“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: . . . But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” 1Corinthians 12:5-7, 11-12 (Spiritual gift lists can be found Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 14)

“How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” 1 Corinthians 14:26

Happy New Year!  As we humans look at time, this is the time of year that many people try to make a “fresh start” with a New Year’s resolution.  Some of the most common would probably be to lose weight, stop smoking, or to be more committed to “something”.  We as Christians get in the game with resolutions such as: to read the Bible in a year, to give up a certain sin in our life, or my usual, to be closer to God at December 31^st than January 1^st.  Dwayne and I have had decided to make a resolution for the church in 2011.  It is “to find and utilize the spiritual gifts of every member of Rowletts Baptist Church.” You might say, we hope 2011 will be a year of spiritual gifts.

It is already a mission of any church to find spiritual gifts of its attendees; we just hope to bring extra focus on this area.  We want to continue to reach lost and backslidden souls and bring them to an active relationship with Jesus Christ as we use our individual gifts.  Using Paul’s imagery from 1 Corinthians 12, we will only function effectively as a body, when all of our parts or members are functioning optimally.  We do not want even “a little toe” to be unused in our service.

We hope that you will make a resolution to use your spiritual gift in a renewed way in 2011 (and afterward!) Begin praying today that God will show you your gifts, and watch for opportunities to use it.