue in the sky of the puzzle, if you are missing then its not complete and its most definitely noticeable no matter how insignificant it may be.

Now moving on in this chapter it talk about the gifts. The same thing applies just as the various members of the church make up the body, the gifts we have make up the strength of the church. Its the strength of the body. If everyone had the gift of healing then they maybe the corners of the puzzle, but what good are they when there is no center. The center may be the other gifts, the teaching, the ministering, the speaking in tongues. They all have a purpose and must be in balance and whole and complete to do the job and have the power they are meant to have.

So if you feel that you don't have a personal gift take a good look, because if you are part of the body of the Church which you are as a child of God, then you have a gift. You just haven't looked close enough to find it. When you do then use it to the fullest. That's why God gave it to you and thats what he is waiting for.